Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
Let us know how you like it. I've been looking for dynamic programmable thermostats but can't decide which one.
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I originally bought the Ecobee4 when I saw it on Slickdeals.net (where I find 90% of the things I buy) and intended it for my rental house. It's unoccupied much of the time, so I figured it made sense to have room occupancy determine if the schedule should run or not.
Since I moved into a house that has both gas heat and AC, I figured I'd just install the new stat here, though I don't want the built in Alexa. There was also something like a $50 utility rebate I received for purchasing it.
Installing the hardware was a breeze. The C (common 24v) wire was sitting in the wall not being used. It was also not hooked up on the control board of the air handler, but stripping the end and connecting it at both the thermostat and air handler ends was simple. 15 minutes to change out the old stat with new.
The horrid part was getting the dam app to work. The t-stat said it connected properly to wifi and registered with Ecobee servers, but the app on my iPhone was asking for the code that was displayed on the Ecobee to pair it. The app wouldn't accept the code saying it was invalid. Online troubleshooting talked about menu items that didn't exist on my Ecobee. Rebooting the T-stat and uninstalling/reinstalling the app didn't help. About 2 hours later I found some obscure and unmentioned menu item on the Ecobee to unregister the device, then run through the setup again which was successful.
I can confirm that simply running the fan and mixing upstairs/downstairs air goes a long way to keeping the upper level cooler, and the lower level warmer. It heated up a couple degrees in the 20 minutes my air handler wasn't running.
There's a couple remote sensors too that can signal heating/cooling to come on. Wish there was a setting that simply ran the blower if the temperature difference between upstairs and downstairs exceeded some limit. At least I can monitor the temperatures and turn the fan on with the app.
Haven't had the unit long enough to say how well I like the other features. Supposedly it works with IFTTT, though I don't know much about that, and I think there's an associated fee.
If I can find an Ecobee3, I'll install that instead, and move the 4 to my rental so they can play with Alexa if they want.