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Preface: please don't tell us why we shouldn't use a smart thermostat.
I'll probably need to go on a video rant about this, but smart thermostats are rapidly getting dumber.
My folks got a new heat pump system in the spring. It needed a new two-stage thermostat and the company offered an Ecobee.
"Great!" I thought. People kept telling me Ecobee is better than Nest, and I've had major frustrations with the new Nest thermostat.
Folks. It's just bad in different but equally maddening ways.
The ONE THING Ecobee did better was holding. Y'know, the feature every programmable thermostat has had forever.
Well, in November I went on a trip with them and needed to figure out how to get the thermostat to be dumb for their house/dogsitter.
Where did the hold feature go? It appeared to be gone.
Oh? Now you have to go into the settings and tell it *how long* you want it to hold a temporary change, and one of the options is "indefinitely"
WHO THOUGHT THAT MADE ANY SENSE
Meanwhile, Nest no longer (at least with the basic ones) lets you set different schedules for heating and cooling modes.
Call me crazy, but I actually like my HVAC system to run different schedules in the heating vs. cooling season (and I NEVER let it run on "auto" mode).
You used to be able to do this! The old Nest app supported it and it made perfect sense. The Google Home app doesn't, and the new cheap Nests don't talk to the old app and IT'S ALL SO STUPID
Literally all anybody is asking for is a thermostat which can do scheduling, can be remotely controlled/monitored, and change setpoints based on occupancy.
It needs to be an easier-to-program thermostat with a few smarts on top and THAT'S IT.
Right now, they're all sliding backwards in the name of "comfort presets" or some BS and the experience of using them is much worse than a simple programmable unit.
I cannot fathom who is making these design decisions and why. It's just awful.
Okay, ya got me: my last post was kind of harsh.
Please feel free to be helpful here, but also:
Check your holier-than-thou attitudes at the door. Read your post and wonder if someone else might view it as judgmental - I sense a lot of thinly veiled criticisms towards people who dare to use commercial smart thermostats.
@TechConnectify yeah... Maker-adjacent and Linux-adjacent communities have a lot of this unfortunately.
I get that (they think that) it's better over there. I largely agree. But that's mostly because they've forgotten (or blocked out) the MOUNTAINS of nonsense they have already suffered through, much of which they are still putting up with.
@groxx and it's easy to forget that the skills that you have learned are not common at all.
I do this myself, but as a communicator primarily I need to recognize when I'm doing this. I'm usually pretty good, but there have been failures.
@TechConnectify not common and often extremely expensive to acquire from scratch, yeah. Being raised around it is something few can choose.
I imagine the communicatory-ness is especially hard with YouTube-popularity bringing an endlessly changing swarm of people, but tbh I think you're doing pretty good. I run into a lot of random people who enjoy your stuff. I'd offer constructive feedback if I had any, but mostly I think just keep doing your thing, keep experimenting, and I'll enjoy the ride.
