Bad battery life with GoControl TBZ48

Hey all,

long time listener....

I have a bunch of those GoControl tstats around the house. One is wired into the furnace and each room has a battery-powered one. Works a treat, and I got them dirt-cheap at the time, so I figured why not go that route.

Out of the bunch I have three that simply eat through their batteries, even fresh Lithium AA do not last more than a week.

I could rustle up a PSU and simply go that route (and might), but since I have 9 more that don't exhibit this behavior I'd like to see what may cause this. What would you look for? Bad mesh? How do I diagnose that? Bad location? Bad logic board? Am open for suggestions.

Thanks,
Martin

I would save yourself a lot of trouble and use an adapter.. I have a similar setup with a thermostat in every room..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GBY89WP

If you perform inclusion while on battery power alone, will they still route zwave traffic? (I'm assuming they shouldn't...)

No.. They shouldn’t.. If included with power, they become a repeater, otherwise they are LSS (Listening Sleepy Slaves)

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That sounds dirty! :rofl:

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Yeah, was looking at those. Comes with 25ft of wire if I am reading this right, plenty for my use. Now I just need to make that look good. Marking this as solution, I guess.

To clarify my setup: the HVAC in my late-80s house is hideously unbalanced. Fixing that would mean a complete do-over. Active vents (Keen) to the rescue: each room has its own tstat, RM and Simple State Machine control the HVAC and vents. Basically, tstat op state determines individual vent opening and each room is able to call for heat (and later cooling) when needed. I also added circulation while I was at it. The house has never been this comfortable! I'm in US-CO, by the way.

Cheers,
Martin

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