mkbrown69

I'd agree with MWareman; if you're having to create workarounds to ensure what should be basic functionality, then it's not ready for prime time. I appreciate the feedback. I'd like to give it fair consideration, but based on the amount of existing issues on the forum, it's just not going to pass the reliability test (much less the WAF test). Johnnyt, thanks for your posts as well. Definately food for thought there. I'll pursue some investigation on the Ecobee front, and then way my options and report back. I appreciate everyone's feedback! Thanks for your time and contributions! /Mike

Is it silver, as so many have said? Depending who you buy your cloud infrastructure from, it can be lined with silver, gold, or platinum As far as they're concerned, it's magical and will solve all your problems ;-P Want some Kool-Aid? /Mike

Hi Johnny, I've seen all the posts on the Insteon issues. Smarthome usually has issues on all it's new products for a while, then they end up fixing them after a few revisions (where the early adopters end up being the beta testers), after which the stuff works well. I know historically that unhappy people will express themselves to a greater extent in forums/mailing lists, etc. than those who are happy with a product, so I was hoping to get any opionions of those who would happily recommend the Insteon stats. If few or none come forth to share positive experiences, that speaks volumes, and I'll avoid the Insteon stats. My shortlist is rapidly shrinking to the Radio Thermostat CT-80 (which comes with WiFi or Z-wave Usnap modules), or the Ecobee. I intend to send an e-mail to Ecobee with my concerns, and see how they respond. Thanks for pointing out that post. Mideon has some neat concepts for sensors and interfaces. I have 1-wire stuff throughout my house, which I used to run with MrHouse, but is currently hacked together with OWFS and some bash scripts as I'm migrating between HA software platforms. I'm experimenting with moving it to a dedicated Raspberry Pi and doing some other Open Source software integrations for 1-wire sensors, but have been busy trying to write interface drivers to the ISY, which hasn't left me with a lot of time for hardware hacking. AARtech in Oshawa still carrries the TR-60 stats, if you want to stay with a serial stat. $319. I thought about the RCS stat, but would like something that could handle the humidifier and possibly a future fresh air baffle, both of which would require intelligent humidity handling (either on-board like in the EcoBee, or offboard, using the ISY & weather module in conjunction with the CT-80). Hope that helps! /Mike

Hi folks! Nice to see another Canuck on the forums, Johnny. Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breathe on Ottawa Hydro opening up their infrastructure to allow customer-owned equipment on their telemetry network. That's why Brultech, TED 5000, and the BlueLine stuff sells... So, back to topic; since I was asking about Insteon thermostats, and people were recommending Ecobee and Trane Z-Wave, I'm taking it that the unspoken opinion is that the Insteon thermostats are "less than stellar"? If anyone has any positive experiences they want to share, please feel free to do so. I'll take a continued silence on the Insteon stats as a "pass", rather than a buy. Hardware and feature wise, the Ecobee is great. I have a friend who has an Ecobee, so I'll talk to him a bit more about it, but I wouldn't mind the opinions of some Ecobee/Home automation owners. Where's the API published? How have the stats been for you folks? Can you use the stats now without an account, or are you tied to their cloud? My concerns are the amount of data that will reside in their data centre. They'll be storing my Wi-Fi password, my geographical location, and any vacation days/away modes I choose to put into the stat. The fact that they store that info is published on their website knowledge base. Anyone else concerned that particular combination of information is stored in somebody's "cloud"? Thanks for your time and opinions on this! /Mike P.S. I work in data centre ops, so I have a really good idea of what the inside of "a cloud" looks like, so my concerns come from an informed viewpoint.

Good Day folks! I'm hoping I can ask for some honest opinions on the Insteon thermostats (and their integration into the ISY). I don't have any concerns on the ISY front; I'm more concerned with the Insteon thermostats reliability, quality, and control/events generation. So I'm hoping some folks wouldn't mind sharing their experiences with Insteon thermostats in general, and the TempLinc 2441TH (hardwired unit) in particular. I currently have a basic Carrier Furnace with A/C, with a basic Honeywell programmable dumb thermostat, using 5 wires. I reside in Ottawa Canada, so we get both hot and cold weather. I'm looking for something that can intelligently manage heat/cool settings, humidity, furnace fan control (air movement in the house, and something similar to Nest's airwave, which runs the fan for a period after the A/C compressor kicks out). I have an ISY-994, with a number of Insteon devices, including dual-band. So, more advanced functionality could be done programatically using the ISY. An alternative to the 2441TH that I'm considering is the Radio Thermostat CT-80 , which has humidity control, but I don't have wires for the humidity control, so I'd have to improvise . So, it would be a hundred more than the Insteon T-stat plus I/O lincs, or RaspPi/arduino , but does have more bells and whistles, and could be controlled by ISY network resources. I'm not into Nest, Ecobee, etc, because I don't want cloud access or my data sitting on someone else's servers. I can do remote access with my own VPN, so I just want something that's locally available. Thanks for your time! /Mike