Wifi, web enabled home AC thermostat
 

I have another thread asking about some HVAC wiring. In case anyone was curious, I was asking because I'm considering getting the Filtrete wifi thermostat (3m-50) that's $100 at HD.

The thermostat connects to your wifi. It then tunnels through the net to radiothermostat.com. You register for a free account at radiothermostat.com and register your thermostat. Once you're up and running, there are Android and iPhone/iPad apps to control your thermostat whether you are on vacation or sitting on the john thinking you need to adjust the temp.

I'm a bit leery of having my thermostat on the net, but what the hell.

I've got a buddy that's got 2 and has been running them for a while and likes them. He says that he can see when his baby momma has adjusted the temp and sometimes adjusts it around just to screw with her. He thinks that's pretty funny.

I've got a decent programmable thermostat now. If something happens or I decide I don't like it, I can always swap back.

The Honeywell RedLink stuff can do the same thing; I think the remote module is also $100.

I was going to get it for fun, but then I realized that there will probably never. . . never . . . ever be a time where I need to change the temp of my HVAC from somewhere else. Ever.

What about when you're on the john??

:D

or more realistically, laying in bed or at the opposite end of the house from the thermostat. Also, the programming interface on most programmable thermostats is crap. It would be nice to have a webpage, that I assume, would be a MUCH better interface.

My house is an older house that is 2 stories and only has one unit and no zones. There are times in the spring and fall when the temp is low enough that the downstairs will stay really nice and comfy, but the upstairs gets hot. In those times, I turn the fan to "on" which keeps the air circulating and keeps the temp differential between the 2 floors more comfortable. If the outside temp dips down at night, I often have the fan off so it'll stay a bit warmer upstairs while we're sleeping. I've forgotten to turn the fan to on when I left in the morning and come home to a very stuffy upstairs. It may not seem like a big deal, but it would be nice to have the option...

10 years ago no one was using smart phones and thought they were just fine without them. 15 years ago no one texted and didn't think they were missing anything. 20 years ago, not many people had cell phones and got along just fine. Still, I think at least some of these things are improvements. I don't think a web enabled thermostat is going to change the world the way cell phones and the Internet did, but I can see a use.

I recently bought a Nest thermostat and love it so far. My mother-in-law is at my house during the day and she couldn't figure out how to work my old one but this one is perfect. It is wi-fi enabled, has a motion sensor and an excellent interface that is easy to use. It also programs itself based on how you set it and will set itself to away if it doesn't sense any motion for a period of time. I have used the iPhone app to bring it out of away mode and heat up the house several times as we were headed home and it works flawlessly. It is also nice to be able to adjust it from bed or flip on the fan from the kitchen when cooking. Highly recommended.

Nest | The Learning Thermostat | Home
http://www.crunchdot.com/wp-content/...mostat.jpg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6w2gw.png

I have thought about it as I travel for a living and there are times that it really would be nice.

Imagine its chilly and there is no reason to keep the heat turned up while the house is empty. On the other hand you are getting home late at night and a cold house and even worse a cold bed is no fun to come home to.

A programmable thermostat is fine but what if your schedule changes? Would be nice to set things up to start warming the house several hours before your arrival.

For this reason I have thought about going to a internet accessable thermostat...

Welcome to the new world, comrade. You will not control your thermostat, it will control you...

I have been seriously considering the Nest. But, I have not pulled the trigger yet as they are $250 each and I need two of them. Nice features and everyone that I know that has them, loves them.

In regard to privacy, that was one of my big concerns with such a service. However, the Nest | The Learning Thermostat | Privacy Statement is pretty clear about that they share your information with no one.

Yes! All your thermostat are belong to us. Someone set us up the temperature.

Sounds cool. I just don't know that a learning thermostat is right for us. For now, I'm willing to stick with a programmable.

I'll save the extra $150/per (I only need one, fortunately) and go with the Filtrete programmable.

I read the Nest privacy statement and last night read the radiothermostat privacy statement. They are essentially identical. - We have certain info about you that we have to have because you have an account. We won't share that with anyone (unless you give us permission). We'll anonymize other information and share that with various people, but don't worry, it definitely won't include any personally identifiable info. - or something along those lines.

Googling this leads to the observation that everything 'good' is iPhone based...

But Home Depot sells a web enabled one for about $100.

Funny you mention that. The Nest is a product that was built and designed by previous Apple employees. They implemented the 'click wheel' interface into the Nest and it is pretty much flawless.

which home depot one are u looking at? i've never even seen a wifi thermostat for under $200 so far.

Wifi Thermostat from Filtrete | The Home Depot - Model#: 3M-50

They are getting cheaper.

I recently installed two of the Filtrete 3m50 units in my place. They're outstanding. There is an app on my iPhone that allows me to monitor, adjust, etc. the settings from anywhere with an internet connection (which is pretty much anywhere these days).

The only thing you can't do remotely via the app is to change the default program, but typically when you're not home you'd set to "away" mode anyway so it wouldn't matter (i.e. you wouldn't be running the programmed "present" mode).

My only gripe is they stick off the wall too far for my liking and the "T" shaped profile makes it look glommed onto the wall. I will eventually recess the rectangular part so just the panel is "stuck" onto the wall surface. Aww, heck maybe I'll just recess the whole thing so it's flush. I'm picky about details like that...

Functionally they work very well and are a breeze to install. WELL worth the money versus the stupid mercury-switch round-dial Honeywell clunkers that used to control the place. YMMV I suppose...

I'd consider one since my 84 y/o live in MIL likes to run it down to 65 in the summer and 80 in the winter, and I'm out of town a lot.

I can't find the NEST for less than $351. Where are you guys finding them that cheap?

Yep, and that one has both iPhone/iPad apps and Android apps (plus, I think you can use a web page from a browser)

Nope, see below. They are on the shelf at my local store and have been for several months.

Hmm, $250 or $350, Yeah, I think I'll stick with the $100 Filtrete model.

Purchase | Nest

Now that's funny.

I really don't see the need or purpose for this other than techno geek Captain Kirk in some of you.

But then again, I don't Text on a phone either.


I love being "disconnected" from techno dependence.

It's called a map, folded paper, with red and blue lines, I'll show you where to stick your GPS.


I'm really worried about the younger generation that relies on all this techno garbage when Skynet takes over and people have to survive on their own wits.

For me, the environmental conditions can swing pretty widely in my Montana shack. I have a lot of glass and sun exposure, which means it can be cold in the morning, and baking in the afternoon, just because of the sun exposure. I leave the place sometimes for weeks or months at a time, and sometimes for just several hours. An intelligent thermostat could easily save $30 a month, so a Nest would pay for itself very quickly, plus I could monitor the temp in the winter months from my beach in Kauai :)

There is useless technology and useful technology. For some of us. Minimizing my heating bill and coming home to warm house seems like an brainer for $100.

Says the guy typing on a computer connected to a global network.

If you don't want one, don't buy one. It is that simple.

My digital thermostat does that, without my having to change the settings manually

This would be a quite useless gizmo to me. I don't even use the program function on my thermostat. I put it where I want it when I am home and turn it off when I sleep or am not home.

Of course, I also own a flip phone, so I couldn't connect to it anyway ...

G

The other thing is that if you are coming back home after being gone for a while you would want to ramp up the temps at home. Being able to monitor it while away and adjust as needed would be a nice things.

i would agree normally however wife's job has her on a rotating schedule. never know what hours on which days she works. that's my only reason to get this.....and to play out the geek in me

Works great on a fixed schedule. Not so great when you leave work anywhere between 5PM and 9PM each day.

And the Digital thermostat is how much cheaper? (I assume you meant programmable digital thermostat)

This is the biggest advantage; when you're coming home at all different crazy times, this is an excellent way to avoid heating an empty house.

I run a space heater in the room where the cats like to sleep and let everything else cool down to 62-63 in the winter months, starting the warm-up about 45 minutes before I get home. I never walk into a cold house, everyone is happy and I've shaved about 20% off my heating costs (give or take) by simply being diligent and using the free iPhone app whenever my schedule diverges from the "usual routine" program that I've got loaded in.

These are well worth the $$$.

Nest here too. Got it for $250 last year. Works great, and it IS programmable if you want to. Or you can just set it for a week and it learns.

Had a Honeywell programmable thermostat for years, and wife and kids never understood it. Nest is simple enough for my 10 year old (or mother in law) to set.

With the wild spring heat in Chicago, it was actually nice to have it on my iPhone - was able to turn on the AC while away....

It supposedly knows the local weather and can turn on the heat or AC sooner/later depending upon the day.

62-63? HAH! You spendthrift! I used to set mine to 50F during hours we were not active in the house and even from 11PM to 4AM! This was when I had a poorly insulated house in West Stockbridge, MA.

I had a cat too! Cats have fur coats!

Just bought 3 Nests. I LOVE gadgets! Can't wait!

LOL! I would run it down further but it's a balancing act between reasonable warm-up time and cost. Even when I set it back to 62 or so during the day the boiler typically won't cycle more than once or twice during the day when I'm not there, so I can kinda' live with that. I ran through a whole lot of make/break settings on the aquastat to optimize efficiency; prevailing wisdom states that thermal transfer in the living spaces increases exponentially with temperature setting so one might think it better to run hotter. I tried it for a while and while (yes) the rooms warm up faster, there's a hell of a lot of heat loss through the boiler and piping when there is no call for heat (and yes, I've insulated the crap out of all the HVAC components, I still need to do the basement itself which will no doubt help more and possibly change the equation). I found that it was far better to dial back the make/break settings to as low as I could reasonably and still get the interior spaces up to 72-73 on the coldest days and get reasonable warm-up times. IIRC they're 160/140 and 10 on the differential. Never a problem with domestic HW (currently off boiler, I have an electric HW heater sitting there that I installed and just need to make final connections to once I shut off the boiler for the season in a month or so, which will change things as I'll use it for DHW and heating the return heating HW before it goes to the boiler, which should definitly cut down on oil consumption). That's a whole separate discussion - electric costs per BTUH are actually getting better than with oil...

Anyway, once I get all the other modifications done (basement insulation, floor insulation to living space, electric HW heater, etc) I'll reassess everything and possibly be able to dial back further next season and still get good warm-up times. That's what I'm hoping anyway. We'll see. Either way the programmable/remote WiFi t-stats are awesome. The nest ones sound cool but way too "blingy" for the look of my place.

3 nests? baller!

Beat me to it!

who will be first to hack into his new thermostat and freeze him out or amp up his electrical bills?

That's my only concern. The thing is that the impact wouldn't have much if any visibility, and the folks that do the hacking like to see the results of their work. It would be too boring for them. Even if they could see the results, they would be too slow and mild, again, boring.

From what it looks like the Filtrite unit is wifi enabled, but doesn't come with the wifi module. Is that accurate?

I've been using the Proliphix and the only problem I have had isn't from getting hacked, but getting too much traffic to the port forwarding on the firewall so it can communicate back to their monitoring system.

Nope, the come with the wifi unit installed. I'd guess that they are taking a loss to get their unit out there.
http://www.radiothermostat.com/filtrete/products/3M-50/