Hey everyone,
I’m completely new to the Smart Home world and in the middle of deciding which thermostat to buy.
I’ve read a lot about the potential options and I feel like I have a decent picture of what’s potentially available. One thing that left me really confused is the topic of noise that TRVs produce. I’ve read a lot of conflicting information regarding this. Even when people talked about the same model the opinions completely conflicted with each other, ranging from “they’re almost silent/unnoticeable” to “they’re unbearably loud to the point where you can’t be in the same room with them”. I’m planning to also use them in the bedroom, hence why limited noise is a big topic for me.
Here’s a list of options I have looked into, but I’m completely open to any solution that might fit here. I’m from Europe if that changes anything availability-wise. Bear with me, I looked at a lot of options:
- Sonoff TRVZB: apparently pretty loud, not sure how bearable and controllable that is through stuff like better thermostat etc. The low price and prevalence in the community seem like a big plus. Also, the newest firmware should make smooth ventil opening adjustments possible, I’m not sure if that helps with noise at all. Are there any other hacks to control the noise or are the built-in mechanics just too loud?
- Aqara E1: I’ve read that they should be somewhat quieter than the Sonoff, but a few people stated otherwise. The pros of the Sonoff also apply here and if noise really is better with those I would definitely be willing to pay the extra price.
- Aqara W600: mechanically speaking these seem to be exactly what I’m looking for, but apparently their firmware and HA integration seem extremely inconsistent. I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk or if the hassle won’t be worth it with them, especially with the higher price tag. They are also relatively new and seem to not have nearly as much community exposure as the prior 2. They also seem to not work great with external room temperature sensors. Any opinion on this TRV model?
- Bosch Thermostat II (+M): build quality and noise level seem good, but some users reported that they don’t work great in HA with the Zigbee mode with the Bosch gateway. There seem quite a few inconsistencies and I’m also not sure if they work consistently with external sensors that aren’t Bosch, because these + Bosch sensors would probably be too expensive for me.
- Danfoss Ally: They seem to be the only company that actually advertises their noise level, which is a very big plus for me. But I’ve read very mixed things about this model in HA, ranging from great to awful, so I’m unsure what to make of that. Also, community exposure seems small and I didn’t read a lot about using them with external sensors from other companies (again, their own sensors being rather expensive).
- Homematic IP: build-wise they seem good and quiet, some of them even having a whisper mode. But using their proprietary standard would mean really high costs, especially because they don’t seem to work with sensors from other manufacturers.
- AVM Fritz: I own a Fritz!Box but these seem to defeat the purpose of using HA. Build quality seems pretty good but I didn’t look to far into them tbh, correct me if I’m wrong here.
I’m mostly drawn to Zigbee due to the open standard, but if any alternative is just flat-out better here, I would be willing to bite the bullet.
If possible I would love to make configuration not overly complex, but if that’s necessary to limit noise, I’d be willing to dive deeper into that. Obviously if I could just use them with Z2H relatively out-of-the-box, that would be the dream scenario. But I don’t expect that to be the reality.
Any input here would greatly be appreciated. I’m really sorry for this giant wall of text.
Thanks to anyone in advance.