They're great for remote access and maybe for your savings

Oct 11, 2014 09:50 GMT  ·  By

The new El Dorado of the tech world seems to be “the internet of things,” but it’s not exactly clear what that means… Or was it wearable tech? We’re not sure.

Do we really need a fridge that can automatically order food for us or a light bulb that can be controlled by an app?

Here come the thermostats! Google acquired Nest Labs for just… $3.2 billion (€2.53 billion), hoping to have a foot in this world.

I remember my first thermostat. It was a simple knob used to set the desired room temperature and it was great for that time! The second one was a model that allowed me to create numerous temperature schedules, but for this I needed to consult the manual each time I wanted to make a modification. It was very annoying to set up, the kind of thing that makes you wish you had grand-children to set it up for you. After all that work, I ended up using only two buttons: Day and Night.

My third thermostat had two large, +/- buttons for temperature and the same annoying manual, but it was wireless. This meant that I could not use it on the first floor, because of the limited radio range.

I'm a tech-loving guy, so I “needed” a smart thermostat, with remote access, so I studied the existing options.

First, you must know that there is a voltage difference between US and EU boilers (not 110v vs. 220v). US boilers use 24v for the control circuit and EU boilers use 220v.

If you use a US-designed device in the EU, there will be smoke. This is the case especially for Nest Thermostat, which has two versions: US and UK (EU).

Here are the intelligent thermostats I found and studied:

1. Nest 2. Salus Tech IT5000 3. Tado 4. Netatmo 5. Honeywell lyric 

All of them have basically the same concept for setup: a human control interface (which can be accessed via Wi-Fi) and a command component for the boiler.

The communication between the two components can be made through wires or by radio (not standard Wi-Fi), so you must keep in mind not to have too many obstacles between them.

A very annoying aspect is that all product sites are very laconic and offer very little technical info. Even the manuals are rather thin and the information is not well presented. This lack of support is very disturbing and it's clear that they want to sell professional installation services.

All of them are in the same price range, around $250 (€198).

1. Nest Thermostat

As I said, be careful of which version you buy (US or UK). The UK version also has a boiler command component: Heat Link.

With it being a Google product, I was expecting a great software support and documentation, but the documentation is lackluster and the app is lousy. It's frustrating to use and it has support for only a few countries. We covered a hack to fix unsupported countries for Nest. All of this just to have the correct time zone!?

After the installation, the thermostat will try to learn and guess your behavior, so it will attempt do some savings when it thinks that you are not present (the controller must be mounted in the living area of the house).

It does not use any external sensors or even weather information and this is very strange, as we know that it contacts weather services.

2. Salus Tech IT5000

My first impression was: bulky. It has three components: Controller, Receiver, and Gateway. The app is nice, but operating the controller seems to be very similar to my third thermostat. On the other hand, it can easily control more zones and you can also control the hot water. For example, you can save money if you don’t produce hot water on the typical night hours or when you are away.

3. Tado – Gen 1 and 2

Tado is "the European champ" vs. "US Nest" – at least this is how it's advertised. It's not very polished; in fact, it's a simple white box, with a lot of brain in the cloud!

Like Salus, it has 3 components: Thermostat, Bridge (Gateway), and Extension Kit.

The Extension Kit is optional if you use Tado with wires, replacing an old thermostat. The thermostat uses 220v, so it's not for the US market.

If you want to use the thermostat wirelessly, then you need the Extension Kit.

The main issue with Tado Gen 1 is that it can be only controlled via an App. There is no physical control interface. I need my phone in order to connect to my thermostat – what if my cable connection is down? How will I explain that to my mom & pop?

Tado 2nd Gen has physical controls – basic, but usable for mom & pop.

Tado has schedule support for hot water production and it takes into consideration outside weather and prognosis. However, hot water control, error code integration, etc. are possible on some compatible boilers. Check the compatible boilers.

4. Netatmo Thermostat

I have a Netatmo Personal Weather Station and it works perfectly. It's simple, nice, and easy to use. The Netatmo Thermostat keeps the same line. The interesting thing is the fact that the two parts (extension and thermostat) can be mounted using radio or wires, depending on your initial configuration.

See the images for: - replacing an old wired thermostat - replacing an old Wi-Fi thermostat - installing a new thermostat

The maker also offers a compatibility check service tool. It does not have advanced functions as Autoaway, hot water control, or weather service integration. It's a simple, nice and functional device.

5. Honeywell Lyric

Honeywell is the creator of the thermostat and of the iconic round thermostat, which is the original analog predecessor of Nest and Lyric.

Lyric works only in the US, with 24v controls. (110v or 220v are not supported), so it's a direct competitor for Nest US.

The interesting features present on Lyric are local weather forecast and the possibility to set the perceived temperature vs. real temperature using pressure and humidity information.

Those are a few words about the main intelligent thermostats available today (October 2014). They are far from perfect and there’s still much room for improvement, but in the end different hardware and software solutions are used for your comfort and savings.

Let's talk about this.

All thermostats have remote access capabilities using smartphone apps (iOS and Android), but only Netatmo has support for Windows Mobile.

Like any classical thermostat, the savings are mainly reached using constant temperatures on the pre-programmed intervals. Also, hot water control offers great savings (around 21%) where available.

The new feature and revolutionary wannabe function is the "Autoaway" present in Nest, Tado, and Lyric.

How it's implemented differs and it's very debatable:

Nest must be mounted in the main room so it can detect movement. It tries to learn your habits and daily schedule. If you have a big house or you do not stay too much in that room, the Autoaway function will have problems learning your habits.

Tado and Lyric have a technology called "geo-fencing." What it means is that the app on your smartphone is communicating your geolocation, and when you are near your home, the thermostat raises the temperature.

I see some problems with this implementation:

1. My iPhone, even barely used, will end the day with maximum 30% battery. Often use of the GPS and background traffic is bad news for me. Plus, I often disable GPS for privacy reasons.

2. In my family, the adults have smartphones, but the kids don't, and they often stay in their room all day long. How will the Autoaway function work in this case?

3. There are 15 km between home and my workplace, and when the traffic is terrible, it takes me 40 minutes to make the trip; this is not enough time to raise temperature.

The perfect thermostat for me should have:

- Nest design - hot water support like Tado - error code integration like Tado, where available - weather prognosis display and current local weather like Lyric - perceived temperature setting like Lyric - weather services integration to prepare for quick/big changes - flexible mounting options like Netatmo - communication between thermostat and command component must use the local Wi-Fi, not a custom radio frequency - integrated webcam

Photo Gallery (10 Images)

Honeywell Lyric vs. Google Nest
Old Wi-Fi thermostatOld knob thermostat
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