Just moving to Vera-integrated thermostats and recently purchased a GoControl for economy reasons but haven’t yet installed. Local utility just announced $150 rebate on several others that put them within my budget and would appreciate general comments on Vera integration / capabilities / limitations if you have direct experience with these. I’ve looked through various threads but frankly most discussions are much more in-depth than I need or understand at this point. Just looking for general guidance.
I note that getvera.com list Nest as compatible (unclear if all versions), while others seem to have at least limited compatibility with available plugins. But it’s not clear to me which (e.g. Honeywell) models are compatible via the plugins. And some may be crippled with recent updates?
Radio Thermostat is the best bang for your buck. You can get the RT100 for around $50 on eBay. There’s a newer model, CT110 but since mine work well I haven’t really investigated it too much. The CT50 is a WiFi Thermostat but I suppose it can be incorporated in Vera over WiFi but the CT100 is listed under Thermostats in the Vera UI7 so I’d say it is your best bet.
EDIT: Let me add that I was able to convince my power utility that the RT100 was worthy of the $50 rebate they offer on WiFi thermostats by giving them screen shots of the settings and abilities so I essentially got it for free.
I have 2 of the CT50 that use wifi. They work well enough with the plugin. It’s nice that they have a published API that you can use if desired and can access via curl if needed. But they don’t seem to be getting much support from RTCoA. I asked about the KRACK fix and haven’t received any response. And they don’t look that nice compared to the others. I think I would go an Ecobee now if I had to choose.
Worst was the CT50 its wifi radio just was horrible.
Nest - Only think I didn’t like was I could not change the swing setting.
CT101 - Can’t poll the device properly therefor I can not track the mode that it is in and the current temp reliably and the plugin could use some work around when in Auto mode and setting the heat/cool temps.
So for me this is my list and in order of importance for my thermostat.
True auto mode
Fast/reliable mode/temp tracking
Being able to change the swing threshold for heat and for cool
No cloud/internet connection required.
Price
None of the 3 thermostats I have had have meant all the requirements and the CT101 is starting to piss me off so I am thinking about looking for another one but we moved into a much larger house that requires multiple thermostats so price is kind of holding me back right now.
@gibby: your priorities list aligns closely with mine other than budget rises a bit higher for me. But with the rebate on the more expensive units, they’re still in play. Your experience leading to a return to Nest is particularly informative.
Any knowledge of relative robustness of the Nest and Ecobee plugins? I recall reading in the Nest thread about Nest possibly being a bit proprietary with access to control and/or data, but I haven’t seen anything to that effect related to Ecobee.
[quote=“gibby, post:5, topic:197483”]I had Nest, then wifi CT50 now the CT101.
Worst was the CT50 its wifi radio just was horrible.
Nest - Only think I didn’t like was I could not change the swing setting.
CT101 - Can’t poll the device properly therefor I can not track the mode that it is in and the current temp reliably and the plugin could use some work around when in Auto mode and setting the heat/cool temps.
So for me this is my list and in order of importance for my thermostat.
True auto mode
Fast/reliable mode/temp tracking
Being able to change the swing threshold for heat and for cool
No cloud/internet connection required.
Price
None of the 3 thermostats I have had have meant all the requirements and the CT101 is starting to piss me off so I am thinking about looking for another one but we moved into a much larger house that requires multiple thermostats so price is kind of holding me back right now.
I might try the Ecobee or go back to Nest.[/quote]
I’m not sure what you mean. It won’t tell you the current temperature in the Vera UI7 or you cannot use poll values to set something else? I’m confused.
One of my CT100’s is on older f/w than the other and I added the following scene that runs on a 15 minute schedule to it to keep it alive so to speak… I’m not sure if this is the issue you’re having or not. The other works fine without this.
[quote=“Sammy2, post:7, topic:197483”][quote=“gibby, post:5, topic:197483”]I had Nest, then wifi CT50 now the CT101.
Worst was the CT50 its wifi radio just was horrible.
Nest - Only think I didn’t like was I could not change the swing setting.
CT101 - Can’t poll the device properly therefor I can not track the mode that it is in and the current temp reliably and the plugin could use some work around when in Auto mode and setting the heat/cool temps.
So for me this is my list and in order of importance for my thermostat.
True auto mode
Fast/reliable mode/temp tracking
Being able to change the swing threshold for heat and for cool
No cloud/internet connection required.
Price
None of the 3 thermostats I have had have meant all the requirements and the CT101 is starting to piss me off so I am thinking about looking for another one but we moved into a much larger house that requires multiple thermostats so price is kind of holding me back right now.
I might try the Ecobee or go back to Nest.[/quote]
I’m not sure what you mean. It won’t tell you the current temperature in the Vera UI7 or you cannot use poll values to set something else? I’m confused.[/quote]
Few issues with polling: and I do have the workaround in place to set fan to auto every 15 minutes.
When in any heat/cool mode including Auto and when the house is actively being heated/cool, that is not updated in Vera consistently. Sometimes it will say heating after the heat has been on for 30 minutes, then when the heat is off, it still says heating for a few hours.
I currently have the thermostats in Auto mode with temps set to 68/80. The wife woke up at 630 this morning and was a little chilly so she at the thermostat she raised it to 71 for heat, when I checked Vera at 830 it still said heat was set to 68 even though I verified it was 71 at the thermostat.
[quote=“gibby, post:12, topic:197483”][quote=“Sammy2, post:7, topic:197483”][quote=“gibby, post:5, topic:197483”]I had Nest, then wifi CT50 now the CT101.
Worst was the CT50 its wifi radio just was horrible.
Nest - Only think I didn’t like was I could not change the swing setting.
CT101 - Can’t poll the device properly therefor I can not track the mode that it is in and the current temp reliably and the plugin could use some work around when in Auto mode and setting the heat/cool temps.
So for me this is my list and in order of importance for my thermostat.
True auto mode
Fast/reliable mode/temp tracking
Being able to change the swing threshold for heat and for cool
No cloud/internet connection required.
Price
None of the 3 thermostats I have had have meant all the requirements and the CT101 is starting to piss me off so I am thinking about looking for another one but we moved into a much larger house that requires multiple thermostats so price is kind of holding me back right now.
I might try the Ecobee or go back to Nest.[/quote]
I’m not sure what you mean. It won’t tell you the current temperature in the Vera UI7 or you cannot use poll values to set something else? I’m confused.[/quote]
Few issues with polling: and I do have the workaround in place to set fan to auto every 15 minutes.
When in any heat/cool mode including Auto and when the house is actively being heated/cool, that is not updated in Vera consistently. Sometimes it will say heating after the heat has been on for 30 minutes, then when the heat is off, it still says heating for a few hours.
I currently have the thermostats in Auto mode with temps set to 68/80. The wife woke up at 630 this morning and was a little chilly so she at the thermostat she raised it to 71 for heat, when I checked Vera at 830 it still said heat was set to 68 even though I verified it was 71 at the thermostat.[/quote]
Hmm… I haven’t noticed this. Guess I need to check it out.
Something else I just noticed with the CT101, is that in the default plugin for the thermostat that gets created, you can only set the currentsetpoint, you can not set separate heat/cool setpoints using the up/down arrows.
This is where PLEG comes into play. With PLEG you can tell the thermostat what mode to be in and what temperature to set it to based on the input logic conditions.
This is where PLEG comes into play. With PLEG you can tell the thermostat what mode to be in and what temperature to set it to based on the input logic conditions.[/quote]
I do this already, but I there is no way I can come up with all the scenarios for when my wife says she is too hot or too cold…
This is where PLEG comes into play. With PLEG you can tell the thermostat what mode to be in and what temperature to set it to based on the input logic conditions.[/quote]
I do this already, but I there is no way I can come up with all the scenarios for when my wife says she is too hot or too cold…[/quote]
This is where PLEG comes into play. With PLEG you can tell the thermostat what mode to be in and what temperature to set it to based on the input logic conditions.[/quote]
I do this already, but I there is no way I can come up with all the scenarios for when my wife says she is too hot or too cold…[/quote]