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The idea of a wi-fi enabled thermostat that you can control remotely through your smart phone or computer is very appealing. Unfortunately most of the wi-fi thermostats Ive run across have one major flaw. They require the use of an internet or cloud based system for remote monitoring capabilities which leads to a lot of problems and concerns. Ive had my Honeywell Wi-Fi Programmable Touchscreen Thermostat RTH8580WF installed for over a month now and here are my issues with not only the Honeywell thermostat but other similar thermostats that can only be used with a 3rd party web service.
Cannot Access Thermostat Directly
The biggest drawback is that while the thermostat can communicate on your wireless network, most of these cannot be accessed directly. The Honeywell RTH8580WF I own for example is not accessible on my local home network.
It took me a while and some effort getting the thermostat installed because I needed to run a new thermostat wire to connect the C wire but after that everything was going well. Then Superstorm Sandy hit my area. I wasnt hit as hard as others but I did have some damage to my home and other issues to deal with.
Luckily I didnt lose power but I did lose phone and internet service. I spent most of the day after the storm assessing damage, taking pictures, watching workers, cleaning up debris, doing some maintenance and temporary repairs.
That evening I crawled into bed cold and tired. I was about to step out of bed and head down to my thermostat to raise the temperature until I remembered I have a thermostat I can remotely control with my phone. As I was reaching for my phone I remembered my internet service was down due to the storm. I had just installed the thermostat the previous day, spent time and money (close to $50 for fish tape, wire and transformer) to get the thermostat installed before the storm hit and now the first time I really wanted to use it, I couldnt. It was a real let down.
All the other devices on my network worked fine, even wi-fi connected ones such as my phone. I was able to upload photos and videos to my media server from my phone all day. These thermostats that require an external web service cannot be remotely controlled when the internet connection is down. Even if youre connected to the same local network.
This was a big dissapointment for me because I had planned to develop some software to monitor the temperature in my home. At some point this functionality may be available through the Total Control Comfort website but its not there yet. Even if it does get added to the portal Im still not comfortable letting a 3rd party have access to personal information such as my homes temperature.
Privacy Concerns
The web based portals that allow remote control of the thermostat also appear collect information about your schedule, indoor and outdoor temperature as well as any changes you make to your thermostat. In the case of my Honeywell thermostat, it was sending information to Honeywells webservers over 100 times a day.
While the connections appear to be secured by SSL and the web service is password protected there is always the possibility that the information can be accessed by those not authorized to do so. Knowing how you set your thermostat can allow someone to guess when you are or arent at home. The information can also be accessed legally if subpoenaed. What happens if theres a crime committed and someone misidentifies you at the scene? You claim you were home alone when you would normally be at work. Instead of raising the temperature you put on a sweater or stayed in bed sick. Authorities request your thermostat history and sees you didnt increase the temperature which may poke a hole in your alibi in some peoples eyes.
These may seem far fetched but could be a big problem if they ever happen to you. There are other ways that the information may come back to haunt you.
Targeted Advertising
In the connected world we live in, information is very valuable. Think of a company like Google. It provides a free service to the masses but it uses the information it gathers from those users to make billions of dollars. They monitor usage and search patterns to be able to provide targeted advertisements which advertisers are happy to pay for.
The same can be done with your cloud based thermostat. Does your home take longer to heat up than other homes in your area? That might be valuable information that can be sold to local contractors in your area or other service providers and they can even know the best time to call. Does your thermostat schedule indicate you work at night? More advertisements can be tailored for you.
But your phone number is on the National Do Not Call Registry so you dont have to worry about that right? Wrong. Any company you currently have a relationship with can call you unless you specifically tell them not to. All it would take was for your thermostat service provider to do the calling on behalf of third parties or they might just send you junk mail.
Carefully review the Privacy Policy for the thermostat you choose if it only has an option for web based access. Unfortunately this information is not provided when you make the purchase.
Possible Future Fees
Honeywells Terms of Service indicate that they have the right to charge a fee for use of their web based portal. Another company already has instituted a monthly fee to remotely control the thermostat. Whether fees are charged or not will depend how much money the company can make off the usage statistics and other personal information it gathers. All the internet connected computers and employees it takes to run the web portal arent free.
If the web portal ever gets discontinued for whatever reason or fees are instituted that you do not wish to pay, remote control of the thermostat through the Internet is gone.
Needs A C Wire
This isnt such a big drawback, especially if you have a newer HVAC system but in older homes it may require running additional wiring. My original thermostat only controlled my heating system and used 2 wires. I needed additional wires to run the power to the thermostat. The thermostat draws too much power to be run on batteries solely.
I contacted the manufacturer of my heating system and they informed me that it wasnt recommended to run the C wire off the 24VAC transformer. They claimed it would increase the load on the transformer and might cause problems including premature failure of the transformer. That meant buying an external 24vac transformer for the thermostat. Between the new wire, transformer and fish tape it wound up costing me close to $50 to run the new wires to install the thermostat. Thats with doing all the work myself. If you hire an electrician or HVAC contractor to do the work, youll have to pay labor costs.
Other Options
I dont like the idea of sending out my homes temperature information to someone else thousands of times each month so I was glad that the wi-fi features of the thermostat could be disabled.
After looking around it seems the only wi-fi thermostats that allow you to access them directly are the Homewerks Radio Thermostat CT-30-H-K2
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New Wi-Fi thermostats are available that allow you to remotely control the temperature in your home. Unlike other battery powered programmable thermostats, these new thermostats cant run on batteries alone and even if they can they will drain the battery quickly. Its therefor necessary to connect a "C" wire to these thermostats to provide power. This post details how I provided power to my thermostat that didnt have a C wire running to it by using a plug-in 24 volt AC transformer. With a C wire powering your thermostat you wont need to worry about the batteries dying and you can set the light on your thermostat to be always on to act as a nightlight.
The thermostat I was replacing only controls my gas fired, hot water boiler which provides heat only. I didnt have to worry about cooling as my AC unit runs off a separate thermostat. There were three wires coming out of the wall where my old thermostat was mounted. My heating system only requires two wires, R and W, to operate. I thought I could use the third wire to power my thermostat and use that as the C wire. Unfortunately I ran into a couple of problems.
First, there wiring was very old and there appeared to be a break in that third wire. I couldnt get current to flow to it from the basement.
Second, and probably most importantly, I called the manufacturer of my boiler to double check that it would be okay to connect the thermostat to the C terminal on the 24 volt AC transformer in the boiler. These types of thermostats are called "power stealing" thermostats and the manufacturer (Weil McLain) does not recommend using a power stealing thermostat with my boiler. They were worried that the additional load from the thermostat may cause the transformer to prematurely burn out. They recommend using a separate 24 vac transformer to power the thermostat.
The instructions for the Honeywell Wi-Fi Programmable Touchscreen Thermostat (RTH8580WF1007/U)
There is no standard color coding for thermostat wiring. I decided to use the following convention. R - Red, W - White, Rc - Yellow, C - Blue. The yellow and blue wires will go to the transformer and since its an AC transformer they could be switched.
The 5 conductor wire will be snaked down the wall into my basement. From there Ill separate it into two runs. The Red and White will connect to an existing wire in my basement that goes into my boiler and connects to the R and W terminals on my boiler. The Yellow and Blue wires will run along another wire that goes to the plug-in 24vac transformer that will be plugged into a nearby outlet in the basement.
Step 2: Turn Off Your HVAC System
Before doing anything turn off the power to your HVAC system. This will vary by system but there should be some sort of switch near your system or there might be a breaker specifically labeled in your main circuit breaker panel.
Step 3: Remove Old Thermostat
Your new thermostat will come with instructions and wire labels. Follow the instructions to label your existing wires with the stickers so you know which wire is which.
After you label your wires but before you completely disconnect them from the old thermostat, wrap a pencil around the existing wires and/or tape the wires to the wall the prevent them from slipping down into the hole.
If you need to drill holes for new wall anchors to screw in your new thermostat, do that now. Luckily I was replacing a different Honeywell Programmable thermostat that used the same hole spacing.
Step 4: Run New Thermostat Wire
This is the tricky part and how you run your wire is going to depend on how your existing wire is run. I was lucky and my thermostat had a straight run down the wall it was installed on down to my basement. By pulling on the wire from upstairs and down in the basement I was able to tell that the wire was not firmly stapled to the wall and Id be able to pull it right out. The types of fasteners I saw used in the basement were fairly loose fitting. If thats not the case for you you might have a harder time snaking the new wire. You might have to make small holes in your walls here or there. Fishing wire can be tricky and you might want to hire an electrician to do this for you. Remember, its best not to try and tackle this when its very cold and you dont want to be without heat for a couple of days if something goes wrong.
Prepare Fish Tape
The first time I ever used the GB Fish Tape it was very difficult to get it out of the reel. Youre supposed to pull the steel tape out by hand. Its coated in oil which makes it tricky. I took the tape outdoors, dont do this on carpet or the oil will stain it, and pulled out as much of the tape as I could by hand. Then I stepped on the end and pulled on the reel slowly working all the tape out. As my reach wasnt sufficient I walked down the tape to change where I was putting pressure. Be careful not to severely bend the steel tape when doing this. One I got all the tape out I reeled it in and repeated the processes. Now whenever I use the fish tape it comes out effortlessly.
Attach Wire to Fish Tape
From upstairs, where the old wire was coming out of the hole in the wall I attached the wire to the end of the fish tape. Theres a small hole in the end that I passed the wires through and then used electrical tape to secure everything together. Make sure that the tape is put on neatly so that the point of connection isnt significantly thicker than the thickness of the wire. Tug on it a few times to make sure the wire isnt going to come off of the fish tape while youre pulling it through the wall.
Make sure you have enough fish tape unreeled to reach down to the other end of the opening.
Pull Wire Down
Next I went down to my basement where the old thermostat wire was coming out of the floor boards. I carefully pulled down on the old wire until the fish tape came down to a working level. I had to run up once to feed in the fish tape when it seemed to get a big snagged. This operation is easier if you have one person guiding the tape down from above and another pulling from below but is doable with one person.
Attach New Wire To Fish Tape
First I unspooled a sufficient length of wire and straightened it out a bit. I made sure to unspool enough wire that when I pulled the end upstairs the spool will still be on the ground so that the weight of the spool wouldnt pull the wire back down.
I stripped off about 1.5" of the brown outer wire wrap exposing the 5 individual colored wires. I passed those wires through the holes in the end of the fish tape. Then I took 3 of the individual strands one by one and wrapped them around the tip of the fish tape. Two in one direction and the other in the other direction. This will help secure the wires on the tape. Finally I securely wrapped the connection using electrical tape and tugged on it a few times to make sure it wouldnt come apart while pulling the wire through the wall.
I had taken a picture before I wrapped the connection with electrical tape to show you how I fastened the wire to the end of the tape. Unfortunately I didnt realize the photo didnt come out when I took it. The description above will hopefully be sufficient. Any way you attach it its important that it provides some security and doesnt add much to the width.
Pull New Wire Up Through Wall
The first step is to start feeding the wire up from below until the connection between the fish tape and thermostat wire is past the hole. This is one of the points where the wire might snag. Its easier to do this with two people but I managed on my own.
Once the connection was through I double checked that the wire was straight and that there was enough unspooled.
Then I went upstairs and carefully pulled the fish tape up until the new wire came out of the hole in the wall.
I made sure I had enough wire to work with and I wrapped some tape around the new wire, while keeping the tape on the spool, to prevent the wire from slipping back down the hole. You could also wrap the wires around something like a pencil.
Step 5: Connect Wires to Thermostat Base Plate
With the new wire fished through the wall it was time to start wiring up the new thermostat. I trimmed the wire to an appropriate length so about 4 inches was sticking out of the wall. Id deal with the mess of unwrapping the electrical tape off the end and fish tape later. I began by stripping a couple of inches of the brown outer wire sheath to expose the 5 individual color coded wires within. Then I wrapped the Green wire back against the main wire bundle since I wasnt going to be using it then I stripped about 3/8" off the end of the 4 remaining wires as shown.
Remove Jumper
The base plate of the thermostat comes with a metal jumper connected between Rc and R, it looks like a small staple. This jumper needs to be removed to be able to wire the thermostat to an independent power transformer. To remove it, use the small flat-headed precision screwdriver to loosen the two screws for Rc and R in the black terminal block. You dont need to unscrew them all the way, just until the tops of the screws are flush with the top of the black terminal block. Once both screws are loosened just pull the jumper out.
The Rc terminal is used for connecting the cooling relay. If your thermostat controls both your heating and cooling system Im not sure how youd go about wiring an external transformer. In that case youd likely need to wire your thermostats C wire directly to the transformer on your 24 volt HVAC system.
Attach Wires
One by one feed the end of each wire into its appropriate terminal block and screw it down to hold it in place. The convention Im using is:
- R - Red (to boiler)
- W - White (to boiler)
- Rc - Yellow (to transformer)
- C - Blue (to transformer)
Once the wires are attached you can secure the base plate to the wall. I used a small level on the side to make sure the base was mounted straight. (The top of the thermostat and base plate are curved.) The picture, didnt come out quite as straight :) but you can see how the 4 wires attach to the thermostats base plate.
Depending on your HVAC system your wiring might be different.
Step 6: Connect Thermostat To Transformer
Next I determined where I was going to plug the 24 vac transformer in and measured out the appropriate length of wire from the spool. I knew I was going to have extra thermostat wire left over and I will be using that instead of getting a different 2 conductor wire since I wont need all 5 for this run.
After trimming the wire to length, I stripped off the ends of the wires and, wrapped the each around one of the 2 screw terminals on the transformer and tightened them down. The position of these two wires isnt important as this is an AC transformer. I picked this particular 24vac transformer (MGT2440) because it had the screw terminals.
Next I attached the yellow wire coming from the transformer to the yellow wire running down from the thermostat. I stripped the ends of both about 3/4", used pliers to wrap the wires around each other in a clockwise direction and secured them with an orange wire nut. I repeated the process for the blue wire from the transformer to the thermostat wire.
Before going any further I wanted to make sure the thermostat was getting power so I plugged the transformer in, ran upstairs, pushed the thermostat onto its base and was happy to see the screen on :)
I had already configured to wireless settings when I was testing the 24vac transformer before I went through all this trouble.
Step 7: Connect Thermostat to Boiler
There was a 3 conductor wire running from the boiler to the old wiring for the thermostat. Luckily this new wiring was color coded so I knew which colors went to the R and W terminals on the boiler. One by one I attached the Red wire from the new wire that I ran from the thermostat to the basement by stripping off 3/4" off the new wire and wrapping it around the wire running to the thermostat R terminal in the boiler. The boiler wire was previously connected to the old wire and already stripped. I capped the connection with a wire nut and repeated the process for the White wire to the wire that runs to the W terminal on the boiler.
I flipped the switch to turn the power to the boiler back on and ran upstairs to make sure everything was working. I turned up the thermostat and checked to make sure the boiler fired up. While downstairs next to the boiler I used my phone to turn the thermostat down and within a few seconds the boiler turned off. :)
Step 8: Wrap Things Up
Now that I know everything is working correctly I wrapped electrical tape around the wire nuts to help keep them secure and I used the Fire Block Caulking in the opening from the basement up to the wall where the new thermostat wire runs. To be on the safe side I double checked that everything was working. Using the app on my phone I can adjust the thermostat from anywhere.
One of the nice things about having the thermostat plugged into the wall is that the light on the thermostat can always stay on and I dont have to worry about batteries draining. The thermostat is next to an opening I tend to bump into when I go down to grab a glass of water in the middle of the night. Hopefully no more stubbed toes and I never have to worry about replacing the batteries.
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Do you see my thermostat? Would you if I had not mentioned it? I disguised it by working it into the
wall art. I used similar shapes to help your eye pass right by the utility. You can also put a fancy
frame around the thermostat to help incorporate it but hanging things to close and right over top of it
can cause it not to read the rooms temperature right. I know cause I did it before.
I used fancy little frames I picked up at yard sales and second hand stores. They have no glass
and I painted them white. I cut heavy brown cardboard to fit inside the frames, and hot glued the
keys to the cardboard.
I usually have some painted frames listed for sale if you are local and wanting to do this yourself.
http://blogspot.ca/p/mirror-for-sale.html
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