I'm pretty much still a novice in the whole smart home thing. I got everything I had working just fine and now I leave my C-8 pretty much alone. It's not set up for me to remote control it outside the home (I don't do that for my servers either.) But recently I got mail from Google that my Nest Thermostat is being sunset in October.
I never had established a connection from my hub to the Nest, again it worked fine and did what I wanted, didn't mind a separate phone app for it. But now that Google pushed the issue, and I'm trying to ween myself off their devices (they tend to stop support for things I've been using) it might be time to revisit this with respect to a new device that connects to my hub.
So, two kind of broad questions: 1) What would the benefit be given I don't open the hub up for outside access? And 2) any recommendation on manufacturer and models here? (A friend recommended a Honeywell "Total Comfort Control" but I haven't looked into it.)
That's a hard question to address. I guess the only thing I can think of right now is setting up schedules - if your lifestyle is amenable to that.
I personally use geofencing to set home/away temperatures on my thermostat, but that would not be applicable in your use case.
I like ecobee thermostats. If you have a C-8 Pro, they can be paired directly to Hubitat, using the new HomeKit Controller integration.
Nest thermostat expat here. I went with Honeywell T6 Pro 2007. not the older 2003. Connects right up to hubitat through z-wave. Has AA cell battery backup. No cloud or integration required. Once I got up to speed on it, the thing is working well.
Oh and while I was at it, I wrote Rules in Rule Machine to do filter change reminder, Set or Clear Eco Mode when I am away, and set the HVAC to off when smoke is detected. Extended the thermostat and eco mode to a dashboard for easy remote control too. Oh and no more bugs about signing up for "Peak Savings" from the utility.
I might try that this winter (heat only here).
Thinking of burning up those 8 tons of pellets I have in the basement in the pellet boiler...while I can still, hopefully, lift them, lol.
Of course, I'll have to figure out geofence, lolx2.
It was spotty with the iPhone for arrival sensing for gate/garage-I think iPhone's power management on 16e was to blame.
You'd want more of a lead time and intelligence to say you're on your way home, so bump up the heat (hydronic baseboard emitters) when you're on your way home and an hour away. Perhaps an Apple Maps / Home integration, lol.
I like my Garmin, but I have no idea what they're offering nowadays. It would be nice to have traffic alerts, at the least, never mind HomeKit integration.
Not to drag this thread off topic, or anything. 
Yeah, I've gotten those. Something about letting the utility manipulate my thermostat? That just sounded evil.
What they sell is not always what they deliver. Stories from California's many power emergencies had testified that their thermostat was adjusted "a few degrees" to 80 f. But when the home owners attempted a manual override, as was promised they would be able too at signup, they were astonished to discover the higher setting was locked in until the power emergency had passed.
Cooling the house down while an effective time away is what the dashboard tile was for. We only get one geo fence. Mine is considerably smaller.
