Smart Thermostat

rysm83

I have 3 zone in my house basement, main level, and bedrooms. Each floor has its own thermostat to open the valves in my hot water radiators. I also have another thermostat to control my A/C unit located in the attic. I would like to switch to a smart thermostat so I can monitor the heat and cold when I'm not home. Will I need to replace all 4 thermostats in my house. I'm looking to use just one that could control each floor and A/C if possible.

ratio

If monitoring just one zone is acceptable, combine the AC with the nearest heating thermostat & just use that. If you want separate control over the other zones, they'll need their own thermostat.

I suggest Honeywell thermostats, they have been far less problematic than Nest stats. I have no experience with any others though.

Jamie Hall

I'd second that on Honeywells, but the Ecobees seem to be OK too. Be aware that, depending on how the existing thermostats are wired, it may not be quite as simple as just popping the old one off the wall and the new one on.

Also be aware that if you want to have wi-fi monitoring, you need to check the security of the units and your home network. Use strong passwords on the units and on the network router -- and don't use the default name for the router!

HVACNUT

Stay away from the Nest. Go to the Honeywell website. If you want to control 3 zones from one thermostat, then you're looking to spend big $$ and use remote sensors. If not, then you'll need 3 thermostats. 2 heat only, one heat and cool. Download the Honeywell app and you can designate and control each zone independently. WiFi thermostats IMO are (from the service end) a nuisance and often lead to unnecessary billable service calls to the client. They like to play with their phones too much. If you want to monitor temperature only, there are other ways. If you have an alarm tied to a central station, they can install a low/high temp sensor and call you if there's a problem.

Wellness

If convenience, instead of privacy and reliability, is your main goal almost any wifi thermostat will serve your purpose, including the reviled Nest, which has gotten pretty good reviews on Amazon. However, I strongly recommend you get a WiFi thermostat with an internal web server, not the kind (like the Nest as well as the Honeywell 6000) that require you to log on to a manufacturer's or 3rd party website to program the thermostat, change thermostat settings or get reports on the thermostat's operations. Otherwise you risk getting locked out of your own thermostat if the company goes out of business (or, more likely, starts charging you a monthly fee to access your own data). There are also significant privacy and security concerns with these Wifi connected themostats. Good luck.

rysm83

Thanks for the suggestions. Which thermostats have an internal web server?

Wellness

My current recommendations for Internet enabled thermostats with internal web servers that avoid these issues are:

Radiothermostat
ControlbyWeb
Proliphix
Network Thermostat

They are pricey, though...

Steam_Jon

@Wellness Which of these companies do you think is best, in terms of product and support? Network Thermostat seems solid. Radiothermostat does not. And the others I am not familiar with.

ewang

I've got a two zone system for forced air and went with two Honeywell T10's. They are pricey, but allow for additional sensors. The nice thing is, you could conceivably add a remote sensor, but choose not to control to it's sensed temp to give you peripheral temperature monitoring.