High Tech Thermostat - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

bomber317 · 10-25-2011, 09:43 AM

Was reading this article

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20...f-home-energy/

A new thermostat designed by on of the engineers that worked on the iPod.

www.nest.com

I'm personally excited to see if my heating system is compatible with it.

fundmark19 · 10-25-2011, 10:10 AM

Why wouldn't your heating system be compatible? It is just a programmable thermostat that programs itself?

bomber317 · 10-25-2011, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Why wouldn't your heating system be compatible? It is just a programmable thermostat that programs itself?

Needs to be low-voltage. So I need to see what wires are running in the back of my current thermostat when I get home.

Who knows when they will come out with a Celcius display though.

fundmark19 · 10-25-2011, 10:29 AM

Since its all software based you would think they could get that done easily. But we all know how Americans work.

sclitheroe · 10-25-2011, 10:41 AM

It knows the forecast temperatures for the week, and also detects motion to help identify deviations from a rigid programming schedule. That's pretty neat.

bomber317 · 10-25-2011, 10:59 AM

Also like the fact that it has an accurate thermometer in it. Some articles were saying the non-mercury thermostats have errors of up to 4-5 degrees.

Russic · 10-25-2011, 11:27 AM

I want one badly. It's damn expensive ($250), but if the stats on the site are to be believed it would pay for itself in 2 years.

bomber317 · 10-25-2011, 01:38 PM

Looks pretty basic for what it can actually do.

I wonder how long before people program their own displays.

kermitology · 10-25-2011, 01:57 PM

Does it still serve a purpose when you have geothermal heating? Because I still want it.

fundmark19 · 10-25-2011, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kermitology

Does it still serve a purpose when you have geothermal heating? Because I still want it.

Well if you finish folding all of your cranes I will talk to your twitter following and maybe we can pitch in for one for your wedding gift

SebC · 10-25-2011, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Instead of pulling out an owner's manual, people simply use the Learning Thermostat by turning a familiar dial to change the temperature. After a few days, or a week at most, it will know the household schedule and create a suitable program.

I wonder how it would respond to the thermostat wars that take place in some households.

QuadCityImages · 10-25-2011, 11:29 PM

I want this. However, our thermostat is currently located in a room we rarely go in, so I don't know how well its learning features would work. Even so, $250 for a classy looking net-connected thermostat isn't that bad...

Bill Bumface · 10-25-2011, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomber317

Also like the fact that it has an accurate thermometer in it. Some articles were saying the non-mercury thermostats have errors of up to 4-5 degrees.

That explains my house.

21 can mean cooking or freezing. My thermostat is good on the features, bad on the keeping the house comfortable. This thing knowing the weather would help the situation a lot!

SebC · 10-26-2011, 01:19 AM

It's good to know that when Skynet decides the time is right, it has both the options of cooking us and freezing us.

bomber317 · 10-26-2011, 08:52 AM

I can't wait for the Sleep Gas option for the kids room to come out.

Old Yeller · 10-26-2011, 10:00 AM

We have a house with two different programmable thermostats and two furnaces. It works quite well because we only heat certain floors depending on the time of day. It's a nice setup already that I don't see the value of this product. Also considering the location of our thermostats, the motion sensor seems a little gimmicky to me.

Other than the net connectivity and the overall look of them, I don't get the impression there's much difference between these and your simple programmable thermostats.

Russic · 10-26-2011, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

I want this. However, our thermostat is currently located in a room we rarely go in, so I don't know how well its learning features would work. Even so, $250 for a classy looking net-connected thermostat isn't that bad...

You'd just have to be very active for the week in changing it throughout the day. Once you do that you'd be set for the whole season until winter/summer arrived.

THE SCUD · 10-26-2011, 10:16 AM

Interesting.

I have the cheap-but-effective Filtrete by 3M Wifi-connected thermostat.

It was less than $100 shipped from the US (not sold here, AFAIK). I checked my home temperature from Paris a few weeks ago and ensured that things were good temp-wise at home (to avoid burst pipes, etc if it got cold back home).

it's essentially a programmable thermostat that you can adjust from your iphone or android device.

I find it great on those lazy days when I want to get out of bed and it's cold, I jsut reach over, grab my phone and add some heat, doze for 20 minutes and then boom, it's hot and I want to get out of bed. Nice alarm clock that forces you out of bed at 5 or 6am, heat is

It's also nice that my wife doesn't have to yell down for me to increase the temperature (what is it about wives that they're always cold?) she can just do it form her iphone.

Web connected thermostat is A+++++ ebayer.

Only slight downfall is the wifi uses some pwoer, so you need a dedicated C-wire (12V source). That was easy, as my wires behnd the wall had a bunch of unused wires coming up so I connected the C wire on the thermostat and at the furnace and boom, power.

REDVAN · 10-27-2011, 03:40 AM

Well... if the apple guy designed it then it MUST be good...

PIMking · 10-27-2011, 05:41 PM

I've got a wifi thermostat my house. That thing is great, if I leave out of town like for the Florida game I left the ac on. Simple change and i was able to change it from my phone. When we went to Indiana we had contractors doing the tile in the kitchen and I kept turning it back to 80 because they were turning it down to 60. Saving me loads of cash