Help choosing new thermostat?

NoreenClaire

I have an old round Honeywell thermostat that seems to work just fine. We bought the house a few months ago, and I come from a small condo that had a 5/2 programmable digital t-stat with forced hot water. I've been doing a lot of searching here about setbacks and CPH with steam heat.

I would like *at minimum* a 5/2 programmable t-stat so I can have a 3 degree setback when I put the kidlets to bed (about 7:30pm) and have it be 70F again when I get out of bed (around 6:30am). Also, my dear husband has a habit of getting overheated and shutting the heat OFF completely, which I don't find out about until we all wake up frozen the next morning (I would like something that notifies me that the heat has been turned off).

So, MA offers a Wireless Thermostat & Installation Incentive, and I can get one of three different wifi t-stats at a significant discount from retail price AND have it installed for free. Any information that will help me choose an appropriate t-stat would be most appreciated.

1. The Building 36 Intelligent Thermostat ($50) http://masssave.com/~/media/Files/Residential/Information-and-Edu-Docs/Building36%20Thermostat%20and%20Automation%20Flyer_V5.pdf
2. The ecobee Smart Si ($50) masssave.com/~/media/Files/Residential/Wireless%20Thermostat/EcoBee%20Final%20Cut%20Sheet.pdf
3. The Honeywell Wifi 9000 ($85) masssave.com/~/media/Files/Residential/Wireless%20Thermostat/Honeywell%20Final%20cut%20sheet.pdf

I'm leaning towards the Honeywell because I've seen that it can be set to 'steam' heating, though I'm not sure if I can set the CPH. I'm still researching the other options. (And my copy of "We Got Steam Heat" just arrived! Yippee!)

John Mills_5

The Honeywell does have a steam/hot water setting which I'm guessing is 1 cycle per hour as that's what the Vision Pro would recommend for steam. I haven't looked to see what the Smart Si does for cycle rates. Ecobee is a good stat, we've sold a few Si and a lot of the 3.. I think it is 3 year warranty where the Prestige is 5.

delta T

I'm a fan of the Honeywell, though the ecobee is definitely a good product. I am not sure if you can set a CPH on the ecobee however. The Honeywell can be set to however many CPH you want, I believe the steam setting is 2 CPH which is what most on here would recommend.

Congrats on the purchase of the book and welcome to steam heat! If you want to dig in a little more, get 'The Lost Art of Steam Heating' as well (also available on this website). Great read aside from having all you will ever need to know about steam. And there are of course also many people on this forum who are true experts in the field and can help you with any problem that may arise.

hvacfreak2

I like the Ecobee for other hvac applications but I'm not sure what it offers for steam. The Honeywell 9000 is a nice product also and I have no experience with that specific model but I cant imagine it not having the same setup info. like the rest of that product.