Which thermostat should i use

Where you place a thermostat is critical to achieving maximum smart or programmable thermostat savings. Placing a thermostat too close to a heat source, for instance, will likely make your heating less efficient. Thermostats control the temperature in your house. But is it really that simple? There are many thermostat options— and cool options at that! So how are you to know which thermostat best suits your needs? Manual thermostats allow you to change the current temperature from each wall unit in your house— there are usually one or two in a home.

No hassle, no change. Here are some benefits of using manual thermostats:. Image Source: shopconstellation. If you need just one schedule during the weekdays and a different schedule for the weekend, this thermostat option is ideal.

Honeywell Aube Manual Thermostat - This compact, non-programmable thermostat is the perfect replacement for your old mechanical thermostat. This model is ideal for tight spaces. Want to make a change that can quickly lower your home heating and cooling costs?

Consider installing a programmable thermostat. Consumer Reports describes the benefits of programmable thermostat varieties this way:. The potential benefits of programmable thermostats depend upon lifestyle to some extent, but here are some ways to find programmable thermostat savings opportunities:. Honeywell Day Programmable Thermostat - Honeywell's Day Programmable Thermostat is a very easy-to-use programmable thermostat with intuitive logic that responds to your choices and schedule for optimal comfort and energy savings.

Honeywell 7 Day Programmable Thermostat - This thermostat is effortless to use. They are electronics that are connected, either to each other through a home hub like Constellation Connect , or to separate devices that have software and networks that allow these items to function by communicating with other devices rather than directly with humans.

You have a choice between a smart thermostat vs. A wireless — or wifi — thermostat is one that has a sensor to control your heating and cooling on its own. Smart thermostat vs. The benefits of a smart thermostat are primarily in making your life easier and your home more energy efficient.

Smart thermostat energy efficiency is effective because it takes the guesswork out of programming an automated thermostat or having to manually adjust temperature on a daily basis. Search Everywhere Threads This forum This thread.

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Thread starter 2fitca Start date Jan 2, Forums Community General Discussion. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. I guess what I need to find out is what's the best, operating temp for my car.

Coolant temperature is very important, so is oil temperature. Racing an engine with oil temperatures below about 70C is not a healthy thing. I generally see my oil temps hovering around the 85C mark with coolant around the 90C mark. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy! Already have an account? Sign in here. By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Guidelines. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better.

You can adjust your cookie settings , otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Recommended Posts. Dreco 1 Posted December 17, Posted December 17, Hello all, question. Link to post Share on other sites. If you prefer, you can opt to create your own Schedule for the thermostat by using the Nest app, or you can simply tweak the one that the Nest thermostat creates. The Nest Learning Thermostat has a beautiful, high-quality build that feels like it will last a very long time, and the design is intuitive and easy to use.

Just turn the tactile metal outer ring, which feels substantial and glides effortlessly, left or right to adjust the temperature down or up, respectively. Pressing forward on the dial lets you make selections. The display goes dark when not in use and then lights up to show you the current setpoints and ambient temperature when you approach. A feature called Farsight turns the screen into a clock that displays the time, weather, or indoor temperature and is viewable from a distance, giving your thermostat some extra function.

This unique learning feature is the primary reason we have continued to choose a Nest model as our top smart thermostat. An HVAC monitoring feature detects and notifies you of any problem with your system, such as a furnace shutdown or extended heating or cooling times. We had some experience with this feature in our testing of the more basic Nest Thermostat See Other smart thermostats we like. Another essential smart feature of the Nest is its Eco Mode, which uses a combination of presence sensing and geofencing to determine when the house is empty and then tells the thermostat to keep temperatures within an energy-saving range.

The Nest thermostat also saves energy by employing machine-learning artificial intelligence that measures how long it takes for your home to heat or cool based on outside temperatures and then optimizes your Schedule so that it comes on at just the right time without over- or underheating or over- or undercooling.

However, an always-running fan can become a nuisance noise-wise, so we ended up turning these features off. We specifically evaluated the energy-usage reporting the Nest offers and looked at how that information could help you save money. The Nest offers a day history in the app and online that shows you when the system was set automatically or manually and to what temperature. You also receive a monthly energy report in your inbox, but this is mostly fluff and advertising.

You can pair up to 10 sensors with one thermostat and set them on a Schedule in the Nest app that targets the rooms the sensors are in at a certain time of day. For example, we tested three sensors and had the thermostat target the kitchen in the morning, the living room during the day, and the dining room in the evening.

We really liked this feature and found that it worked well for a household with predictable routines. Having to set precise times was a bit restrictive, though, and we found that the occupancy sensors on the Ecobee and Honeywell Home T9 sensors, which can trigger the thermostat based on your presence, were a better option in this regard.

You can also control it with your voice by connecting it to Google Assistant or Alexa. The Nest app is really good; it displays the automatically generated Schedule, and it allows you to make temperature adjustments, switch settings and climate modes, and view a day history.

If you have other Nest devices, such as cameras or smoke alarms , the app consolidates them all into a single view, which is convenient. When the feature is enabled, you can have your thermostat set itself to its Away mode when you leave and Home mode when you return.

It can also tell compatible smart-home devices, such as lights, plugs, and cameras, to adjust. When we walked in the door, our Philips Hue lights turned on, our Arlo cameras turned off, and the thermostat switched to Home almost instantly.

Another feature we really like is that the Nest can automatically shut down your HVAC system when a connected Nest Protect smoke alarm detects smoke or fire. The Nest Learning Thermostat is very expensive. In our experience, problems can crop up because the system gets confused about which temperature you want. To fix the issue, we deleted the Schedule the Nest had set and told it to relearn, which it did much more effectively the second time.

If you run into similar issues, we recommend resetting your automatic Schedule at the start of a new season to let the thermostat learn your new pattern. We also think Google should include one sensor with the Nest thermostat, as Ecobee does for its model. If you want a thermostat you can put on a wall and forget, Nest is best. But if you want deep control over every change your thermostat makes, Ecobee is the better choice.

The Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control is a complex piece of equipment that can do nearly everything you might want a smart thermostat to do; it also works with every major smart-home system including Apple HomeKit , and it even doubles as an Alexa smart speaker. However, it has a more difficult learning curve, needs a C wire for power, and requires you to do a bit of tinkering to get the most out of its powerful capabilities.

The Ecobee SmartThermostat is a well-designed device that looks good on a wall. It has small touchpoints, however, which are tricky for those with larger fingers to navigate precisely a 6-foot-4 member of our household has a tough time with it. These small, square devices have sleek rounded corners and a variety of mounting options so you can easily place them around your house to monitor temperature and occupancy.

By keeping tabs on two or more areas this way, you can choose to have your system prioritize one sensor over the others or average the temperatures between them. This arrangement solves the age-old heating and cooling problem where one room is toasty and warm while another feels like a refrigerator or vice versa in the summer. The thermostat comes with one sensor, and you can add up to The Ecobee thermostat is compatible with the same number of HVAC systems as the Nest, including those systems with humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and ventilators you can check its compatibility with your system.

It is also Energy Star rated, potentially qualifying you for a rebate. Installation is similar to that of the Nest and straightforward, although if you have a complicated HVAC system you may want to enlist the help of an expert. Including pairing four sensors, connecting to Wi-Fi, and setting up three smart-home system integrations, installation took us about an hour.

If you have to wire in the power extender kit, factor in an extra two hours or hiring an electrician. This is the only thermostat to feature a built-in smart speaker, and the audio quality and microphone responsiveness are on a par with those of the third-gen Amazon Echo Dot in quality.

All the standard Echo speaker features are here, including Alexa Calling, Messaging, and Drop In, so you can use your thermostat as you would an old-school intercom system. When we were away, however, it took too long to automatically adjust to Away Mode, and then to recognize when we returned home, even with geofencing options turned on. For example, when we arrived home while the Schedule was set to Away, it took over 30 minutes to switch, by which time we had walked over to the thermostat and changed it.

To get the greatest energy savings, you need to either manually change the mode to Home or Away status on the touchscreen or in the app or set up other smart-home integrations to do that for you more on those later. But a word of warning here: If you deviate from the Schedule or presence-sensing setup, the system goes into an indefinite hold and can cause problems such as your system running overnight when you thought it would revert to your Sleep setting this happened in our testing.

If you want to use your Ecobee thermostat with a smart-home system, this problem gets trickier: If you use Alexa, HomeKit, or another external system to change the temperature, the thermostat will hold at that setpoint until you manually change it. A big selling point of the Ecobee thermostat is that it's compatible with all those different smart-home systems. Because Alexa is built into the device, you can use your voice to adjust the temperature, ask Alexa which equipment is running, and hear what the temperature is in different rooms.

HomeKit integration is a nice feature for Apple users. But the alerts it sent indicating that humidity was high seemed to be a useful addition. But if yours does, we advise talking with your utility company first to understand exactly how the program might impact you before enabling anything through the thermostat. The T5 is good-looking, if somewhat chunky, consisting of a sleek black box with white fonts on a black screen, like a digital alarm clock.

Installation is straightforward, and the device walks you through enabling geofencing and setting the temperature you want for Wake, Home, Away, and Sleep Modes. You use the Honeywell Home companion app to pair the thermostat with HomeKit if you want to and to connect the device to Wi-Fi to set up Schedules or enable geofencing. In our initial testing, we encountered issues with the device disconnecting from Wi-Fi, but after a reset we had no further problems.

The screen displays the time and current temperature until you touch it, which in our testing required a surprisingly forceful press and sometimes more than one. It then displays the time, the target temperature, the current temperature, and a huge array of on-screen buttons, including for plus and minus temperature; Home, Away, and Sleep Modes; the current Mode; and Off, Cool, Heat, Emergency Heat, and Fan.