Thermostats proven to work with HG?

[Fmstrat]

Hi all,

Does anyone have a recommendation on which Z-wave thermostat to purchase? I was looking at both of the below models but want to be sure I pick up something that should work fairly easily with HG out of the box:

• http://www.amazon.com/Remotec-ZTS-110-Z-Wave-Smart-Thermostat/dp/B00KSITI20
• http://www.amazon.com/2gig-CT100-Z-Wave-Programmable-Thermostat/dp/B008CQ4V3Q

Would either of those work? I read in another thread that the CT100 had some issues with heat and cooling being two separate variables and confusing HG, but that was an old thread.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[bkenobi]

I'm also interested in moving to a smart thermostat.  I have a Honeywell model now that has a variant including WiFi (and apparently Wink) support.  I'm trying to figure out what these smart thermostats expose to the user.  Are you limited to reading the current temp and setting the desired temp?  Or, can you also read the various settings such as wake/bed times and temperatures?  Most importantly to me, I need to know what the outside temperature is and ideally the heat pump lock out temperature.  I'm most interested in being able to see these types of values so I can tweak the set point when it gets too cold to use my heat pump.

[kevin1]

I'm looking too, seems like ct100 is the most common from what I have seen.  I thought I have seen it used here with hg as well, but now I don't see much with search.  ordered zstick gen5 finally so looking forward to getting some zwave going!

[bkenobi]

I have a Honeywell now and was hoping to use the 8500 series model, but it appears that unit may requie connecting through their service.  I don't like that idea, so I may go with the CT50/80/100.

[kevin1]

Hi bkenobi, (and others?),

Did you get a thermostat yet, are you finding it to be useful?  The only use case I see it really helping would be when returning from vacation I could set the heat/AC to comfortable temp an hour before we return.  Typically our exising thermostat is set to one temp during summer or winter.  Spring and fall it gets turned off if doors/windows are open.

The various color display thermostats like Nest/Ecobee/Honeywell are tempting and look very cool, but my thermostat is in a very infrequently used dining room.  I don't want to pay $200+ for something I rarely see :-)  And they aren't zwave.

I'm still considering CT100, it is top of the amazon "zwave thermostat" search and only $80.  Will this satisfy all potential use cases?

Thanks!

[bkenobi]

I picked up several thermostats to test since my local HD carried them (either in store or free delivery).  The ones I looked at were the Honeywell 8500 WiFi, CT50 WiFi, and Honeywell TH8320ZW. 

The WiFi Honeywell seemed nice, but it only exposes the basic user interface elements to WiFi and they intend you to use it through their web site/cloud service.  I found an API on GitHub that would make it work locally without using the cloud but did not test it.  This model was not compatible with my specific furnace setup.

The CT50 seemed to be better as far as what was exposed to WiFi and had a good local API so you could work with it directly out of the box.  It did not have a cloud service or anything so if you want to connect from a phone, you would have to figure out network settings.  This thermostat was missing some critical settings and features for my furnace so it would not work.

The ZWave Honeywell was suggested as a working option for my furnace from Honeywell tech support but was missing a couple lines in the end.  I do not have ZWave so I cannot say for sure if it would/would not work with HG.  It has documentation in the PepperOne database so I assume that it would work with HG.  It still only exposes certain items to ZWave, but the things it doesn't seem to be missing from that thermostat (compared to mine) anyway.

For reference, I currently have the non-connected version of the ZWave model (TH8320U) and it works quite well out of the box.  It is a touch model that is monochrome (green/black) rather than the fancy LCD models.  The model I have cost <$100 when purchased versus >$200 for the WiFi or ZWave version at the time.  Today, the ZWave version can be had for ~$150 and the 8500 WiFi is $100 at HD (sale price).  I plan on getting the TH8320WF which is a WiFi enabled version identical to my current thermostat.  If I get it, I will use the following API on GitHub to communicate and link it to HG.

https://github.com/dattas/smartthings_radio_thermostat

This API may work with other model thermostats but having never tested it, I'm not sure it will work with the Honeywell even.  Other comments indicate success.