Thermostat Replacement with a Wifi Thermostat...
 

Has anyone successfully replaced their Thermostat with a Wifi Thermostat, i.e. Nest or Honeywell? I am quite interested in upgrading my Village installed Carrier Thermostat.

The real question is... How does the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat stack up against the popular Nest? Was it easy to replace the builder provided Carrier thermostat with the Wi-Fi unit?

I'm interested too. I have a radio thermostat in another home but it does not do the humidity check. Any update to your query???

Tried 2 Homewell Wifi Thermosstats
 

Over the last 3 or 4 years I tried two different Honeywell wifi thermostats on our home here in Ohio. They both worked after non-trivial network setup problems. But the main user interfaces of both were too difficult for my technology challenged wife. Simple things like switching from heat to cool required several button pushes. Switched back to the simplest digital thermostat Honeywell makes.

I like the idea of monitoring the home temperature on my phone or iPad while I am away.

I have been following the Nest thermostat for several years but never bought one. All the reviews say that the Generation 2.0 version fixed issues with the initial design. Nest must have got something right as Google just paid $3.2Billion last week to buy the company and it is only 3 or 4 years old (ex Apple engineers).

Nest also has a new wifi enabled smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Search YouTube for the Jan 16th 2014 Ellen Degeners show (Chirp Chirp) ....funny!

I was wondering if anyone installed a Nest thermostat in the villages without any problems? I first installed one last November. It would work for awhile and then after a month or so, the fan (blower unit) would not shut off. I got a new one and then same problem. After talking to the Nest technicians, they sent me a third one, and this time I did not hook up the blue wire. After a month, same problem. I ended up re-installing my original thermostat because I was tired of the problems.

Consumer Reports magazine reported that there have been a lot of problems with the "Nest" thermostats

Honeywell WiFi
 

I installed a Honeywell WiFi thermostat about 6 months ago. After a small installation issue, which was quickly solved by customer support, it has worked flawlessly.

The installation itself, is very easy and only takes about 30 minutes. Professional installation is not necessary, if you are the least bit handy with a screwdriver and can twist on a few wire nuts. Installation instructions are very good.

I chose the Honeywell over the Nest for the better LCD screen and a few of the features.

I am able the check [and change] the temperature in the home from anywhere in the world via my iPhone or iPad. It's also easy to change between heat and A/C. The unit measures temperature and humidity, inside your home and you are able to monitor [and change] those readings from anywhere.

Maybe overkill, but this is just another small piece of my "connected" home.

Just wondering what the reason for installing a WiFi T-stat? If you are gone for long periods what would be the advantage or savings here? Esp if you have to keep your internet service on and pay for that every month. We have a new home with a real nice Carrier T-stat and we added the Humidity control. It works great and keeps our elec bill very low!

We have the IRIS thermostat here in MI , along with other IRIS products. We decided to have one installed in our CYV and had Carrier install. Our service man seemed to have problems from the start with the install. After he checked everything and left, an hour later the air conditioning quit. We called and the same guy came out several hours later and made the statement that he thought he might have wired it wrong. REALLY! He ended up blowing the coil in the air conditioner on a 90+ day and the part had to be ordered and wouldn't be installed for another week. So be careful if you install yourself or even have a trained service man do it...

I have the NEST thermostat - here's what you need to know
 

I have a NEST thermostat in my home here. It works nice as it provides both temperature and humidity and and allows me to remotely turn the AC on (if I want to). In order to use the NEST without any problems, you want to make sure that you have both the 24VAC common and hot lines going to it so that it is actually receiving 24V power. Older homes used to have just the 24VAC hot wire only and the NEST (along with the Honeywell) had to parasitically get power by pulsing the lines; you don't want that as it can't get enough power to reliably keep it's battery charged up for consistent internet access. The thermostats down here (at least on the 2 homes I've had) are wired that way. Also, set your router up so that the NEST has a static IP address on your network versus dynamic.

I can view my NEST either via my PC or iphone.

Hope that helps..

Can you describe the installation issue?
 

Can you share the installation issue with us? I would like to get the Honeywell but heard that they would not support it, unless installed by an HVAC service man. Are the settings you made the same for all the newer Carrier units in the Villages?

Also, I thought that the Honeywell auto-switches between Cooling/Heating. It doesn't?

I would love to get one.

Yeah, my issue was very minor.... The unit comes with some rather comprehensive wiring diagrams, meant to map your exiting thermostat wiring to the new WiFi thermostat. The only issue was that I had an extra wire that was not accounted for. I called customer support and they had me going in about 10 minutes...I had to tell them air handler model, etc. Seems I have a secondary heating element, as part of the heat pump, so that's where the extra wire was coming from. I suspect you would have the same issue as I.

If your system is capable of switching between heating and cooling automatically, the Honeywell thermostat will provide you with an Auto function. You set the minimums for each temperature and the system will automatically provide heat or cooling to accommodate your climate control. My system does have that capability...

Connecting to the home WiFi was pretty easy...it'll find your network and you'll need to supply the password, if you have a protected WiFi network. From there, create an account at Honeywell, download the apps for your smartphone or tablet and you're all set.

Hope this helps...

:-) Looks like I'm going to order the Honeywell... Might be back for help when it arrives.

I picked mine up at Lowes or Home Depot....I can't remember.

If you need it, I can send you before and after photos of the wiring...that's the only thing you'll have any potential questions about....Just PM me when ready.

Question on install
 

Is the WHITE wire the one for AUX Heat? Forget it... I just confirmed that the WHITE wire is for AUX Heat.