Honeywell thermostat

[KeviNH]

I installed the Honeywell YTH8320ZW1007/U thermostat several months ago.  So far it works great. 

 

This is a simple backlit thermostat, very similar to older 7-day programmable Honeywell models.   Took very little effort to pair it with the ISY.  It offers few different ways to control the settings from programs, depending on whether you want to take over operation entirely, just adjust the modes, or simply kick the thermostat into "Energy Saving" mode based on other conditions.

 

I wrote a primitive Perl script to extract ZW###_1 node properties from the ISY994, I use this to track the environmental values and HVAC state in Cacti, an open source monitoring tool.  honeywell_zwave-cacti.pl.txt

 

Honeywell has a number of different models of WiFi and Z-Wave enabled thermostats.  YTH8320ZW1007/U seems to be the simplest and most reliable option from Honeywell, does not depend on Internet connectivity, etc.

[KeviNH]

After 1+ year of use, my TH8320ZW1000 thermostat stopped responding to Z-Wave commands.

 

Turns out the Z-wave module popped out of it's socket;  Everything else still worked fine as a programmable thermostat but dropped off the Zwave network, and the fix was easy.

[gduprey]

I have 5 of these installed between my homes, office and a friends place.  Very reliable and unless the otherwise nice CT100 style stats, the Honeywell actually reports when it calling for heat or cool (the CT100 and it's family require periodic polling to determine if it's actually calling for heat or cool -- not wonderful if you track all HVAC activity).

 

It's not as pretty as the Nest or the Nexia units, but it is solid, reliable and does all the things I need in an automated thermostat

[Teken]

Can anyone comment on the *Wire Saver* aspect of this TSTAT? It indicates this wire saver feature helps those who don't have a © common wire present etc.

 

Is this like the Venstar *Add a wire* kit? 

 

Or does the unit have some kind of battery or smart programming that allows it to negate the use of the C wire?

[gduprey]

It's just a "add-a-wire" box either rebadged and/or from Honeywell.  Used it once for one install and it works great.  Like any add-a-wire box, you have to have access to the furnace wiring as well as thermostat (so apartment people are often out of luck as they may not have to the furnace).  No batteries.

 

While it works effectively like the Venstar unit, it's not really as general purpose.  The Venstar has two parts -- the box in the furnace and a "splitter" at the thermostat to split one wire into two.  The honeywell unit uses a built in "K" wire in the thermostat itself to do the thermostat side splitting.  So it's a bit easier to install than the Venstar (no "bulky" splitter to push/hide in the wall), but it's not as general purpose (won't work with anything besides a Honeywell thermostat, unless you build your own splitter).

[Teken]

It's just a "add-a-wire" box either rebadged and/or from Honeywell.  Used it once for one install and it works great.  Like any add-a-wire box, you have to have access to the furnace wiring as well as thermostat (so apartment people are often out of luck as they may not have to the furnace).  No batteries.

 

While it works effectively like the Venstar unit, it's not really as general purpose.  The Venstar has two parts -- the box in the furnace and a "splitter" at the thermostat to split one wire into two.  The honeywell unit uses a built in "K" wire in the thermostat itself to do the thermostat side splitting.  So it's a bit easier to install than the Venstar (no "bulky" splitter to push/hide in the wall), but it's not as general purpose (won't work with anything besides a Honeywell thermostat, unless you build your own splitter).

 

As always thank you for the detailed insight!

 

Glad you called out the differences between the two Venstar vs Honeywell *Add a wire* topology. I have four of the Add a wire kits sitting in my spare box. I've been waiting patiently for TSTAT development to move forward and it looks to me this unit has all of the *Must Haves* and the none reliance on the cloud.

 

If there is any negatives no matter how small please do share them as I want to go into this with both eyes open.

[gduprey]

I've actually used a Venstar unit on the Honeywell thermostat (there is a SKU of the same thermostat that comes without the Honeywell-specific add-a-wire box) and unsurprisingly, it worked fine (just had to push the slightly stouter venstar splitter cable through the hole in the wall -- tight fit).  The honeywell box is a slightly cleaner install given the lack of any additions at the thermostat location.

I can't say I've found any particular problems with these units.  I did have one unit that kept coming "unpaired" with the ISY, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was in a bad location, ZWave wise.  I've since beefed up the mesh (with the Aoetec doorbells) and haven't had that happen again.

 

I don't make lots of changes from the ISY (just really when switching the house from home to away), but I have extensive database logging for everything in the house and the Honeywell thermostats do not appear to have ever dropped a notification (I use HVAC heat/cool runtimes for energy monitoring as well as filter lifetime alerts and everything tracks).

 

I originally had CT100s based on folks positive comments here and other ZWave forums.  They were adequate as a thermostat, but didn't love the UI and they didn't send reports, so was having to poll them (I **hate** polling anything -- wasteful and always seems to be a band-aid for undiagnosed problems and/or sub-standard communication systems).

 

To me, it seems a solid choice.  I recommend them without reservation.

 

Gerry

[Teken]

You got me sold at the none polling feature vs polling - Does this TSTAT have a smart Application and does it even have the option to connect to the Honeywell cloud if desired?

[gduprey]

Honestly, I don't know -- never looked into it.  I have my own app that knits together all the various HA devices in the house into a single control surface.  No cloud dependencies (I won't bring anything into the house that I can't directly talk to with at least a reasonable API).  I don't even use the program settings and energy save features of the tstat -- I do all mode/temp/time switching from the ISY.

 

All that said, pretty sure the tstat is just a zwave tstat and as such, would not be able to talk to anything non-Zwave itself (i.e. no wifi, no net/cloud access, etc).

 

Gerry

[larryllix]

As an aside...on the Nest. I don't have one but two of my sons have three of them.

 

The battery carryover for the No C wire capability works fine for most of the time but...

 

Both of my son's Nest 2 units went dead at one point in time, during the first few months of service. In the Great White North, there are times when your furnace runs without stops for many hours at a time. In particular, if this is after a power outage, your furnace will now be on for possibly 24 hours or more without stop and the Nest carryover battery goes dead.

 

You think this is a rare cases?

Apparently, there is a convenient USB connector in the pull-off electronics, to recharge the internal battery. This was discovered in a support call to Nest after the first failure.

 

Also. If you don't have a very heavy duty solenoid in your furnace (eg: an electronic  heating controller module) and you are trying to use a Wi-Fi RF transmitting thermostat, the add-a-wire kit and/or the built in Nest add-a-wire equivalent, will probably not run your thermostat and can do nasty and weird things to your heating, cutting in and out but running fine while you watch it. (sneaky little bu%%er).

 

The A/C contacts feeding an A/C unit with too large of a contactor, has caused a few to overheat their stats another 8 degrees, and throw the home comfort way off. Nest's solution? Install another buffer contactor.

 

I have done some playing with my son's Nest 3 lately, and I can report one important item. Nest is not an experienced thermostat company. They are a "dazzle your eyes with cloud and gadgets"  company. Very lacking in all but the basic features for HVAC control. Wow factor for the inexperienced, to hook it up, with internal photos of connections and more dazzle your eyes BS, but not many fan features or WWSD, CWSD, time of day setting features. Every time somebody touches it you get an addition to the endless list of temperature changes for next week. Yuk.... mostly a toy.

[andyf0]

I have 5 of these installed between my homes, office and a friends place.  Very reliable and unless the otherwise nice CT100 style stats, the Honeywell actually reports when it calling for heat or cool (the CT100 and it's family require periodic polling to determine if it's actually calling for heat or cool -- not wonderful if you track all HVAC activity).

 

It's not as pretty as the Nest or the Nexia units, but it is solid, reliable and does all the things I need in an automated thermostat

 

I have 2 of the Honeywell Stats. Recently I bought 2 CT100 to replace them but also found that they don't report when calling for Heat, Cool or Idle. Glad to hear it wasn't just me. The Honeywell's are rock solid and dependable. The OCD in me just wishes we could update the time on the Honeywells remotely like you can on the CT100s. I haven't been able to find an interface document describing the format in order to try and get UDI to implement.

[paulbates]

You really have to look at each units capabilities, as assumptions are killers.

 

The RCS TX15Bs I bought over 10 years ago provided direct updates to the controller on mode, fan, temp and setpoint changes.  It was a jaw dropper when I went to replace them a few years ago and finding that many do not adequately support reporting out... as well as being marginally engineered for the HVAC application

 

Paul

[Teken]

Based on the feedback here I can see this TSTAT being the top consideration for my next HA project. I've resisted doing this area for many reasons but will do more research on this unit to answer further lingering questions.

 

Thanks All!

 

 

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The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

[kohai]

Based on the feedback here I can see this TSTAT being the top consideration for my next HA project. I've resisted doing this area for many reasons but will do more research on this unit to answer further lingering questions.

 

Thanks All!

 

 

=========================

 

The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

 

Which tstat are you referring to exactly?  In reading this thread, I lost track of what combination of units people are referring to.

[gduprey]

The Honeywell ZWave thermostat (tittle of this thread) is the one being referenced and one that is known to be reliable and correctly send updates when heating, cooling and switching to idle.  Other common ZWave thermostats (like the CT100) are fine, but do not send updates when heating/cooling/idle and thus if you want to trigger things based on that, you'd have to poll (ugh).  Both are reliable as thermostats, it's all about the Zwave (and subsequent ISY) supported features.

[Teken]

Which tstat are you referring to exactly?  In reading this thread, I lost track of what combination of units people are referring to.

 

 

The Honeywell ZWave thermostat (tittle of this thread) is the one being referenced and one that is known to be reliable and correctly send updates when heating, cooling and switching to idle.  Other common ZWave thermostats (like the CT100) are fine, but do not send updates when heating/cooling/idle and thus if you want to trigger things based on that, you'd have to poll (ugh).  Both are reliable as thermostats, it's all about the Zwave (and subsequent ISY) supported features.

 

Correct!