I recently got an offer from my gas company for a free Ecobee 3 lite wifi thermostat. I hadn't realized that this Wifi thermostat worked with Hubitat through Hubitat's Ecobee built in app. My Gocontrol thermostat has been rock solid using bcopeland's driver BUT the Ecobee's modern design has me thinking. Looking for anyone's thoughts of switching to the Ecobee 3 lite thermostat. Basically with Gocontrol , I use Hubitats thermostat app for adjusting temperature when mode changed to away. Also use the schedule feature and using a virtual device to work with Alexa.
I have a Bryant Housewise thermostat that came with my furnace, which is made by Ecobee. Even the HE Ecobee integration works on it.
I prefer to do the scheduling on the Ecobee app because it works fine, and sometimes the Ecobee goes off line which would keep HE from controlling it. I mainly use the HE integration to control "Away" mode on the thermostat when HE mode is Away and resume programming when returning.
I also replaced an ecobee3 with z-wave thermostat. I think they're reasonably good thermostats. About a year ago they had a whole slew of cloud outages which prompted me to move away from them.
Looks like Plain Jane Gocontrol it is lolo. No contest when it comes to Modern look vs rock solid performance. I'll take rock solid any day. Thanks to all.
I recently swapped out my goControl for another RadioThermostat. Both Z-Wave. The RadioThermostat has a humidity sensor. The GoControl eats batteries, even with the C wire connected.
I agree with Jason, per Gocontrol manual , if you're using a "C" wire, your not suppose to use batteries also.. They're not in there as a backup. I original used batteries which would last only 2 weeks, if that. Then i switched an installed a "C" wire and removed the batteries and it's working great ever since. You may even say it's rock solid lolo
interesting, mine didn't power up with just the C wire, so I put batteries back in it. I thought I also read somewhere that they were finicky on C-wire voltage level?
I replaced two Nest thermostats (after one failed) with a pair of Ecobee3 Lite thermostats. They have been extremely reliable for me, regardless of the Ecobee Cloud. Since I let the thermostat handle all scheduling, which happens locally, there is no real dependency of the Ecobee cloud for anything except the Ecobee App on your phone, and the Hubitat Ecobee integration. I use the Ecobee app to tweak temperature settings when my family complains...and I use the Hubitat integration simply to collect data and log it to InfluxDB/Grafana. This has been very reliable for my needs. I also like that the Ecobee3 Lite supports Apple HomeKit, which can actually control the Ecobee using a local communications API (i.e. no cloud required).
You have to make sure you do a factory reset . https://youtu.be/DjfTYF4jnVs . Also in setting make sure its not set to battery usage. Then repair it in Hubitat so the old battery setting is removed and now registers it on the "c" wire. I did this, removed the batteries and its been working great with just the C wire and no batteries.
You can't use the Hubitat thermostat app can you to set a schedule? Or do you set the schedule in the ecobee app which i would imagine is controlled by wifi and therefore if Wi-Fi goes down your schedule is affected. Really confused what is and what isn't controlled by Wi-Fi in regards to Ecobee.
I have never used Hubitat's Thermostat scheduler app. I personally believe the thermostat should handle temperature control of my house independently of all other systems. If Hubitat goes down, I don't want my home's HVAC system compromised in any way.
The Ecobee and Nest thermostats do NOT rely on their cloud servers or WiFi in any way, once they are set up to use their internal scheduling. All of that happens internally, locally to the thermostat. If you want to remotely configure or monitor these thermostats, then yes the WiFi and Cloud infrastructures must be up and running for their respective mobile phone apps to be able to communicate with the thermostats. I have personally never 'noticed' an Ecobee cloud outage in the ~6 months I have been using them. But again, I really rarely fire up the Ecobee app on my phone, and Hubitat does not control my thermostats. I only use Hubitat to collect data and log it.
It really all depends on your needs and desires. I personally looked long and hard at the Lux KONOz Zigbee thermostat (as I prefer Zigbee over Z-Wave.) However, I wanted to be able to remotely control my thermostat independently of Hubitat. The Ecobee3 Lite affords me three way to do this - Ecobee App, Apple HomeKit, and Hubitat's integration. With a Z-Wave or Zigbee thermostat, you are 100% dependent on Hubitat for remote control of the thermostat.
FANTASTIC! Thank you so much for your detailed information. Its cleared up many of my concerns. May i just ask one further question. With the Hubitat ecobee app ,what further integrations does it give me? Again many thanks. Tony
You can use Hubitat's Ecobee integration to add the thermostat to a Hubitat Dashboard. You can turn off the HVAC when doors/windows have been open for too long. You can use Hubitat 'Presence' devices to change the thermostat's behavior. Some folks use weather data to adjust how their thermostat is going to behave.
You can use wit with the Hubitat Thermostat Scheduler app. Some people get sophisticated using other temperature sensors in their home to try and make a smarter control algorithm.
Personally, I set a schedule in the thermostat and leave it to do its job. My needs are simple.
I completely understand the desire for 100% local control (via Z-Wave, Zigbee, or LAN) between Hubitat and Thermostats, especially if one is attempting the types of things I mentioned above. In many of those cases, reliance on a cloud solution adds too much risk of failure.
Thanks again! Basically once my schedule is set, i dont touch it other than to possibly raise or lower the temperature manually for a short period of time. The other option I've used with Hubitat's thermostat app was to adjust the temperature when i leave and the Hubitat mode is set to AWAY, which i can also do with a simple rule in rule machine. Sounds like, as you've stated ,the Ecobee 3 lite gives many options both WITH and WITHOUT Hubitat intergration.
