Thermostat: Z-Wave or Insteon

[telecannon]

One of my next HA purchases is finally going to be a thermostat. I got an ISY994iZw because there was no Insteon thermostat for heat pumps, but that has changed. I have had good luck with Honeywell thermostats as far as quality goes. So, I am somewhat inclined to get a Z-Wave Honeywell thermostat. However, there is a lot to like about the idea of using Insteon (primarily the cheaper price, the fact that I have only Insteon devices currently, and the easy option to add a wireless thermostat for remote sensing). Does anyone have any convincing reasons to choose one over the other for the thermostat?

[telecannon]

I just re-read the owner's manual for the Insteon thermostat, and it appears that the display gives no indication about whether or not the auxiliary or emergency heat is on. I also don't remember reading anything about controlling the auxiliary or emergency heat. If that is true, that will be a big minus for using the Insteon thermostat.

[paulbates]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

 

Its good to do your research on any HA purchase, but especially thermostats.  Its fair to say that they all have an 'Achilles Heal', and more upfront research helps you determine what you can live with before finding out during use.

 

I know with the Insteon Thermostat had problems with my 25 year old heaters and they 'locked up', and I had to send them back. Granted that's a rare occurrence, but it happened to me. I also know that some users complain that the Insteon thermostat doesn't update the ISY with temp, etc, as often as they like and programs are needed to query them if you want updates faster. At the same time, a lot of people here have great luck with the Insteon units and like them a lot.

 

UDI speaks highly of RCS brand zwave thermostats, and if I was going zwave I would certainly look hard at them. I had 2 RCS X10 thermostats for 10 years, and had few problems with them (normal X10 problems). Mine looked exactly like the TZ-16... however I'd now be investigating the TZ43. There is a link to the TZ43 manual on the page below 

 

http://www.rcstechnology.com/oldsite/products/stats/zwave.htm

 

Paul

[telecannon]

Thank you. Your reply is very helpful. I have not seriously considered RCS thermostats, and I will definitely take a look at them. I was getting excited to use Insteon yesterday but became disillusioned when I read the owner's manual regarding the way it treats auxiliary and emergency heat.

[gduprey]

Just a note: The RCS units do NOT auto-report all changes to the controller.  For example, when the unit starts cooling or fan starts (because of temp sensing), they do not report this change to the ISY.  The ISY can query it just fine, but writing logic to depend on status changes may be disappointing.  

 

I had 3 2gig/RCS CT100's -- they were fine, but didn't report status which meant I couldn't trigger things reliably when the heat, cool or fan came on.

 

I switched to a Honeywell ZWave and it does send status reports back when things turn on/off in the thermostat.  

 

Of course, if you only plan to send commands and not react to changes, the RCS stuff will be fine. 

 

I tested an insteon unit and sent it back in 24 hours.  Compared to what is available for ZWave, the Insteon unit didn't come close (IMHO).

 

FYI

 

Gerry

[stusviews]

I tested an insteon unit and sent it back in 24 hours.  Compared to what is available for ZWave, the Insteon unit didn't come close (IMHO).

 

What specifically is available for Z-Wave that Insteon doesn't provide?

[Teken]

I believe like many if you're going to spend any kind of money you might as well ensure that device supports as many home automation elements for the best over all experience.

 

I know Paul B and others have had great experience with the Venstar, EcoBee, TSTAT's. In part because the 3rd party developers have created node servers to bridge the two together and thus giving more ISY control over the hardware.

 

Some have also integrated the NEST with the ISY Series Controller again using (RPi) middleware that links it to the ISY Series Controller.

 

That I believe not only adds value but also enables finer HA integration.

 

Having said all of this my personal views are these connections must be deployed in a sound and common sense manner. Letting sub systems which over ride the primary TSTAT functions is simply a recipe for disaster.

[G W]

I have a RCS that works great. It's the one Michel uses

 

S.A.T.T.P.

Best regards,

Gary Funk