Sensi Lite with one pipe steam?

samdobbs

Anyone used a Sensi Lite thermostat with a 1-pipe steam system? I currently have a CT300 2-wire (no common C) and want to replace it with a Sensi Lite

Any comments suggestions or experiences would be appreciated

Thanks!

ethicalpaul

They say it doesn't need a common wire, but then it has this footnote:

Systems that require a common wire include heat-only and cool-only systems

So I think you'll need a common wire to use this, which is no big deal, but why do you want to use this thermostat instead of a standard programmable?

samdobbs

Thanks for pointing that out — now I should check if my CT300 actually has a common wire (it is heat only or at least wired to only control my boiler)

The sensi-lite is very appealing for its (1) wifi and (2) t-stat simplicity with all functions app controlled. I dont see any other simple tstat with wifi?

Jamie Hall

Two comments. First off, define "simple". There are quite a number of what I would regard as simple thermostats with varying degrees of wifi control — Ecobee is a good one, and the ubiquiour Nest is great for forced air (and pretty horrible for much else). They all require a common wire, because wifi is a hungry transmitter.

The other question however is… why do you need anything more complex and a battery powered programmable? Steam systems do not work well with multiple setbacks or temperature changes per day — a setback (modest) at night is OK, but fiddling the thermostat during the day only burns more oil or gas or electricity.

samdobbs

Thank you. My notion of "simple" is just on-off i.e. no two-stage, no day/night/weekday programming, etc. I wanted wifi only to check and set and turn off when traveling. Also, I dont really understand offsets and setbacks although I assume they influence short cycling. I was attracted to sensi-lite also coz they explicitly mention boilers.

I guess I'm also misunderstanding common wire which I thought was really the analog of neutral or ground. And that the sensi-lite got its 3v wifi power from aa batteries.

I assumed my ct300 simply closed the circuit between R-W to turn on i.e. a circuit like 24vpos —> boiler switch pole1 —> R —> tstat —> W —> boiler switch pole 2 —> 24vneg prolly too simplistic/naive

I'll check out the ecobee, and welcome any other recs, thank you!