PSEG (the power/water company in NJ) has a sale these guys on sale. Which one of them works the best with home assistant? I did a bit of searching around, but it seems like all of them come with their own set of issues and its tough to find positive things if you search on here anyway. I’d like to hear your experiences.
Google Nest Learning Thermostat - $99
ecobee SmartThermostat With Voice Control - $99
ecobee3 Lite Wi-Fi Thermostat - $39
Honeywell Home T9 Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Sensor - $69.99
I have three Honeywell WiFi thermostats. All I can offer is one perspective based on that.
Yes, each option is a compromise. Some days I think it would be better to just build my own thermostat with a few relays and GPIO pins. But I understand that mass-market devices are going to be “dumbed down” for simplicity. Not to mention user support. So here’s my opinion of the Honeywells:
Cons: Cloud-based remote control. No user access to historical data (although I know they have it, because they send me a useless monthly report.) Some app features are not implemented in the HA integration, like “temporary hold” and the ability to modify schedules. HA pull requests are limited to about one every six minutes or so.
Pros: Very reliable HA integration available, with all the important functionality. Device makes no attempt to “learn” my habits; I set the schedule the way I want it. Vendor app is user friendly and reliable. Vendor app works as a backup to HA. Thermostat has advanced features beyond just “on” and “off.” For example, it has logic to try to limit the heating or cooling cycles to a set number of times per hour, rather than just come on at one temp and off at another. This helps with energy efficiency and comfort, and limits wear on mechanical parts. This is the sort of thing which is hard to implement in a home-grown solution.
Overall, I’m happy with this solution. It gives me everything I want, even though I’m a little wary of having any large corporation hoard my data or insert their servers between me and my local hardware.
I use an Ecobee 3 with two added remote sensors (total 3). Connection to HA is via the homekit_controller integration which uses only my local wifi network, not the internet. The result has been totally reliable and fast. I have no Apple gear and none was needed for setup. The ecobee devices are still connected over the Internet to the Ecobee Servers for updates and their other services. So I have App access even if HA were down.
We have an enclosed porch with radiant electric heat for occasional use in cold weather. One of the three ecobee remote sensors is used with the HA generic thermostat integration to control the radiant heater. A simple automation uses the “occupancy” part of the Ecobee remote sensor to cut off the heater if the porch remains unoccupied for an hour. This avoids a waste of electricity if we forget to turn off the heater.
Aeotec multisensor (in multiple places) to measure temperature. And a simple z-wave switch connected to the kettle. The rest is 100% HA. Works perfect. Integration is 100% local and works very well with other automations and stuff.
I would strongly caution against anything the power company is offering if it’s the same as my power company offering… big catch is they will control your thermostat and turn it up or down to save energy at peak use times. no thanks. I had a honeywell Model # RTH9585WF from home depot and when I unplugged my router from the modem, I had no wifi control. It is absolutely cloud dependent and doesn’t work without internet access at all. this is unacceptable for my cloudless smart home.
I replaced it with a Venstar T7850 from SupplyHouse.com and couldn’t be happier! NOT cloud dependent, developer api, this should be the official thermostat for HA! It also has great cloud interface OPTIONS for those that want it. My only issue is that I wish more development was done on the HA integration because there’s a ton of unused functionality available through the API. The stock install into HA took me (not a programmer) about 5 minutes total.
update: a year later and the venstar thermostat I was so thrilled with has been having intermittent trouble connecting to wifi. I am working on getting a replacement under the 1 year warranty from supplyhouse.com, so will see how this goes, but my previous glowing review has been changed to caution.
I would recommend ecobee, and integrate ecobee via HomeKit integration (as opposed to using ecobee integration - search the forum), and then you get local control.
Since we’re doing a one-year-later update, everything I wrote about the Honeywells, above, is still true. I’m actually coming around to liking this solution, even though I would have preferred something which didn’t rely on the manufacturer’s cloud and an internet connection.
The only update is that I found I could get away with a three-minute interval, not six, without being rate-limited by Honeywell. This is good news. Changes from the app being picked up by HA in a minute and a half, on average, isn’t bad, especially since I don’t use the app much.
Hi @CaptTom, I’m looking into setting up a honeywell RTH6580WF in a similar method to how you have it hence wanted to know if there are any specific documentation you followed? I search the HA site but only found the Honeywell Lyric integration steps.
The configuration was easy. It’s (sort of) documented here:
There’s still active development going on for this integration. Around version 2021.8 a new version was released, which introduced a couple of problems which were eventually (mostly) resolved. There are still some odd log entries, but the issue is being worked. Overall I’m still pretty happy with this integration.
I don’t use a calendar, sorry. venstar integration in ha is much better now than when I first started and can be added through the ha ui, instead of yaml only. there are new calendar triggers in the latest update that should make it easy to do through ha instead of using the venstar schedule feature.
