2020 thermostat recommendations?

Ridgid1

Looking to replace thermostat and possible out door reset. I was looking for something like the esi ad2000 that has room(s) and outside temp considerations(can find-no longer made). notes: Oil to gas gun conversion, Large system, multiroom, single pipe. nest, honeywell, tekmer?

ratio

Big fan of Honeywell TH8000 series. Wireless averaging indoor sensor(s), outdoor sensor, wired sensor, Wi-Fi access via gateway (or direct, but I think it precludes wireless remotes). 9000 series for even fancier. Reliable, used everywhere, not the most expensive.

Cons: remote access is via Honeywell server, so they basically know everything the stat knows. But it doesn't have a camera or microphone, like some others…

EdTheHeaterMan

ratio said:

Big fan of Honeywell TH8000 series. Wireless averaging indoor sensor(s), outdoor sensor, wired sensor, Wi-Fi access via gateway (or direct, but I think it precludes wireless remotes). 9000 series for even fancier. Reliable, used everywhere, not the most expensive.

Cons: remote access is via Honeywell server, so they basically know everything the stat knows. But it doesn't have a camera or microphone, like some others…

Thought Police are out there working for Big Brother. Just don't name any of the zones "Room 101"

STEVEusaPA

You have a one pipe steam and you're looking for outdoor reset and wifi?

Jamie Hall

One pipe steam? Wireless averaging of indoor sensors might be of some value. Outdoor reset is useless. Anything which permits or thinks it wants a deep setback is worse than useless. Wi-fi access? Well, I suppose it's the must-have thing, but I have to wonder... why?

ChrisJ

Jamie Hall said:

One pipe steam? Wireless averaging of indoor sensors might be of some value. Outdoor reset is useless. Anything which permits or thinks it wants a deep setback is worse than useless. Wi-fi access? Well, I suppose it's the must-have thing, but I have to wonder... why?

I have outdoor reset with steam and it's certainly not useless. Its just sadly unavailable.  

Btw @ratio what thermostat has a microphone or something that can take pictures?

ratio

Anything that responds to "Hey Alexa" or "Hey Google" has a microphone. I can't think of anything that I've verified has a camera more complex than a light sensor, but that wouldn't have sounded near as conspiracy-ish.

ChrisJ

ratio said:

Anything that responds to "Hey Alexa" or "Hey Google" has a microphone. I can't think of anything that I've verified has a camera more complex than a light sensor, but that wouldn't have sounded near as conspiracy-ish.

Yes I understand that but what thermostat has that currently?

Gordo

Here is a teardown of a 2nd gen NEST thermostat.
Apparently, it also has a microphone, as well as a video camera or two.
"Don't be evil"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP6svLIADIc

ratio

Nest, ecobee, Honeywell's got one, I'm sure there are others.

dabrakeman

Very happy with Ecobee 4 and remote sensors with 1 pipe steam.

SteamingatMohawk

I have a 2 family that was converted into 4 units in upstate NY. One thermostat serves everything and was the traditional Honeywell round one.

I had an unbalanced system and along with getting the venting right and modifying the return piping connection to the Hartford loop, I went with a Honeywell wireless thermostat and added the internet thingy, too. I chose wireless, because I needed to locate the thermostat unit in a different room from where it was and needed the flexibility to be able to put it wherever I wanted anywhere in the house.

As it turns out I mounted it on the wall in the living room in the coldest apartment in the house. I ended up not leaving it on the wall and just putting in on a piece of furniture in a slightly different location in the room. The interior wall it was on was too close to the kitchen stove (too long a story to explain here), so whenever the tenant cooked a dinner, the others didn't always get enough heat.

Having the internet capability did two things for me. First, it allowed me to monitor and change the thermostat setting from my cell phone and second by having that control, I could be in the basement at the boiler and make changes without having to go through 4 doors, three of them locked to make a manual change on the thermostat, if I was doing any troubleshooting, etc.

It wasn't cheap, but it is the perfect solution for me.

As an aside, after having the house for 30+ years and what I have learned about steam heat, I don't set back the temperature at night or during the day.

Maybe some of you guys have a situation where setback works, but in a rental with 4 units and some tenants working nights and others home on some days, it was too complicated to try to manage.

As far as the outdoor reset is concerned, I am skeptical that it saves any substantial amount of operating cost, but like to be enlightened and maybe change my mind.

BobC

I used to work the 3 to 11pm shift fixing sorting machines at the post office. Back then i used to set the thermostat back from 1230 PM to 0530AM. When I walked in at 1130 st night it was pretty chilly but I put on a sweater, turned on a an electric heater and watched TV for an hour or so. The cat used to set with her head inches away from that quartz heater, it's a wonder it didn't boil her brains.

Now that I'm retired the heat gets turned down 4 degrees at 2130 and comes up at 0530, it bumps up another 2 degrees at 10AM

Hap_Hazzard

I got rid of my fancy digital thermostat and replaced it with a round Honeywell thermostat that turns the heat on when it gets cold and off when it gets warm. It doesn't care if the internet is up, down or sideways, and I hardly know its there.

Jamie Hall