Smart Thermostats

[agulati]

Anyone else have the E103 error ever show up on their nest thermostat?

[TSXCman]

Anyone aware of a smart or a programmable thermostat that works in trailers? I'm in a 2020 5th wheel for the year and manually managing cold and hot for many reasons is a pain. Would be great to set temp limits to switch from AC to fan to furnace automatically.

[chedder]

I put the basic nest thermostats in both my office and home so that I could monitor that cold snap last Christmas while we were away and set warning alarms. Worked like a charm. I find it perfect for my needs. I can set fan schedules, the airwave feature for a/c is cool as it turns off condenser a little early to save power. I don't use any fancy features like occupancy sensing as people come and go throughout the day too much. Happy with them so far and they were cheap, like $150 each and were pretty simple to hook up.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by agulati

Anyone else have the E103 error ever show up on their nest thermostat?

Never ran into that one. I looked it up and it says that the wiring might be done incorrectly at the HVAC level. Something might be shorted and the Nest is super sensitive to it.

I ended up with a Nest that had a W5/M15 and TD004 error because all of the networking stuff in it shorted out somehow. Google was being an ass, but finally conceded in sending me a replacement... in the wrong color, TWICE. I hope you don't have to get a replacement or repair because it was a pain to deal with Google.

Originally Posted by TSXCman

Anyone aware of a smart or a programmable thermostat that works in trailers? I'm in a 2020 5th wheel for the year and manually managing cold and hot for many reasons is a pain. Would be great to set temp limits to switch from AC to fan to furnace automatically.

I think it depends what type of heating do your 5th wheel uses. Then you can start figuring out if it's compatible.

[taxbuster]

There is zero chance that I would put ANY cloud-based t-stat (or any other device) on my home network without it being on a separate IoT VLAN. Far too much opportunity for companies to use/steal/my data and too many openings for random hackers.

My approach has been different. I use Home Assistant which is on an RPi4 and is all "local push"...using ZWave or Zigbee - no Internet connection required. All "local". Remote access via VPN to the home. The couple of devices which must have a cloud connection are on the same IoT network with DNS that prevents outcalls to unknown locations (using PiHole).

Paranoid? Not so much: many cams and other units have been hacked due to crappy (often Chinese, but not exclusively) devices. In the US there are people who have electric company-supplied devices. Guess what happened in heat spells? They got "controlled" by the electric company. Google as a provider? No thanks....not with what they can do with my data.

I'd think long and hard about setup of any cloud-connected device including, but not limited to: my name (fake), email address used (isolated from any other), password (unique), address (fake), phone number (sms via VoIP provider). etc.

Not paranoid, but having been in IT / tech for a long time, I don't trust anybody and set things up (as best I can) to future-proof my network.

Just one crazy guy's approach.

[EldrickOnIce]

Probably quite a bit more likely someone kicks in my door and steals the smart tstat off the wall than hacking into network to steal my home's heating/cooling data.
While I understand this type of 'data theft' is possible I lack the requisite ego necessary to believe I'm important enough for them to be interested in me.

[topfiverecords]

If someone hacks in to my network and then subsequently my thermostat to know I keep my house at 20 degrees all the power to em.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

If someone hacks in to my network and then subsequently my thermostat to know I keep my house at 20 degrees all the power to em.

What if they know you are away and turn it off in the dead of winter?

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Probably quite a bit more likely someone kicks in my door and steals the smart tstat off the wall than hacking into network to steal my home's heating/cooling data.
While I understand this type of 'data theft' is possible I lack the requisite ego necessary to believe I'm important enough for them to be interested in me.

They're not interested in your tstat and its data: they are interested in your identity and your money. And any others to which you have access.

And the likeliehood of someone stealing your data is FAR higher than kicking in your door frankly. This area of personal security is HIGHLY underrated in the general public unfortunately. (There's another whole thread there.)

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

What if they know you are away and turn it off in the dead of winter?

I can't imagine going through life in fear of that.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

What if they know you are away and turn it off in the dead of winter?

Those are people who just want to watch the world burn. You cannot protect nor negotiate with crazy people like that and it's unlikely you'd legitimately run into someone like this. The thermostat also has "safe temperatures (min and max)" built in, so you can't set it to literally be completely off without frying the unit on purpose to accomplish that.

Hackers are typically trying to make a buck. On a smart thermostat, you pull it off the wall, reset to factory settings and you're in the clear. It's not like you'd be held hostage for irreplaceable files they've encrypted.

Now here's the thing. If stuff failed in the middle of winter, with a smart thermostat, you could figure that out from your device. Without a smart thermostat, you wouldn't know anyways. Smart devices are awesome for self monitoring when you're away and it's fine to cut corners since you have them, but it probably shouldn't completely replace those 48-72 hour physical checks of your home.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Ha. welcome to home ownership. Lol
Humidifier filter should be changed start of every season. You only operate humidifier with heat cycle of furnace. Although AB winters are dry, take care in keeping it low enough to not get condensation on windows. The colder it is outside, the lower the humidity needs to be to avoid condensation on windows.
Good luck, and don't #### it up!

Heh, this isn't even my house, it's my mom's. But honestly, I don't think she knew any of this #### either

[Jimmy Stang]

Bumping this thread (two years later!) because there are Black Friday sales (Amazon and other retailers) on the Ecobee thermostats. Ecobee Premium is currently $250, and the "enhanced" is $190. Those are pretty decent prices and are lower than normal.

I picked up the Ecobee Premium last week and I am enjoying it so far. I went from a "dumb" 7-day programmable Honeywell that did the job just fine, but I wanted a bit more control and insight. For anyone that uses Ecobee, I strongly recommend using the "Beestat" site (https://app.beestat.io/) for additional statistics and a better web UI than the stock Ecobee site.

[Hemi-Cuda]

FYI, the new Google Nest finally supports Matter, which means it can connect directly to HomeKit, Home Assistant, and any number of other automation hubs without having to jump through Google cloud hoops. It's on sale on Amazon too for only $130

https://www.amazon.ca/Google-Nest-Th...dp/B09TX6PV4Z/