All About Smart Thermostats | Ask This Old House

Utilities usually give you $5 a month to allow them to control your thermostat when they need to. Don’t do it. No legitimate HVAC contractor is going to agree to installing a new system utilizing a Nest or Echobee thermostat. They are expensive consumer junk and are a source of issues he will have to contend with for free during the warranty period. Honeywell ,White Rogers and Emerson are the contractors choice because they can be fine tuned more precisely to your installation. Nest and Echobee only have generic setup features.

Beam me up, Scotty…

I wish that there was a wifi thermostat that I could control when I am on vacation anywhere in the united states. The smart thermostat wants to always turn the air on or the heat on even when I am not there because they think that I will be back. All I want is to have the control, not the smart software.

Got the downvoted from me. You talked features, you showed 4 different smart thermostats, didn't say the difference in any of them.

Lol, geofencing is going to cost you money in a place like Lousiana where this old house will get to 82 degrees if I don't cool it off, and then spend an entire day trying to get the temperature back below 77.

why would i ever allow a company outside of my home have access to what/when I use my things? Good lord people. Ya'll never see where Amazon turned off this guys house basically?

Which 9
Ones have password lock?

The ecobee runs all power through unprotected mosfets instead of relays. So if you have a shorted contactor coil for an A/C unit, instead of blowing a 10¢ fuse it will take out the $150 T-stat.
The Honeywell Lyric (round) was built the same way. They are actually designed to FAIL! The more compact the cheaper the build quality.

What you don't mention is that on lots of homes the thermostat wire is run to a single gang box and companies like ecobee have no solution on how to mount their product. The suggest that YOU create an adapter plate to mount to the box (!). Perhaps TOH could focus on the audience homeowner rather than sponsor selling products that have issues in real life.

Love the show😊

My baseboard heater (208/230 ) wall thermostat has only 2 wire. Any suggestion?

I'd like to find something that adjusts to the outside temperature so your ac unit will adjust so it could keep a steady temperature the whole time inside your house

Just got a new furnace. Found that my thermostat has 4 wires not 5. What would it take to make it 5 wire? Installer said if I want one with wifi that it would cost additional $300. If I got a wireless one it would be bulky and the graphics would not be very good. I feel that I am being told a story so I need more information. The thermostat is currently in the hallway to the right of the entrance. The house is a concrete slab ranch. The other half of the house feels cooler because the thermostat is in a hallway on the other side of the house.

So you put this chip in your home so the government knows your there.

Demand response .... HAH! Read the fine print, folks. You may not like the outcome of this feature.

It would have been nice if you would have told us a little about each feature so people could decide what was right for them.

I guess this is intended for the US market. Like most viewers I am outside the US and your information is of limited value.

Big Brother controlling my thermostat? No F-ing way! With the Wokies pushing energy austerity this may become mandatory in the dystopian future. 🎃

So which one is the best?

This old house !!

Top ratings again.. well done !!

Geofencing is useless if you have a family. If you leave but your family is still at home what happens then?

So nest also has sensors…. So does Honeywell…. Lol “new gen”

I'm not "opting in" to anything run by the Government! If the Utility supplying the energy can't keep up with demand, get more energy. Don't infringe on my freedom for the so-called common good. I recycle, that's good enough. They can't keep up with demand, so they expect me to live life more uncomfortably. They can go stick it. Love (not) how they kind of slipped that little piece of info in there. You just watch. This is the first step, before the government makes it mandatory that all thermostats are on this "system" - where THEY control your energy use!

I’m on my second nest thermostat and four years and nothing but issues always showing low battery and Wi-Fi Not connecting. Going back to basic simple reliable thermostats.

I have a furnace and a separate hrv system. Can these new thermostats run them?

We have a one HVAC unit, but two thermostats for the top and bottom floor. There is a flap that controls the airflow at the HVAC unit in the attic. Is there a smart thermostat that can control that flap also?

Can you replace a jotto smart thermostat with a different one?

Love my Nest 3rdGen

Nest too have remote room sensors like ecobee. This feature is not mentioned here. In no way nest is older generation!

I have a Honeywell T6 Smart pro. Wi-Fi control. It worked well for two years then the Wi-Fi in the thermostat got a glitch and my App would not talk to it. Well I was controlling it 1200 miles away…not good. So I went to my vacation home and tried and tried to reset it. No good. I finally pulled it off the wall and out of the cradle to reset it, by removing all power. Plugged it back into the cradle and had to get it to relearn the network to get it all working. If you are not good with apps and setting things up. Stay away from Wi-Fi thermostats.

These do not save you money.
If you manually set it, it's the same thing.

Any recommendations on whether and how you can hook up one of these smart thermostats with a boiler that only has a 2-wire system?

Liberals don’t care if you’re comfortable.. I’m sure they never get hot, or cold…. Bow down peasants… LGB

The best way to use those sensors, IMO, is only for multi-level homes particularly if you have both heat and A/C. Put one sensor on each floor or at least the top and bottom floors. Then, you can tell the thermostat (at least for my model) to pay attention to a particular floor. So in the winter, I tell it to keep the house heated so the temperature on the top floor is good and in the summer, cool to the temp on the bottom floor.
Alternatively, if you're home has the thermostat on a floor where you usually aren't spending much of your time, you can put a sensor on the "main" living floor and just leave it to use that as it's default reading.

Essentially these save you money by lowering the heat.

Make sure you buy these through your power company. They usually give hefty discounts sometimes 50% off.

You can kiss my @$$ if you think i would let my POS power company control my thermostat. How about they invest in better infrastructure and tech with all the money everyone shells out.

When you live up north ( for example NY, Canada), where winter temperatures are subzero, and summer temperatures are above 95F many of the new technology thermostats are really lagging in functionality. These thermostats do not appear to learn the time-constants for warming or cooling. That is, in winter, how many hours will it take to bring the house back up to temperature, if the heating is lowered by 3 degrees at 9am when people leave and at bedtime beginning 10pm.

Second, my smart furnace circulates hot water to radiators based on outdoor temperatures. My heated water circulates in the house radiators at just above room temperature in the late spring and early fall. As it gets colder, the circulating water temperature is increased.

What would be required is a thermostat that learns the house temperature heating and cooling rate, based on the outdoor weather, and the desired amount of setback requested.

A thermostat that does not look at the outdoor temperature, and knows not the delay time to raise the temperature of the house two degrees, is not for me.

My hot water furnace has an outdoor sensor. The colder it is outside, the hotter the circulating water temperature. Coupled with that smart furnace, I use a digital thermostat that has programming of 4 periods per day, for 7 individual days With a 2 degree setback at 10pm and 9am, Due to temperature change inertia, we need to restore the room temperature setting at 5am, to have the house comfortable at 7am.

Essentially, for our needs we have a 5 day Mon-Fri program with 70 F set for 5am to 9am, and from 3:30pm to 10:30pm. With a 3 degree drop for the other hours. For the weekends, the thermostat only does the 10pm to 5am drop, we are home all day and because it takes about 3 hours to recover the 3 F degree setback.

My thermostat is a common off-the-shelf device that we bought for under $50.00, as mentioned, four periods each day can be programmed.

FYI, in summer, the settings are reversed, (human slide switch to switch from winter to summer)

Thank you for the information about new technologies. It is quite informative.

So yea, common does not provide the 24v power. Red does. Common only negates the need for a battery by completing the circuit. Also, installing your own thermostat without being HVAC certified voids any manufacturer warranty

Any options for geothermal systems?

I implore anyone listening who is shopping for smart thermostats to stay away from the Nest! I spent a documented 60 hours trying to fix it and on calls/contact with them trying to fix it. It never worked properly and they said it should with my system. Got an ecobee and it worked the first time and no issues. The Nest looks nicer, sure, but not worth the hassle.

and how much of this works when your internet is out? what happens when you are away from home and internet goes out, will your house still maintain comfort?

It's like watching sober Jim Breuer.

These smart electronics are actually the frog in the pot, pretty soon you won’t be able to control your thermostat. We’re playing with fire, we’re giving away our privacy and rights gradually. Oh BTW look up ESG, yeah your bank is creating a social credit score on you as you read this and will punish you accordingly. Have fun giving your freedom to Klaus Schwab 🤣🤣🤣

Nests also can use the wireless sensors in other rooms, I know because I use them.

Should have added information about smart vents.

None of the ideas discussed here are appealing.

Are smart thermostats worth it for heat-only systems?

I have a Nest 3rd gen, and have six remote, wireless temp sensors paired to it. I guess Ross didn't know about them.

Some of the technology is nice, but I don't like how everything is wanting to connect to my WiFi or my phone.