What brand of smart thermostat do you prefer?

[Forest Cat]

Oh yeah. A smart thermometer, just what we need to allow others to control our heating units. No thanks. I will take one of these, please.

I have one of these, it's just lovely.

 

[Judge]

I have one of these, it's just lovely.

View attachment 77033

Yep. So many ugly stories of peoples' smart-thermostats being maliciously hacked.

To hack that, I guess I'd have to crash through your front door and throw a great deal of water on it.

Low-tech is good!

 

[Gerontius]

Yep. So many ugly stories of people's smart-thermostats being maliciously hacked.

To hack that, I guess I'd have to crash through your front door and throw a great deal of water on it.

Low-tech is good!

The classic trick to hack a woodstove is to get on the roof & put something over the chimney.

 

[Judge]

The classic trick to hack a woodstove is to get on the roof & put something over the chimney.

The best hack in that regard remains the users themselves. Those who erroneously burn green wood that builds up creosote that eventually results in the chimney itself catching fire.

Leaving those insurers who choose to accept the risk, versus those who consider wood stoves "prohibitive exposures" contrary to their internal underwriting guidelines.

As far as I know, insurance companies remain positive about smart thermostats. Hacking happens, but statistically I can only surmise they have not resulted in major losses.

 

[Storm Hess]

I was wondering, what brand of smart thermostat do you prefer?

I personally like Honeywell/Resideo. I have the Honeywell Color Smart Thermostats.

Putting my hand out the window.

 

[OkRad]

I have one of these, it's just lovely.

View attachment 77033

Dang! That is like one of those pictures people who are phobic of the outside world plaster on their huge TV and pretend they are there. Stellar, my friend! It's lovely.

 

[FreeDiver]

I have a smart home system that I built myself. It consist of the following.

A Raspberry PI Computer (this is the master brain.) running the FairyMagic SpellBook logic control engine and some python scripts that I had written myself. It also hosts the web interface for the system as well and is accessed over the internet by connecting directly to the IP address of my internet connection and not through any cloud based service. Everything is open source. BTW: Yes, my smart home system can function just fine without the internet. The only thing the internet is used for is the remote access and that's it.

All my smart plugs and lights switches are SONOFF brand with hacked open source firmware. They use the esp8266 WIFI microcontroller.

The interface for setting the temperature/mode of my mini-split heat/ac unit is another esp8266 WIFI microcontroller with an IR led attached to it. It take the wifi commands and turns then into the IR remote commands that the mini-split unit understands. So in a nutshell, that's my smart thermostat.

Other thing I have automated, like my sprinkler system. Use industrial automation units that I have salvaged from the scrap yard.

My HAS system does not connect to nor does it rely on any cloud services to function. The only thing my HAS system connects to on the internet is the WWV time server via. NTP and that only use to set the system clocks to the correct date and time.

I will never allow a smart speaker in my house. You never know who, or what is listening on the other side Any IoT device that talks to the cloud is never allow in my house or if I have to, I lock it behind a firewall and not allow it to connect to the internet. If it can't function without internet access. I don't use it.