Honeywell Digital Thermostat

[3930dave]

It does seem ridiculous to have so many stats. I'm in the radiant heat business and that delivery system lends itself to a lot of stats, so people want them. I don't like high numbers like that because it makes the homeowner program them all or just forget about it and leave them all set without programs.

The Nest system is designed to gather info, through the internet, about each house it is installed in and develop a database The stats notice if people are home and program themselves. This leads to another set of problems, but the thinking is that it can identify problems if the house responds differently than usual and they can notify the homeowner if the bill seems too high, etc. But a lot of it is based on engineers trying to solve problems they really don't understand. And control of the system becomes too complicated for the homeowner.

At least with the "simpler" internet stats, you can see the display on a smart phone and adjust it easily. Not only from miles away, but from upstairs. Still, it's not for me. Simpler is better.

In my house, which is nearing completion, there will be a solar only thermostat next to a programmable thermostat in each zone. Four zones total. The simple digital stats from Lux or Honeywell are reliable and interchangeable between locations if one fails. They'll run, if forgotten, for a number of years on their batteries.

Mulitple zones in a larger house makes sense, setup as you describe for yours. Part of why I started this thread is that dead batteries is the main vulnerability that will stop the digital Honeywell's I've seen - otherwise they seem pretty good.

Many single digital stats don't get programmed, just set to a fixed temperature only. Really a waste in that case, the customer gains nothing from the added complexity of the control.

Radiant heat, that makes sense. A house I had many years ago had electric baseboards - it was nice to have each room at exactly the desired temperature.

I'm liking what I've seen of the mini-splits systems, I might take a serious look at those next time around.

Rgds, D.

 

[MacLawn]

Raspy, you almost answered me question - now hold on, you cain't just say you don't like Nest - ye gotta tell us why. I've been researching them high dollar Nests since they first came out. I like the idea of being able to control it from anywhere for our other house. What don't ye like about them?

oh, and sorry about old Thoreau, but hey, here we are on high tech computers online and wantin' to be like that old boy...:thumbdown:

 

[3930dave]

Raspy, you almost answered me question - now hold on, you cain't just say you don't like Nest - ye gotta tell us why. I've been researching them high dollar Nests since they first came out. I like the idea of being able to control it from anywhere for our other house. What don't ye like about them?

oh, and sorry about old Thoreau, but hey, here we are on high tech computers online and wantin' to be like that old boy...:thumbdown:

I can make some quasi-educated guesses about self-modifying code Mac', but I'll leave the specifics to Raspy.

Just about anybody can write control code today - it's often done by a low bidder on the other side of the planet, who may be several layers removed from having any actual direct knowledge of HVAC controls.

In context, if Thoreau was around today, he'd be running Linux... but that's worth a dozen or so separate discussion threads itself, so I'll leave that alone here.....

Everybody's circumstances are different. I'm willing to bet Mac' that you might change your views on HVAC control complexity if you spent a Winter in northern Canada, and had to Ctrl/Alt/Delete the control to get your heat fired back up, so you could get to work replacing broken water pipes...

I can see the value of remote monitoring and control, I'm just not sold on the security and reliability of today's systems yet.

I'll be interested in what Raspy has to say.

Rgds, D.

 

[MacLawn]

Thanks, Dave. Raspy..... calling old Raspy.... Hep me on me thoughts about getting a Nest... From all me research since they first came out about two years ago, I haven't read any negatives about it yet. I've contacted them a few times since last year, located right here in USA, speaking English with what I call California accent (yep, y'all boys have accent too), and very helpful people. Seems to me logging in, controlling ye Nest would be as secure as logging in to me credit union account.

 

[aczlan]

The best technology is invisible and if I can make people forget they even have a thermostat, I'm doing a better job than if I require them to service the system each year.

This^ Good technology should be in the background and not need any attention paid to it.

Aaron Z

 

[MacLawn]

That's the truth, acz. I now have one of them high tech Honeywell (or maybe it's Carrier) programmable thermostats, and man, that thing is not easy to set up! Therefore, I just set it on temp I want, then set the "Hold" button to keep it there. That's one reason the Nest is appealing to me.

 

[dmccarty]

Thanks, Dave. Raspy..... calling old Raspy.... Hep me on me thoughts about getting a Nest... From all me research since they first came out about two years ago, I haven't read any negatives about it yet. I've contacted them a few times since last year, located right here in USA, speaking English with what I call California accent (yep, y'all boys have accent too), and very helpful people. Seems to me logging in, controlling ye Nest would be as secure as logging in to me credit union account.

Since the Nest was mentioned on this discussion and the one you started, I looked them up. There are quite a few bad reviews on Amazon you might want to read. Most review were positive but there were some comments that bothered me. I was trying to figure out the Nest networking but I stopped looking when they said they did not support OpenWRT and the Linksys WRT54G router.

My concern is that the Nest sends your information to their server and you have to be logged into their server to get your information and updates. Can one update the software without being connected to the Internet? So far I can't see that one can. Nest better have some DANGED good security on their website and on their device. This would be a hackers dream to attack.

The only thing we would find useful in the Nest would be tracking how many times the cooling is turned on and for how long. The rest of the features seem to make something simple, complex. I could see having remote access to the thermostat could be useful for someone that travels, or has a second home, but for us, we simply set the temp as needed. There is no way this device could work for us. We have had the cooling turned off for days, but today or tomorrow we will have to cool down the house again, but if the overnight temperatures and humidity is low enough, we open the windows. We adjust the temperature based on our comfort level which depends on a variety of things. Course, in the winter we heat with wood so the only time we use the thermostat is when we need to cool the house or if we run out of firewood. Even if we heated and cooled with electricity, the complexity of the device, privacy and security issues, cause me some concern.

Later,
Dan

 

[aczlan]

Since the Nest was mentioned on this discussion and the one you started, I looked them up. There are quite a few bad reviews on Amazon you might want to read. Most review were positive but there were some comments that bothered me. I was trying to figure out the Nest networking but I stopped looking when they said they did not support OpenWRT and the Linksys WRT54G router.

That makes no sense. Absent some specific code on the NEST which doe not allow connecting to Linksys wireless access points, there is no reason for the wireless signal from a OpenWRT box to look any different than anyone else's.

Aaron Z
(Just finished setting up OpenWRT 12.09 on a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND)

 

[dmccarty]

That makes no sense. Absent some specific code on the NEST which doe not allow connecting to Linksys wireless access points, there is no reason for the wireless signal from a OpenWRT box to look any different than anyone else's.

Aaron Z
(Just finished setting up OpenWRT 12.09 on a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND)

Yep, does not make sense to me either but that is what they say on their website. :confused3:

Open-source access point firmware such as DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato are not supported by Nest. While some versions may work well with Nest, compatibility may vary from release to release.

Later,
Dan

 

[aczlan]

Yep, does not make sense to me either but that is what they say on their website. :confused3:

Odd. Perhaps they had some versions with flaky firmware and as such made a blanket decision not to support them...

Aaron Z