Honeywell t6 should do it, I have three zwave version
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A single-stage air conditioner’s compressor only works at one level of operation, cooling your home at full blast. A two-stage air conditioner’s compressor works at two levels of operation and is more efficient. Aux heat has nothing to do with 2-stage
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I have an Ecobee and have been very pleased. Same setup as yours
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Same here. Same Heat Pump setup as well. I like fact that the Ecobee thermostats have built-in HomeKit support as well. Nice to have options!
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Which Ecobee model do you guys have? Is that z-wave, and how is the battery life? Will it last for 6 month? Is the connection to the hub stable?
Thanks - How's the battery life on that one, and is the hub connection stable?
EDIT: Ignore this question please, I was just educated that it can use the 24V wire instead of the battery.
Never ran it on battery. I have yet to see it drop.
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You should get a thermostat that is powered by the 24VAC transformer in the air-handler/furnace. Like the Honeywell recommended by @napalmcsr, or the ecobee.
Then get a mechanical thermostat installed in parallel at the furnace, so even if your smart thermostat fails, the mechanical backup will prevent a freeze.
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My bad, I did not realize how it works. I knew my dumb Honeywell thermostat had batteries, but I did not realize they must be for backup purposes only... I just took them out and it still works. Never mind then, my battery question is moot.
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Still recommend a pure mechanical thermostat installed at the furnace as a failsafe backup.
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Ecobee 3 Lite is what I use. They do not use any batteries as they are powered via the HVAC 24VAC power supply. They are WiFi connected devices. The connection to Hubitat is via a cloud connection.
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Help me understand this point, does Ecobee come with its own cloud and app (for free I assume), and how do you connect it to Hubitat, is it via IFTTT or something else?
What's the benefit here as opposed to a zwave/zigbee thermostat that you connect locally to HE? Is it because the thermostat native cloud app provides additional functionality that is not available through HE?
There's a nice suite of tools for managing Ecobee with Hubitat:
The Ecobee are also pretty smart devices on their own so they don't need as much integration if you just want the basics. They don't just turn on and off on a schedule, they can also monitor humidity to maximize comfort and do eco+ to try to save you money. You can turn the sensors into presence sensors and have them de-prioritize areas you're not using. Lots of smarts built into the device / app / service that you don't have to build yourself.
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I have a newer ecobee thermostat, model 4. It is integrated with HE but generally operates independently, though I do use some mode changes to trigger setbacks. I have cast iron steam radiator heat, which I absolutely love. The downside is no zones, so the heat is either on or off. In a 4 story house it gets a bit tough to balance the heat. I have maybe 8 Ecobee temperature sensors scattered around the house. All in all it does a great job, and the temperature never varies by more than a couple degrees throughout the house. Their cloud service has generally been pretty solid, and it is not needed for actually running the thermostat, which is a plus. The integration to HE has also been solid though it does rely on the cloud.
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Yes, as other have mentioned above, Ecobee has its own app for your phone/tablet, and has its own cloud servers. Hubitat's built-in integration connects directly to the Ecobee cloud server.
Again, as other have mentioned above, Ecobee does a very good job of maintaining temperature control throughout my house. I replaced two Nest thermostats with Ecobee, and I am much happier with the comfort level of our home. I like that Ecobee can be integrated with Hubitat, and that it also works natively with HomeKit. I like having lots of options for integration, while having the system fully functional on its own.
I have taken the same approach with all of my lighting in the house. It is all integrated with Hubitat, but my Lutron Caseta and Philips Hue lighting 'subsystems', are both best in class solutions on their own. And they both offer numerous integration possibilities, including Hubitat and HomeKit.
I use Hubitat to coordinate and tie these systems together, and to enhance the functionality of the overall system. This has worked well for my specific requirements, and ensure that I have numerous options available in the future.
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What he said.
There are also some critical systems that I really like to remain independent though linked. Should I run into a HE problem that lasts for a couple days I can do without the automation (though I might be fumbling around a lot), but heat and security are two I like to keep independent (though linked).
I do wish there was HE integration with Total Connect 2.0 (security). Their implementation of IFTTT isn't stable and there is zero support for it.
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Question: is it HE provided and supported integration with these cloud thermostats, or 3rd party integration? I like my critical devices to be officially supported by HE, as opposed to custom code by HE enthusiasts (no offence!)
I do understand the separate best in class solutions approach. I've taken the same with my camera system, but I'm trying to stay locally as much as I can with everything else to keep it simple. The independent cloud is an advantage when HE goes down, on the other hand, if the other vendor has a poor record of their cloud uptime you run into the same problem on the other end. Also, there are always concerns about the other vendor starting charging cloud subscriptions in the future, or even getting acquired or going out of business (I'm a former IRIS user.... had 3 months deadline to get off the system before the lights out...)
Hubitat has an ecobee integration because ecobee has a published API for access that is used by every company that has an ecobee integration.
This integration is extremely unlikely to disappear unless ecobee comes up with unpublished breaking changes in their API or goes out of business. Those are not likely possibilities.
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