rsansev Posted January 26, 2013 Posted January 26, 2013 I was told by the hvac salesman that i could keep my venstar thermostat and use it to control my proposed carrier split system - one stage variable fan system. This unit allows for setting humidity and my venstar & isy99i indicate humidity, but i doesnt seem to work at all... 1) there are newer firmware versions of the venstar that report humidity properly? 2) would one of those be able to report and control the carrier's humidity settings? From what i have read, it looks like there thermostat (infinity/edge) uses rs485 to communicate to the unit. but i have also read that you need their SAM to do comm: http://www.commercial.carrier.com/wcs/p ... 49,00.html rs485 mentioned here: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=2852.0 Any light you could shed on this would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
apostolakisl Posted January 26, 2013 Posted January 26, 2013 I have the same carrier unit you have with the same fancy thermostats. You can use a standard thermostat instead of the carrier and then it wires up like normal instead of the rs485. But, you lose all the diagnostic and maintenance info that the dedicated carrier thermostat offers. I looked at getting the SAM unit but laughed at the absurd price. In short, I decided that I really didn't need to control my thermostat from my ISY.
rsansev Posted January 26, 2013 Author Posted January 26, 2013 So, you feel the diagnostics are worth it? How often do you use them? As far as i can tell, the only *other* thing i would give up is the humidity. Do you agree? thanks!
tome Posted January 27, 2013 Posted January 27, 2013 I have heat pumps (two of them) as well and am using Ecobee thermostats. I really like them. They don't talk to my ISY (at least not yet), but they are accessible via the web (and i-device apps). They give me all the info I got from the Carrier thermostats only online and are SO much easier to use. I use it to at a vacation house as well that also has a heat pump and I can monitor and control the house remotely. Tom
apostolakisl Posted January 29, 2013 Posted January 29, 2013 I have heat pumps (two of them) as well and am using Ecobee thermostats. I really like them. They don't talk to my ISY (at least not yet), but they are accessible via the web (and i-device apps). They give me all the info I got from the Carrier thermostats only online and are SO much easier to use. I use it to at a vacation house as well that also has a heat pump and I can monitor and control the house remotely.Tom Are you sure it tells you everything the dedicated thermostat does? If you hold the "advanced" button on the carrier thermostat you get a huge menu of stuff. This includes a log of any faults, run times in the various modes, and a ton of other stuff. So, you feel the diagnostics are worth it?How often do you use them? As far as i can tell, the only *other* thing i would give up is the humidity. Do you agree? thanks! If your system runs perfectly then no, you don't need a lot of that info. But if you ever have a fault, 1) you can diagnose it yourself if you have much knowledge of the stuff, and 2) your hvac guy can go straight to the problem and not screw around replacing stuff that isn't broke as he tries to trouble shoot an intermittent problem.
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