ISO Replacement for NEST Thermostat

Emily718

I am so done with my NEST thermostat. It has been nothing but trouble since we installed it 3 years ago. It is incorrectly calibrated, showing the house to be much warmer than it is. Constant problems with the electicity supply to the unit. Shuts off at random times and "reboots" or "recharges." We have an 1890s brick townhouse, 3 stories, with a single pipe steam system. Please let me know what you recommend for a replacement thermostat. My husband likes the Wifi connectivity / remote controls with the NEST, so something with that would be ideal. Thank you.

wogpa67

Honeywell 8000 wifi

hot_rod

I like my Ecobee. They have good tech support, they listen to contractor input, and are more HVAC savy than Google/ Nest.

wogpa67

I like the Ecobee's also. I haven't installed one of the 3rd series yet, but it should be better than the previous models.
More money than the Honeywell but you get a nice web portal and usage tracking.

KC_Jones

Honeywell 8000, and I suspect you will get a lot of votes for it. This topic comes up every couple months.

Danscrew

Thumbs up for Ecobee 3 you can trend the boilers run time great for Mod Cons

ratio

Honeywell 8000, either WiFi or RedLINK w/ internet gateway. Reliable.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

A lot of NEST problems come about because the installer didn't provide a "common" 24 volt connection; there might not have been an extra wire or it was difficult to find that "common" connection.

And I don't know if the Honeywell and Ecobee require that "common" connection. Guys?

In either case, check your NEST before to see if it's got that "common" wire. It might start working properly, except the high calibration won't go away. All the ones I've installed are that way.

hot_rod

Ecobee tech sheet.

Anytime you connect a power stealing t-stat with two wires check to see if and how much voltage is "leaking" back. We have measured up to 18V coming back with the stat in the off position.

Many if not most power stealing stats that are connected with two wires have a pull down resistor included in the box. This resistor, that you connect dissipates that voltage so the relay doesn't energize or buzz during a no heat call from the t-stat.

But that resistor turns that current into heat and consumes some of your transformer current in the process.

This can be engineered out without the need for resistors also.

Also be careful when you enable priority on some of the relay boxes, in that mode the path to common may disapper even with 3 or 4 wires to the stat.

GW

We won't deal with a nest without the c wire, our time matters.

GW

We install lots of the honeywell 6000 wifi

I have hw iaq with modem hookup my home And office (geothermal systems).

John Mills_5

Honeywell requires common. For heat/cool applications, Ecobee3 comes with a contraption that takes the 4 wires from the stat and adds a common. Not sure that would work without having cooling. Emerson Sensi only requires 4 wires, I'd say it is power stealing. They say that requires a common for a heat only application like a boiler.

We have a Ecobee3 running a boiler and air handler with A/C. It gets its 24v off the air handler RC and common. Of course someone forgot and turned the air handler off the other day!

VelvetFoot

Our ecobees have been solid for a couple years now.