I’m looking to replace my existing “dumb” thermostat with a “smarter” one that will easily integrate with my Home Assistant system.
My Use Case:
I live in a very moderate climate in a well-insulated home. Usually I use the furnace to take the chill off the house for a few hours in the morning (setpoint 68F) then change the thermostat to a lower temperature (setpoint 60F) for the rest of the day and night. Our current thermostat can be programmed to do this 68F to 60F shuffle every day at the prescribed times.
The house stays comfortable most days without additional furnace time. In the few evenings that we need a little more heat, we manually change the thermostat setpoint. Here is where the first problem arises. The thermostat program can get stuck in that manual override and not return to the programmed setpoint. I’m assuming a better thermostat should be able to do this in a stand-alone mode.
Some evenings we go to bed and forget to turn back the thermostat to 60F. One of us (usually me) hears the furnace running in the middle of the night, gets up and goes downstairs to adjust the thermostat. Some mornings we get up either earlier or later than the programmed morning warm-up. One of us (usually me again) gets up and goes downstairs to adjust the thermostat.
First of all, I’d like to find a new thermostat that will handle my simple schedule needs and handle my manual overrides without screwing up the program. Secondly, I’d like to control that thermostat from my bedside, allowing me to toggle between my 68F and 60F setpoints. I’m thinking an HA automation with a button switch.
My Thermostat Requirements:
Must be a commercial device; I do not want to roll my own with temp sensors, relays, etc.- .
Must control a single zone, heat-only forced air furnace. 24VAC C-wire available.
Must run with local control; no vendor cloud service required
Must communicate via WiFi or ZigBee (my existing HA networks).
Must allow control inputs from HA automations.
Must function in a “stand-alone” mode if HA is unavailable.
I have scoured this forum, YouTube and the Database of ZigBee devices, for thermostat recommendations, but didn’t find a clear winner. I’m hoping this group can help finding that thermostat. Thanks for your inputs.
I found the Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Integration for Home Assistant, but the supported devices only list the TH6320R1004 and RTH9585WF1004 models. Have others had success using this integration with the T9 or T10 thermostats?
Redlink and wires both. If you check out the pic there is a grey box in the middle, that is located with your HVAC unit. It has wires that go to the furnace, and whatever accessories you have. So if you have an ultraviolet, humidifer, etc. then it hooks up to it. Also on this side you add the sensors that go into the ducts for the supply/return side which measures temp and some other things. It will alert you if your system is not acting right. From that box on the other side are the wires that run to your actual thermostat in the house.
The Redlink side lets you add other items as it is wireless. So I have an outside temp monitor (this helps with my humidifier as it automatically dials down the humidity level when it gets really cold so you don’t get condensation). I, also, have additional temp sensors that measure temps in other areas of my house. It takes the average of all of those plus my thermostat, and decides if it needs heat/cool or not.
Yes, it allow you to control the fan. There is 3 settings. Off, Automatic, and Circulation. Automatic turns on with your heat or AC, and the only time it runs. Circulations says the fan runs, if I remember right, like 30% of the time so the air in your house is distrubuted evenly if you have cold/hot spots.
Yes it work with the Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Add-in.
I just got two of the Honeywell Home RTH9585WF1004, but I do not like how they depend on cloud for management with HASS and Honeywell Total Connect Comfort (TCC) cloud for remote control without multi-factor authentication (MFA). There should be MFA for cloud account login and secure API access for Integrations like home-assistant.
Moreover, not that I will use them over HASS, BUT the TCC site and mobile app is a joke and far from polished… looks and feels so antiquated!
I want my thermostats self-hosted on HASS and behind my VPN for remote control. I’ll start looking for z-wave or zigbee models.
Perhaps the Honeywell TH6320ZW2003 T6 Pro Series Z-Wave is a better choice …