Anyone into smart home stuff?

xxdabroxx

xxdabroxx

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I'm looking into a new thermostat to replace my older Honeywell smart thermostat. I'm leaning towards a Ecobee 3 with a couple extra temperature sensors. My biggest issue with our current thermostat is its differential is too tight and it doesn't circulate enough air before the thermostat reaches the setpoint. It seems as though the model that I have is one of very few Honeywell thermostats that you cant change the differential temp. I've only got about 1000 sq. ft. of home and the heater only runs for a couple minutes before turning back off.

Does anyone have a nest or Ecobee? I know the nest has a 1 degree differential with 2 degree swings and I believe the ecobee is adjustable.

What other smart home things have you all installed? I've got a couple echo's and a smart outlet with a lamp plugged in.
 
I like our ecobee. It's simple to set and does a good job of maintaining. "Alexa, tell ecobee I'm cold" and she will warm it up 2 degrees until the next scheduled change at which point it resumes normal temps. The zone thing is actually pretty effective. It will maintain the temp in the bedroom while we sleep and ignore the temp in the living room. Also IFTT friendly.

I would say if you are invested in the Alexa system go ecobee and if you went with the Google system go nest.

Have a few smart plugs, ecobee, 4 dots and a cloud cam in our home.
 
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I've been using a Nest thermostat for the past 4 years, and I also have a smart garage door opener which allows me to open and close it from an app on my phone.
 
I haven't done any of the smart home stuff yet, but I'll probably start adopting some of it soon. The first thing I'll probably go for is a smart garage door opener because I've left my garage door open like an idiot while I'm at work or overnight more times than I'd like to admit.

I want to get a smart doorbell/camera, but I still really don't like the idea of having to rely on some company for storage and such. I'd really just rather have all the video stored on a hard drive at home with no one else accessing it, but I guess that makes it difficult to handle the remote access to view the live video when you're not at home.
 
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If I had a garage door that would be really high on my list.

So far one of my favorite smart home things is the Echo's and my Polk alexa enabled sound bar. I've made a house group and an everywhere group so I can play music either in the entire house or the house and my workshop. They sync surprisingly well and there isnt any lag between the devices.

I'd also like to get some relays to control more lighting so I could make a goodnight command that turns off the kitchen and living room lights when it's time for bed.
 
We have an Echo Dot, 4 smart plugs & a Nest. They all work well with Alexa. And recently I figured out that Alexa will change the TV channels on Dish with voice commands. I don't know how the hell that got setup but it works well too.
 
Airjunky said:
We have an Echo Dot, 4 smart plugs & a Nest. They all work well with Alexa. And recently I figured out that Alexa will change the TV channels on Dish with voice commands. I don't know how the hell that got setup but it works well too.
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The ecobee3 system is awesome! One of the best features is the remote sensors that you can have up to 24 of. I have four sensors that are about 1" square.
The remote temperature/motion sensors know what room your in by motion sensing and will keep those areas at the temperature set point. Also when it doesn't sense you're around it will automatically lower the temp to save energy. The Ecobee3 system has a ton of features and so simple after setting it up that you basically just go about life as normal and the Ecobee3 automatically adjusts when needed. I can't say enough good things about the Ecobee3.
 
flyinfish said:
The ecobee3 system is awesome! One of the best features is the remote sensors that you can have up to 24 of. I have four sensors that are about 1" square.
The remote temperature/motion sensors know what room your in by motion sensing and will keep those areas at the temperature set point. Also when it doesn't sense you're around it will automatically lower the temp to save energy. The Ecobee3 system has a ton of features and so simple after setting it up that you basically just go about life as normal and the Ecobee3 automatically adjusts when needed. I can't say enough good things about the Ecobee3.
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Don’t you need to have zones in order for that to work?
 
Apparition said:
Don’t you need to have zones in order for that to work?
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No, the only thing I did was name the sensors so you know where the sensors are.
You are the zone, since the sensors detect motion & knows where you are in the house.
 
flyinfish said:
No, the only thing I did was name the sensors so you know where the sensors are.
You are the zone, since the sensors detect motion & knows where you are in the house.
Click to expand...
So if the closest sensor is set to 70 but the other end of your house (Furthest) is set to 70 but only seeing 65, won’t it overheat the closest sensor to get the other one to it’s target?

If there’s someone in each room, who gets priority?

I realize that’s probably an extreme example
 
I have an ecobee 3 in my 950sqft condo and it’s great for being able to set temp deltas and schedules for different days. I don’t use the temp sensors with it so I can’t say anything about them.

If you’re into geeky data, you can download the temp data from your past from the website version of the thermostat controller. It’ll plot when the hvac is turning on/off and show indoor/outdoor temp and humidity. It’s nice to see when it’s kicking on and off during the day/night when you can’t really monitor it.
 
Apparition said:
So if the closest sensor is set to 70 but the other end of your house (Furthest) is set to 70 but only seeing 65, won’t it overheat the closest sensor to get the other one to it’s target?

If there’s someone in each room, who gets priority?

I realize that’s probably an extreme example
Click to expand...

Without having multiple heating/cooling units and/or electronically controlled dampers to control zones you will certainly not have the ability to have complete and precise control of temperature in separate rooms.
There will be obvious limitations by only having technically one zone.

Usually you won't have a five degree difference unless you have a room with a lot of sun load or a room without insulation. You can tell the system what sensors to use or not to use if you have one or more that you don't want to effect the rest.

I put an Ecobee3 and four sensors in my 96yr. old cousins three story house as well. The two upper floors are the living space and two sensors on each floor. He never touches the Ecobee3 and comes and goes quite a bit. He's also no stranger to complaining, yet I never have heard him say anything but positive comments.
 
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Apparition said:
Don’t you need to have zones in order for that to work?
Click to expand...
Yea, seems like you would need to have adjusting doors opening & closing your vents like a car of something. Our house has forced air, gas heat & AC. But the fan is either on in every room or not. We can open or close vents manually if we have a room that doesn't need to be heated or something but nothing automatic.
 
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Airjunky said:
Yea, seems like you would need to have adjusting doors opening & closing your vents like a car of something. Our house has forced air, gas heat & AC. But the fan is either on in every room or not. We can open or close vents manually if we have a room that doesn't need to be heated or something but nothing automatic.
Click to expand...
Need electrically actuated WiFi controlled vents
 
Equilibrium31 said:
I haven't done any of the smart home stuff yet, but I'll probably start adopting some of it soon. The first thing I'll probably go for is a smart garage door opener because I've left my garage door open like an idiot while I'm at work or overnight more times than I'd like to admit.

I want to get a smart doorbell/camera, but I still really don't like the idea of having to rely on some company for storage and such. I'd really just rather have all the video stored on a hard drive at home with no one else accessing it, but I guess that makes it difficult to handle the remote access to view the live video when you're not at home.
Click to expand...

Huge fan of Arduino & https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/
 
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I have two Ecobee 3 units in my house, one upstairs and one downstairs for the two different zones. The room sensors can be setup so it uses or ignores them for different setups. My house is about 150 years old, 2400 square feet, so the temps can vary wildly in different rooms based on size and insulation in the room. Being able to focus on a single sensor, or average between multiples is really nice. My upstairs thermostat is not in a good location to determine the temps for the four bedrooms, so with the room sensors, it can average the temp over all of them, some of them, or a single one. Makes it easy to make sure that one room that is way colder than the rest is warm, or can be ignored so as not to overheat the rest of the rooms.
I found mine on special at Home Depot with three sensors included with the thermostat. They were about $75 cheaper than Amazon for each set. Also, check with your local electric company, there may be rebates for switching to a smart thermostat.
 
Equilibrium31 said:
I haven't done any of the smart home stuff yet, but I'll probably start adopting some of it soon. The first thing I'll probably go for is a smart garage door opener because I've left my garage door open like an idiot while I'm at work or overnight more times than I'd like to admit.
Click to expand...

I have a MyQ WiFi garage door opener by Chamberlain that is great for not leaving the garage door open, like I had on occasion been known to do as well. This particular opener has a battery backup that opens the door if you lose power. The opener pad in garage has motion sensing for light and also temperature.
Now onto the Smart part.
You can setup your opener to notify you when left open for however many minutes you select. It also will close by itself after a chosen amount of time. I like it because you can see if it's open or closed as well as open and close it from anywhere.
MyQ Garage Door Opener 1-1/4hp

They do make a standalone MyQ hub and smartphone control that can be installed on virtually all garage door openers since 2000. They were $15-20 but now a little higher. I installed this at another location.
MyQ Hub & Smartphone Control


One more Smart Home item is the front door having the ability to lock automatically and no key needed. I use the Schlage Connect and it's been a great change from the standard keyed entry.
 
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flyinfish said:
I have a MyQ WiFi garage door opener by Chamberlain that is great for not leaving the garage door open, like I had on occasion been known to do as well. This particular opener has a battery backup that opens the door if you lose power. The opener pad in garage has motion sensing for light and also temperature.
Now onto the Smart part.
You can setup your opener to notify you when left open for however many minutes you select. It also will close by itself after a chosen amount of time. I like it because you can see if it's open or closed as well as open and close it from anywhere.
Garage Door Opener 1-1/4hp

They do make a standalone MyQ hub and smartphone control that can be installed on virtually all garage door openers since 2000. They were $15-20 but now a little higher. I installed this at another location.
MyQ Hub & Smartphone Control


One more Smart Home item is the front door having the ability to lock automatically and no key needed. I use the Schlage Connect and it's been a great change from the standard keyed entry.
Click to expand...
x2 on the MyQ garage door opener system. Its the only smart home device I have but it has come in handy for when I cant remember if I left it open, when I did leave it open, when a neighbor wants to borrow a tool when I'm not home or I if need to unexpectedly let someone in to let the dog out.
 
ejay said:
I'll be that guy....

My phone and my employer spy on me enough as it is. Like hell I'm going allow my home to join the club. 😁
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I'm with you, I don't do Alexa or any of the other voice items. I also don't do any inside cameras.
 
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