Trying to decide between these two and can't really make up my mind. Anyone have any experience with both that can speak to the plus/minuses? Have a horror story to share or some deep insight? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
I have 4 of the GoControl GC-TBZ48, but have never owned the Centralite Pearl.
I got the GoControl for a few specific reasons that were important to my specific use case:
- Zwave Plus (good for reporting, and since it is Zwave I could easily write my own user driver to get access to additional config paraemters [see #2 below])
- Thermostat allows for updating the temperature reading bias/calibration number via zwave. I use this in a user app to control my thermostat off of a remote temperature indication. Basically (thermostat reading - other temperature reading) = bias applied to thermostat. Sometimes I control off of one room's temp, sometimes another room, sometimes an average temperature, etc.
- It supports minimum time ON, and minimum time OFF to prevent over cycling of the HVAC equipment. The ZTS thermostat I was using before did NOT have settings for this, and could cycle my unit ON/OFF multiple times PER MINUTE - very bad for the equipment.
- Price / availability.
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That is the one thing that I haven't been able to find that I'm surprised the Centralite doesn't have (or doesn't advertise) is the min run time or min off time. I thought that all digital stats had a min on and off time to prevent damage to your central air's compressor. I like the look of the Pearl but I'm leaning more towards the go-control now.
Do you find the go-control reports back it's operating state quickly? One of the main reasons I have my stat connect to HE at all is that i have all the fans in my house automated to help push the cold air around. The downstairs always cools faster, even with the vents downstairs closed, so i have a fan that helps push the cold air upstairs. But if the thermostat doesn't report back then that automation is pretty much useless.
One of the main reasons I'm looking at a local one is because of all the ecobee server outages recently. Won't do me much good if I can't talk to the damn thermostat.
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That part is very fast on the go control. I would expect it's probably similar on the Pearl.
I rely on the thermostat operating state for my vent automation, that's one of the reasons I had to switch from ecobee to something local.
Until recently, using the ecobee suite I got almost instantaneous reporting back on my ecobee. It worked great all last summer. Much better than on ST. But over the last 2 months it seems I get at least 10 emails a day from ecobee of reports of problems with their servers. SOOO annoying.
Also check out this one as well:
Think it looks better but there may be some issues with build quality.
I have 2 Pearls and am using one in battery mode in our den and one "C-wired" in our master bath both for floor heating. Not doing anything fancy yet but they work, and are responsive.
I saw the Remotec but it's only supported by a custom driver, correct? Trying to stay away from Custom code as much as possible.
I dunno I don't own one. I thought @JasonJoelOld / ?@JasonJoel? had one..
Nope...he already posted. Said he had 4 go control's.
I HAD 4 ZTS-500s.... But I got rid of them due to poor build quality, and the previously mentioned frequent cycling issue.
The no minimum on/off cycle times is what killed it for me. After I saw it cycle my hvac compressor 16 times in 10 minutes, I ripped them out the next day and threw them in the trash - I wouldn't even sell them and stick someone else with that mess.
So big thumbs DOWN on the zts-500.
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I'm glad I stuck with the Pearls then - really liked the look of the Remotec though - well as far as the amazon page goes. Thanks!!!
Yeah, the Pearl seems to be a good thermostat. The people I know with them like them. I just don't have any personal experience with them.
I really liked the LOOKS of the zts-500. I thought the dot matrix style display looked pretty cool. Too bad it was a poor technical design. That was an expensive mistake on my part.
Anyone know of any zwave/zigbee thermostat that supports variable (not 2 speed) compressor/fan speed control? Thinking these still don't exist yet?
I use the Go-Control Thermostat. I was doing some calibration settings and I was surprised to see that it doesn't drop a full degree before the heating kicks on. Does anyone else have some experience with that?
That's configurable within the Go-Control actually.
You can either set it from the basic z-wave tool or from the stat itself.
I saw that and mine is configured as what you show. It is not dropping a full degree before cycling on even. What seems to be more surprising is that from the advanced menu, there are no options for ½ degree settings. So, where is it picking that up from?
How do you know it is cycling in <1 Degree delta? The thermostat only reports in full degrees...
I assume you are using some external temperature sensor for the graph above?
Perhaps internally it is rounding to the nearest integer, so when temp gets to 67.4 vs setpoint of 68, it is rounding to 67 and turning on?
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