[southlander]

Thought I'd post some shots and info for anyone that's into this type of thing. It's made by Venstar and has BlackBerry 10/Android/iOS apps to monitor/control the unit remotely.


The actual thermostat (has a touchscreen of course).


The start-up screen for the app which shows the weather/forecast at the location, and the status of the connected HVAC unit.


Showing how you can control the unit -- any changes of "mode" or temperature and it prompts to send/or not. Logically.


Live view of the connected sensors.


Energy use monitor. The actual website, which you can access via full browser gives much more detailed information and graphs everything out.


More controls. You can set home/away modes which are basically thresholds for heating and cooling. So the rule can be, for example "when in cooling mode cool to 72 degrees/when in heat mode heat to 68 degrees". So you can have "Home" thresholds and then "Away" ones which are separate and you can easily toggle as you come and go.

Here you can also select which of the various schedules to activate. Schedules must be built on the website though -- not on your phone.

From the website (not in app) you can also send "text" messages to the thermostat.

Anyway it is pretty solid. Uses WiFi and no complaints thus far.

[jaydee5799]

OMG I wish I could do that! But I have an old house. I will have to check with an electrician and see if he has any idea about this!

[Relletti]

Wow that's awesome!

Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk

[southlander]

OMG I wish I could do that! But I have an old house. I will have to check with an electrician and see if he has any idea about this!

It supports any heat pump -- pretty much and connects like a standard thermostat. We hired a company to install a new heat pump and they were going to install a plain thermostat. I had them install this and they had zero issues. Said it installed very nicely in fact.

Then with me being the geek I set up the WiFi part and made sure the firmware updated, etc. The unit does not need internet connectivity to work as a thermostat. But with connectivity it has of course the remote app control functions, online reporting and also the ability to auto update its own firmware. Oh yeah and of course the weather forecast display obviously needs the WiFi as well.

You can get it on Amazon along with the SkyPort WiFi module that it needs. They bundle the two. The SkyPort is nothing more than a WiFi SD card that plugs into the side of the thermostat. I am not sure why anyone would by the unit and not get the SkyPort WiFi -- not unless they just want a very fancy and colorful thermostat.

[eddy_berry]

This is awesome! I'm going to take a look at this. Thanks Southlander!