Smart Thermostats: what I WISH I knew earlier…

For the past few years, I’ve tried out Ecobee, Nest, and more. The features I thought would be a big deal vs what actually mattered has really surprised me!

LINKS (affiliate):

DISCOVER MORE

FOLLOW ME

0:00 Intro
0:23 Current Setup
1:27 Zones
2:18 Temperature Sensors
3:10 Data
4:21 Time of Use
5:35 Automations
6:34 Luna’s Dog Spa

----------
MUSIC

The End by EVA

[SmartHomeSolver]

Before you all say my house is way too hot... you're right, it is! Arizona is SO hot. Luckily we are getting solar installed through Tesla, and we can keep our house cooler without it costing hundreds per month. I'll be talking about solar in a future video once it's all up and running.

[KairosGaming]

Great to know! I'm building a house & your channel has been very helpful for planning all my smart home features! I was thinking about Google nest, but I think I'll go with Ecobee since I'll mostly doing Amazon routines

[RyanAlcantara]

I've loved the Ecobee since I first installed it 3 years ago. The satellite sensors were the biggest draw over the Nest Learning Thermostat as it didn't have that capability then and the old Honeywell thermostat was located in a shaded hallway that was always cooler than the rest of the house. I also like that in the Comfort Settings menu you can select which sensors the Ecobee reads depending on activity so for example, say it's bedtime in summer you can have just the 2nd story bedroom sensors monitoring the average temp during the night and not your lower floors that tend to have cooler temps. My biggest concern now is that Ecobee was bought by Generac this November and though there was no immediate statement about the future of Ecobee I can only hope they don't mess with the overall foundation of the Ecobee services.

[dscinaz]

I'm glad I stumbled upon your discussion of the Ecobee thermostat. I recently ordered an Ecobee when presented with an offer I couldn't refuse. It turns out your hardware and the way you operate it is reasonably close to me, as well as your geographical location. You did a great job of describing what I can expect from my Ecobee (when it arrives), but I thought I'd share with you a realization that I had that few people are likely to duplicate.
I'm beginning to think that I am not going to be happy with the Ecobee as my main control, only because it appears that it has only a 1.0-degree control loop. After operating this house for a long time with a 1.0-degree control loop, I changed to a 0.5-degree loop with my Radio-Thermostat thermostats, and I am able to get better all-around results than before. While it theoretically reduces the overall efficiency, in this particular, old, poorly insulated, flat-roof, block house, and with the way we operate it, we have improved comfort at a lower temperature setting. And that alone will mitigate the reduction in efficiency.

[TheOriginalStevenH]

I’m getting mine tomorrow and I appreciate the trials and tribulations you endured to share with us.

[avipanwala]

I was just planning to get a smart thermostat and here we go. SHS just posted a video about it❤️🥳

[cfletch]

The nursery for our younger daughter runs about 5 degrees warmer than the other portions of the house. The Nest sensors are so clutch for finding balance throughout temperature variations in the house.

[MrRickV]

Great comparative review! My family's been in residential construction for over a century. In bigger homes (3000+ sq ft), we have usually gone with separate, dedicated HVAC systems in two or more locations e.g. upstairs and downstairs. Not only are two HVAC systems more efficient, but they are also more comfortable. I'd recommend that route over a single HVAC with remote sensors that would trigger whole house cooling or heating. Our HVAC vender can even show clients the payback/return on a dual HVAC system.
Now with smart thermostats, one can really be comfortable and efficient. In sum, if you're planning on building a new home, two HVACs with smart thermostats are the way to go.

[tedtimmis]

I have 3 nest units and once I figured out the common wire thing I’ve really come to love having them.

[configfile]

This video is absolute Gold! You’ve saved me soo much money, and even more valuable time! Thank you, I’m dropping an elbow on that subscribe button.

[skypupx]

Good material and helpful presentation. We had new heat pumps installed about a month ago driven by two Ecobee premiums. Still trying to get it all figured out. Some of the features are very cool and the graphed data definitely is tell-tale. Thanks!

[Gkm]

What’s missing from the smart thermostat equation for most folks is room-level control. You want to heat or cool the space where you are, and not heat or cool the space where you’re not. That’s the only way to save money with these things. Thus if you have forced air, you want your system to be slightly underpowered from a whole-house perspective - and then, based on room occupancy, open or close the air vent as appropriate. Same would go for steam radiator systems or whatever. One of the best things I have is a small electric space heater. Wife heats the room where she is, I like it cooler so the heat in the rest of the house is lower. The space heater goes on for a few minutes at a time, and effectively heats her entire room. Not connected, but smart home nonetheless.

[AdamsTechLife]

Interesting video! Didn’t know about that occupancy sensor and all the extra features. Thank you!

[andrewisvrycool]

Woah! I used to watch this channel all the time like 1 year ago and since then you’ve grown like 200k subs :O

[snorgplat]

This is really helpful, I’d be curious to hear what you’ve learned over the last 3 years, is this system still working for you? Have you made changes? Learned new things?

[anthonywall]

Great video. I too live in AZ. I just got the ecobee. I have two zones. I'm still learning how to set it up and automate for my situation.

[ericapelz]

I'm getting rid of my ecobee thermostat with three occupancy sensors and going to DIY room level sensors build around EspHome and Home Assistant. I want to take advantage of my solar production and limit grid use whenever possible. We are also de-clouding our smart gear as much as possible.

[paulhorstink]

My thought was, and it seems you confirmed it, beyond some specific standard scenarios, smart thermostats are not so smart after all. So if you are solving this with Home Assistant automations, there is no real need for for smart thermostats, all you need is some wireless temperature/motion sensors integrated with HA, and remote control through direct integration with HA or IR beamers.

[jgirizarry]

I use Nest with three sensors in different rooms, but I ended up disabling the learning option and I programmed them by time and temp. I have tried Away mode thru Google home app, but if we stay too long in our room offices, it will change to Eco mode and it will get hot. I keep my house in TX at 75 during the day and replace the filters every three months.

[MarcSolomonScheimann]

I have a heating approach that’s really simple, that I would’ve expected more people to adopt (only relevant to standard tariffs). I have balanced my radiators across my house using TRVs and temperature sensors. My smart thermostat is set to 19.5c during the day whilst each room has a TRV and temp sensor. All the TRVs are calibrated to 19.5c, so as each room gets to 19.5c the TRVs close, and allows more heating to flow to the cooler rooms. Once the rooms, and the house is at 19.5c - the thermostat turns off the heating.

Advantage here is that every room has a consistent temperature through the house. In short, thermostat plus each radiator calibrated with TRVs.