Upgrading to a digital thermostat

Old builder grade thermostat at the house needs to go. Cheapest digital HD has to offer, or???

In reply to poopshovel again :

I like the ones that have separate heat/cool memory so you can store summer and winter programs. They may all do that by now though. 

I have a cheap HD model. It only controls heat, no AC but its worked fine for about 8 years now except to save oil the wife programed it to be too cold when I get up at 3am. 

I will give up my ball of mercury when they pry it from my  cold, dead hands.

The Honeywell Lyric's are pretty good so are the cheapie versions of the Nest if you're looking for something "smart."

There's something about turning off the AC/Heat when you leave then turning it back on when you're headed home that feels like magic.

Otherwise I don't think there's much of a difference between the set a schedule ones.

Pregnant wife has made me consider getting a wifi-controlled version. That, and our house being so old and so divided, we really should have a dual zone system.

I just got a Nest E-series.  It was their least expensive and it does everything I need.  $158 at HD IIRC

Geofencing is nice.  When you're away, you set an away temp to save energy.  Then when you're about 5 blocks from home it kicks it back up to your normal setting.  App lets me control it from anywhere.  Wifi checks the weather forecast so it can adjust its threshholds if (for instance) the forecast says it will get really hot that day it will adjust its on/off temps and start earlier.  They claim savings by pre-cooling instead of waiting for it to get that extra degree warmer inside and having to fight it.  Basically loading the BTUs while its easier instead of waiting for when its hotter.  Monitors humidity, doesn't need the extra common wire for voltage, works with Google home or Alexa, looks sexy... I'm loving it.

I had a good Honeywell programable stat for years and never used it.  Setting schedules, anticipating when I would be away... too complex.  The Nest has one button and one dial, or use the app.  Easy.

In reply to Curtis :

Interesting. This sounds like a winner.

I have one that is similar to the Nest, but it integrates into our alarm, allowing me to set the schedule via web interface and monitor it along with the alarm.

The alarm system has geofencing and can perform "macros" based on this, so it can automatically set the alarm or turn a light on or off, change the thermostat, etc.

Although, I've found that I just leave the fan running all summer and I have to close the vents on the main floor and open them upstairs for Summer and vise versa for winter due to the way the house and bedrooms are situated with regards to the sun.  So I don't play with the temp settings as it takes more energy to raise or lower the temp than it does to just leave it fairly steady.

If you're going on vacation or if the weather changes suddenly, it is nice to be able to adjust it remotely.

Streetwiseguy said:

I will give up my ball of mercury when they pry it from my  cold, dead hands.

We had that 1950’s round Honeywell version that worked fine.  Now we have one and the wife is constantly trying to figure out how to reprogram. 

The old one was never an issue.  

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

If ours was made in the 60’s I’d keep it.

Don't buy the cheapest. I bought a 30$ Honeywell, and it was garbage. The temp fluctuated all the time, and it was usually wrong. Their next model up is way easier to install, and works.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell-T5-7-Day-Programmable-Thermostat-RTH7560E/300612321

We've had a 2nd gen Nest for years (since before Google bought them) and it's been working well for us. The sensors that determine if you're at home or not work pretty well and allow you to set lower/higher temperatures when you're away. The schedule learning feature also works pretty well so the heater kicks in in time to warm the house before people come home or get up.

What doesn't work very well is the part of the learning feature that's affected by "someone" in the household changing the temperature a few times an hour...

Another +1 for Nest. We have a couple of their cameras, too, it's nice to be able to control all of them from the same app. It's also nice to be able to turn on the AC when we're on our way home from a vacation.

Wally said:

I have a cheap HD model. It only controls heat, no AC but its worked fine for about 8 years now except to save oil the wife programed it to be too cold when I get up at 3am. 

They all do that.  Wives that is. 

Streetwiseguy said:

I will give up my ball of mercury when they pry it from my  cold, dead hands.

It is mercury so we can just wait for it to kill you.

I replaced our old thermostats with Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi units.  The old ones were programmable, but had no battery backup, so every time the power went out - even for a minute - all of the programing was gone.   Since we have been known to have some serious winter storms, the power goes out several times a year and re-programing got old.

The Sensi units have an Android (Apple, too I think) app that lets me program the thermostats from where ever I am.  Also, the programs are stored in Emerson's cloud, so haven't had to recreate a single program since I got them.  IIRC, about $100 each.

Still have the two programmable Honeywell units that worked fine, with the limitations mentioned, you are welcome to for the cost of shipping.

I’m happy with my ecobee t-stat. It’s very nice to control your house from the app, especially when you forgot to modify the program to be “away”... and you have already left. 

OHSCrifle said:

I’m happy with my ecobee t-stat. It’s very nice to control your house from the app, especially when you forgot to modify the program to be “away”... and you have already left. 

Funny. I didn’t see your post, but that’s what I ended up getting. The display on the “entry level” Nest was horrible...maybe just because it was a display model, but yeah; the ecobee seems pretty rad so far. Pretty nifty telling Siri to adjust the temp, when I was just berkeleying with our old one this morning trying to damned heat to turn off.

I’ve had the 3rd Gen Nest and the newest ecobee (4?). I much prefer the Nest. Interface is far better, occupancy sensor seem more effective. You can have two people share the Nest with two different accounts (great for a couple).

Either way, don’t cheap out.