anything new on venstar thermostats

[reakhavok]

Ive seen some older posts about the venstar thermostat, but nothing really recent. I would like to have automated control over my HVAC and since i use insteon have been looking into the venstar. Dos this thing work reliably and does ISY have good control over it? My house has 2 units one upstairs and one down, so i would need to purchase 2 of the venstars thats about 400 bucks. i don't really wanna shell out that much cash if i can't get reliable control.

 

Does anyone know if SH is coming out with any newer/better thermostats anytime soon? or is the venstar the only option...

 

Thanks

Gregg

[G W]

The Venstar Thermostat is pretty cheap, but at $100 just for the Insteon adapter, that drives the price way up to byond silly. I have no idea why it costs $100 except it is the only game in town.

 

I have one at home and the ISY works fine wirth it.

[MikeB]

No problems with my Thermostat Adapter here. You do have to query it to receive regular status updates, but otherwise I'm happy with my unit.

[Brignolo]

Gregg:

 

I have been using my INSTEON enabled Venstar for more than 9 months and it has worked perfectly since the initial installation.

 

Joe

 

Ive seen some older posts about the venstar thermostat, but nothing really recent. I would like to have automated control over my HVAC and since i use insteon have been looking into the venstar. Dos this thing work reliably and does ISY have good control over it? My house has 2 units one upstairs and one down, so i would need to purchase 2 of the venstars thats about 400 bucks. i don't really wanna shell out that much cash if i can't get reliable control.

 

Does anyone know if SH is coming out with any newer/better thermostats anytime soon? or is the venstar the only option...

 

Thanks

Gregg

[ulrick65]

I have one as well and it works perfectly. I did have an issue with it at first, but it turned out to be a bad unit. Smarthome promptly replaced it (as they have with anything I have had trouble with).

 

As Mike said, you have to setup status queries on it. I was new to Insteon and ISY then so I had trouble getting it to work just how I wanted until I shamelessly copied the ones he posted here...then it was easy!

 

I have alerts setup on mine as I am sure everyone does (if it too cold, etc.) but I really like is being able to check my "occupied" status and set the temperature back when nobody is in there...the kids left the old one up all the time. In addition, being able to query humidity has been handy for me as well, I have a lot of computer equipment running in one area and being able to control humidity with the antique AC unit I have up there has been helpful here in middle Georgia.

 

I do agree with Gary...the price is a bit insane, but for me it has been worth it. I bought the 1 day programable version ($160) and then just did the programming in ISY to set temperatures to what I need, when I need it.

There is something you should be aware of, if you intend to want to use the programming feature built in to the thermostat, there are some quirks with it...not being able to return to program mode after a temperature change from Insteon etc. I don't know anything about that, but I remember reading about here somewhere...so if that is important to you, maybe someone else can jump in.

 

Eric

 

Ive seen some older posts about the venstar thermostat, but nothing really recent. I would like to have automated control over my HVAC and since i use insteon have been looking into the venstar. Dos this thing work reliably and does ISY have good control over it? My house has 2 units one upstairs and one down, so i would need to purchase 2 of the venstars thats about 400 bucks. i don't really wanna shell out that much cash if i can't get reliable control.

 

Does anyone know if SH is coming out with any newer/better thermostats anytime soon? or is the venstar the only option...

 

Thanks

Gregg

[reakhavok]

I have one as well and it works perfectly. I did have an issue with it at first, but it turned out to be a bad unit. Smarthome promptly replaced it (as they have with anything I have had trouble with).

 

As Mike said, you have to setup status queries on it. I was new to Insteon and ISY then so I had trouble getting it to work just how I wanted until I shamelessly copied the ones he posted here...then it was easy!

 

I have alerts setup on mine as I am sure everyone does (if it too cold, etc.) but I really like is being able to check my "occupied" status and set the temperature back when nobody is in there...the kids left the old one up all the time. In addition, being able to query humidity has been handy for me as well, I have a lot of computer equipment running in one area and being able to control humidity with the antique AC unit I have up there has been helpful here in middle Georgia.

 

I do agree with Gary...the price is a bit insane, but for me it has been worth it. I bought the 1 day programable version ($160) and then just did the programming in ISY to set temperatures to what I need, when I need it.

There is something you should be aware of, if you intend to want to use the programming feature built in to the thermostat, there are some quirks with it...not being able to return to program mode after a temperature change from Insteon etc. I don't know anything about that, but I remember reading about here somewhere...so if that is important to you, maybe someone else can jump in.

 

Eric

 

Ive seen some older posts about the venstar thermostat, but nothing really recent. I would like to have automated control over my HVAC and since i use insteon have been looking into the venstar. Dos this thing work reliably and does ISY have good control over it? My house has 2 units one upstairs and one down, so i would need to purchase 2 of the venstars thats about 400 bucks. i don't really wanna shell out that much cash if i can't get reliable control.

 

Does anyone know if SH is coming out with any newer/better thermostats anytime soon? or is the venstar the only option...

 

Thanks

Gregg

 

Ulrich,

I do want to have daily programs like on 68 on mon-friday fom 8-4 and on at 72 all day saturday's. etc etc. But from what i understand I can still get the 1 day programmable and just use the ISY to do all the programming and not use the thermostats built in programming? is that correct. ?

 

thanks for all the feedback guys, im starting to feel more comfortable making this purchase

[MikeB]

But from what i understand I can still get the 1 day programmable and just use the ISY to do all the programming and not use the thermostats built in programming? is that correct. ?

 

That's what I do. Here is the post where I describe my setup:

 

http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?t=1432

[jhimmel]

The Venstar Thermostat is pretty cheap, but at $100 just for the Insteon adapter, that drives the price way up to byond silly. I have no idea why it costs $100 except it is the only game in town.

 

I have one at home and the ISY works fine wirth it.

 

It's a shame about the price. I would get them, but I have 9 heating zones, and 2 A/C zones, with one of them on the same thermostat as a heat zone - so that would be 10 thermostats if I wanted to do them all.

 

It wouldn't make much sense to me to only do some of them. Every room in my house has its own thermostat which is 7-day programmable. It would be a nice convenience to be able to adjust the programming of all of them from my computer - but not at that cost!

 

Jim H.

[ulrick65]

The Venstar Thermostat is pretty cheap, but at $100 just for the Insteon adapter, that drives the price way up to byond silly. I have no idea why it costs $100 except it is the only game in town.

 

I have one at home and the ISY works fine wirth it.

 

It's a shame about the price. I would get them, but I have 9 heating zones, and 2 A/C zones, with one of them on the same thermostat as a heat zone - so that would be 10 thermostats if I wanted to do them all.

 

It wouldn't make much sense to me to only do some of them. Every room in my house has its own thermostat which is 7-day programmable. It would be a nice convenience to be able to adjust the programming of all of them from my computer - but not at that cost!

 

Jim H.

 

$1,600 for you to have cool ISY access to your 10 thermostats seems a bit steep to you does it?

 

I was just thinking...if you have 10 stats now, all programmable and let's say that you adjust those programs 4 times a year (probably less). If it takes you 5 minutes to program each stat, thats:

 

(10 * 5 * 4) / 60 = 3.3 hours

 

Figure your time is worth $25/hr (I think I'm worth more, but my wife figures I am worth much less...I don't know about you).

 

3.3 * 25 = $82.50 per year

 

On a $1,600 investment that's a 19.3 year payback.

 

I guess you're right...it's a bit steep.

 

Sorry...couldn't resist.

 

 

reakhavok: Mike answered already, but yes what you said is correct. As long as you are OK with doing it through ISY (which means ISY has to be on and running for it to happen, like all of ours are I assume) then buying the 1 day stat will work perfectly for you.

 

Eric

[jhimmel]

Great post Eric.

 

I appreciate you trying to make a good case for me buying them!

 

Unfortunately, the case is made worse by the fact that, in reality, I pretty much just program my existing ones and forget about them - with only occasional mods to the programs. Even if they were $50 each, it would be a tough sell.

 

Jim H.

[Sub-Routine]

I wouldn't even think of replacing all those thermostats. Perhaps one or two in certain areas could be useful. Probably more with the AC than the heat.

 

Rand