Hi all! My talking thermostat is going bad, and I wanted to replace it with something HA compatible. As most of us in the house can’t see, I need something without a touch screen or non-raised buttons, so the device can still be locally controlled by us. I wanted to use HA to read and perhaps set the temperature and modes, as well as haing traditional controls on the wall, and have it continue to work even if HA goes down. We have a standard american 24v HVAC forced air single-stage with heat/AC/Off and Fan Auto/On controls. No multi-stage, no heat pump, etc. Can anyone recommend a thermostat which works well with HA, either WIFI or Zigbee, or ZWave if necessary, which still has tactile buttons? Its difficult to know when looking them up online if they fit those requirements. Thanks so much for your help. .
As I understand it, the Honeywell WiFi thermostat is the only one you might find that still has tactile buttons (it does have a screen, but it’s not touchscreen at least). There is a Honeywell integration as well. It can operate both with HA running and not. It’s not the prettiest thing around, but I’m guessing that’s not really a concern here. The downside to it is that it does depend on the cloud for the HA integration.
Aside from that, I don’t think you are going to really find much as touchscreens are all the rage lately. You could possibly roll your own using components and ESPHome, but I don’t know how proficient you are with custom builds like that. There are lots of posts of people building their own thermostats on the forum.
I use a different Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat (touch screen). I have three of these and they work well standalone and with Home Assistant. As bill mentions, the Honeywell total Connect Comfort (US) integration requires access to the Honeywell portal (cloud). The integration is supported and has been reliable. The thermostats continue to work without HA, the portal, or when the internet is down.
That said, I would search for non-cloud based options if mine ever failed. But I don’t think they will fail anytime soon - I have never had a Honeywell thermostat fail (that’s why I keep buying them). A reliable standalone thermostat is my first priority; integration with HA is a distant 2nd priority.
Hi! Thanks #code-in-progress and #MaxK. I appreciate the info. Yes, I’m not at a point of making my own thermostat yet, and I want the home to operate in a standard way for the rest of the family as well, so will look into this option further. Thanks again very much. Appreciate the help.