Nest Connection

[Blair Phifer]

I may be repeating a question, but...

I have a two story house that is only one zone, with the thermostat on the main floor. I understand that I can't have a multi-zone system with the way my furnace and AC are set up, but what I'd like to have is the ability to base the temperature on a different location in my house, (the second floor). In the winter, the top floor is too warm, and in the summer the AC makes it too cold. I do have a way to change the direction of the airflow, but it doesn't work enough. I also have a fireplace on the main floor that I can't use due to it's proximity to the thermostat.

If I get a Nest, can I use your sensors to be the temperature that the Nest is working to?

Thanks!

[Zhiheng Cao]

What happens is that first the system set the upper and lower threshold on the sensor tag, such that the sensor will report too hot, normal or too cold at its installed location. Then the system will calculate based on the current temperature at Nest, what temperature to automatically set Nest to. When the sensor tag reports normal, the temperature is set again at Nest automatically to turn it off. If Nest is turned off (reaching set temperature) before the sensor tag reaches threshold temperature (reports normal) the calculation is done again automatically to set Nest set temperature even lower/higher to keep it running. 

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[Pete]

Just chiming in... I was in the middle of doing extensive testing using these wireless sensor tags and a wifi connected Honeywell.  While it has the potential to do what you want, which is to ultimately monitor and cool/heat your house using a remote sensor tag, it's just not a reliable feature.

I was in the middle of working with support, providing feedback on various code changes they were making to really get this feature locked down and then...they stopped responding. I never did get it working 100%.

For what it's worth, the Ecobee 3 thermostat does exactly what you're looking for, out of the box, as core functionality.  I recommend that product for your specific use case. I purchased one a couple weeks ago and it has worked flawlessly from day one.

[Zhiheng Cao]

Hi Pete

I thought I solved all your problems with Honeywell Thermostat because *you* stopped responding to this specific problem. Can you point me to the thread / support ticket that has your latest post of thermostat issue?  It is kind of irresponsible to just claim something is "just not reliable" without giving an example. Since we are talking about a few lines of software code that makes this happen, it either always works or always exhibit the same incorrect behavior. Nothing should be random here.

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[Pete]

Hello,

   I can understand how my comments are disappointing, but they are my perception nonetheless.  Our last communications were via email (posted below).  My email to you was the last communication I have on record.  

At any rate, regarding: "It is kind of irresponsible to just claim something is 'just not reliable' without giving an example...it either always works or always exhibit the same incorrect behavior"

On your end, that's probably true.  But since I can't see anything that's happening on your side, I don't know what that behavior is.  I don't have line of sight to anything except what I can see on my end, which is just the end result (i.e. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). 

Generally speaking, I am having good success with these tags.  Temperature/Humidity readings have been accurate and stable, URL calling has been rock solid.  My only issues have been with Kumoapps (which has recently had an overhaul) and the thermostat control (which I gave up on because my AC wouldn't turn on sometimes, and wouldn't turn off other times).  My apologies if you don't think that's a valid reason to claim 'unreliability'.  I don't mean any offense, I just don't want someone spending hundreds of dollars on a new thermostat that may not deliver consistent results. 

[Email thread] 

From: Aquino Peter <redacted>

Subject: Re: [Wireless Sensor Tags Forum] Honeywell Thermostat, controlled by wireless tag, causes iOS app bug

Date: August 12, 2015 at 9:21:32 PM PDT

To: Zhiheng Cao < redacted >

Hello again. 

One last note, after running yet another test with the Master Bedroom tag, it correctly cooled down to beyond the Threshold Window and then turned off (by setting the thermostat to 89 degrees). After a while, the temperature at Master Bedroom rose above the upper limit but the cooling cycle did not start again. 

I let it sit for a while to see if it would turn back on but it never did. So I slightly adjusted the temperature range, got a "temperature monitoring configured successfully" message and the AC kicked on immediately. 

Thanks again for your help with this. I really want this product to work well. I have high hopes for it!  

-Pete

On Aug 12, 2015, at 1:42 PM, Zhiheng Cao < redacted > wrote:

For the first issue, I have made it such that if you hit the "Update" button of the Thermostat from mytaglist.com/eth  the system will read the latest thermostat state (if it is still cooling) and if not, it will re-enable monitoring of the sensor tag which will cause the thermostat to resume cooling if the sensor tag reports "too hot". 

The system will periodically (every 3 minute, as allowed by Honeywell) do the "Update" button automatically on the thermostat.  Hope this will resolve this issue. 

On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Zhiheng Cao < redacted > wrote:

For the first issue I guess we could set it lower than 68 to force it stay on. For the 2nd issue could you give an example so I am understand.

On Tuesday, August 11, 2015, Aquino Peter < redacted > wrote:

There may still be a slight issue. It happens because of the variance in temperature between my upstairs and downstairs. At night, when I set the Honeywell to use my Master Bedroom tag - and my tag is set to something around 70 degrees - the Honeywell will turn on, set at 68 degrees. The problem is that the actual temperature at the Honeywell will get to 68 before the bedroom gets to 70. When this happens, the air shuts off and things start getting out of sync.

I'm also unclear about how I should be setting the desired temperature when using one of the tags as the controller. Changing the settings at the tag only seems to stick sometimes.

One last thing, and I haven't had a chance to fully troubleshoot, but it seems I can't switch the Controlled By setting while the AC is on and running as this causes things to get out of sync and the AC will keep running. 

-Pete