Nest thermostat
The Nest is a really cool thermostat designed by Tony Fadell, Apple’s former Senior Vice President of the iPod Division, that is not only a programmable thermostat but a smart computerized thermostat. The Nest thermostat has high tech looks, aesthetic, and architecturally good looks. Functionally, it’s also very high-tech. The Nest thermostat can be controlled from your smart phone. A motion sensor determines if people are in the room and adjusts its temperature. It also learns your habits and preferences from the way you use your thermostat and adjusts its programming to reflect your needs and desires.
The Nest thermostat caught my eye while walking by a display at Lowe’s and I just had to take a closer look. Unfortunately, I doubt it’s as accurate as an old-style mercury contact thermostat since it’s an electronic thermostat. It’s available at Lowe’s for $249.
Nest’s learning features
ecobee Smart Thermostat
ecobee Smart Thermostat– internet enabled through WiFi and has a free smart phone app for iPhone and Android, so that you can easily monitor and manage your home comfort.
Honeywell Prestige touch screen programmable thermostat
The Honeywell Prestige touch screen programmable thermostat with HD full color display looks like the kind of thermostat I’d like to get, but I wonder if it’s any more accurate than the less expensive thermostats.
The Honeywell Prestige is easy to use, easy to view, comes with a remote control that you can use anywhere in your house, and remote outdoor temperature sensing unit so you can see the outside temperature.
I haven’t found a better looking high-tech thermostat, but my quest for a new thermostat began after years of being annoyed with two inaccurate thermostats.
In my house, I have a 15-year-old Honeywell programmable thermostat which controls both heating and central air conditioning for 5 bedrooms; a second Honeywell programmable thermostat controls heating and central air-conditioning for the kitchen, dining area, family room, living room and dining room; and a third Honeywell basic round non-programmable thermostat (which looks like the current model YCT87K1003 with analog temperature scale) for 10 zone radiant heating which I use in January and February.
My two existing 15-year-old Honeywell programmable thermostats are inaccurate as much as 3°, but the inexpensive round non-programmable thermostat, which uses a coil spring for temperature measurement, is dead on accurate.
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I just purchased a Honeywell RTH6300B Deluxe 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat at Lowes for $49. Without hooking up the electrical connections, I inserted two new batteries and to properly compare accuracy, I placed it sitting on top of my existing thermostat.
I then compared the display temperatures of the 15-year-old programmable thermostat; the new RTH6300B programmable thermostat; and a Cooper-Atkins Multi Probe Temperature Tester model SH66A. The results showed that the two programmable thermostats differ by as much as 3° from actual temperature. The older thermostat usually reads high, while the new thermostat reads low. Accuracy varied and occasionally one of the two thermostats was reading correctly. Both thermostats were more accurate between 70°-72° and less accurate at temperatures below 70°.
I would like to get the Honeywell Prestige thermostat, but I want a programmable thermostat with the accuracy of the basic round thermostat.
Honeywell Prestige details. The Honeywell Prestige HD color touchscreen was originally selling for $464 – $644 but now the Prestige HD 2.0 is much less. Just search online-the best price I found is at Amazon.
Watch the video to see how easy it is to use and how pretty the color screen is on the Honeywell Prestige programmable thermostat.
I like the idea of a remote control for the thermostat, but I would really like to have it connect wirelessly to my wireless access point so I can access and control the thermostat from any of the computers on the network in my house or any Internet connected computer. This would be useful for checking temperature conditions while only on vacation.
If anyone has any information on the accuracy of the Honeywell Prestige thermostat, please let me know. I will provide a complete in-depth review if I ever install the Honeywell Prestige programmable thermostat.
Many people have programmable thermostats that they never actually program because programming can be difficult. The Prestige thermostat is one of the few thermostats that give you step-by-step instructions to setting a schedule. You do have the option of setting up the thermostat yourself, but if you have never used a programmable thermostat before, you can click the “guide me through scheduling” button and it will do most of the work for you.
As cool as having a remote would be considering how often the TV remote goes missing, I know that remote would be MIA more often than not.