Choosing an Advanced Thermostat for Home

Carlton Bale has an interesting blog post on his investigations into choosing an Advanced Thermostat for his home. Well worth a read of you are considering automating your heating/ventilation system.

“Let’s face it, the thermostat that is installed by default in most dwellings is pretty basic. If you have a digital display that’s the “upgraded” version; and all it does is replicate the functionality of the old rudimentary mercury switch / rotary knob designs. An advanced thermostat with scheduling features can save quite a bit on your energy bill, but can also be an interesting gadget to occupy your time. Since my energy company is offering a rebate for anyone who upgrades to a scheduling thermostat, I decided to pull the trigger.

The RCS X10 was my initial first choice, but after preliminary research, I found that it has no scheduling feature! Sure, you can raise and lower the temperature from an X10 remote device, but it doesn’t have any built-in automatic scheduling. I you are one of those people with advanced home automation system, you can use that to automate the thermostat settings. For me, this is a complicated and potentially troublesome combination.

I’d rather have the thermostat itself taking care of all of the scheduling, not a computer or external controller. I think the Proliphix is a much better option and it can also be controlled over the network (many home automation controllers are capable.) I’m glad I didn’t purchase the first thermostat I found.”

Read the Full Article Here