The Home Improvement Thread

[AlienXtx]

Does anyone have experience with the Ecobee smart thermostats? I am looking to upgrade to a programmable setup but not needing a top of the line setup.

Smart Thermostat Enhanced | ecobee

Save on energy bills without sacrificing comfort with ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced. Completely redesigned with a larger screen and radar sensing.

www.ecobee.com

I have them in every one of my facilities. They are decent and can be controlled from your computer or a phone app if need be. You can also set them up to remind you for filter changes etc. I have 1-2 that drop wifi sometimes, but they are still working at that time just no remote access.

 

[tx_shooter]

I have them in every one of my facilities. They are decent and can be controlled from your computer or a phone app if need be. You can also set them up to remind you for filter changes etc. I have 1-2 that drop wifi sometimes, but they are still working at that time just no remote access.View attachment 53898View attachment 53899

Do they automatically switch from heat to cool as needed to maintain temp?

 

[AlienXtx]

Do they automatically switch from heat to cool as needed to maintain temp?

Yeah, they have an auto mode. You can also set holiday schedules etc

 

[tx_shooter]

Thanks, that confirms what I am looking for.

 

[Anathollo]

Does anyone have experience with the Ecobee smart thermostats? I am looking to upgrade to a programmable setup but not needing a top of the line setup.

Smart Thermostat Enhanced | ecobee

Save on energy bills without sacrificing comfort with ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced. Completely redesigned with a larger screen and radar sensing.

www.ecobee.com

I like that the ecobee's can sync with little pucks that you can take with you into a room so it'll know the temperature in that room as well as where the thermostat is. That way if your bedroom gets too hot at night, it'll run the AC more often if you take that puck into the room with you.

 

[AlienXtx]

Yeah you can connect multiple sensors up. My 2 office stats have 2 each.

 

[Anathollo]

I got all the heavy stuff moved over to my house on Monday (not including my shop stuff). Ended up just doing it all myself this time
Finally got to spend a couple of nights over at the house and it's really awesome to finally be in the house! I get to watch the ship channel and wash my balls at the same time from the window in the master shower

I still have a metric fuckton of stuff to do. I still need to move my whole shop over to the new garage and get that set back up.

 

[Taco Loco]

I got all the heavy stuff moved over to my house on Monday (not including my shop stuff). Ended up just doing it all myself this time
Finally got to spend a couple of nights over at the house and it's really awesome to finally be in the house! I get to watch the ship channel and wash my balls at the same time from the window in the master shower

I still have a metric fuckton of stuff to do. I still need to move my whole shop over to the new garage and get that set back up.

Awesome! The house turned out nice sir.

It's a shame that bay system is polluted though.

 

[Anathollo]

Awesome! The house turned out nice sir.

It's a shame that bay system is polluted though.

Yeah it is a shame but if the water was blue and you could eat out of the bay then I wouldn't be able to afford to live there. My house would be a $5-$10 million dollar mansion owned by an oil & gas CEO instead of what it is today.

 

[Taco Loco]

Yeah it is a shame but if the water was blue and you could eat out of the bay then I wouldn't be able to afford to live there. My house would be a $5-$10 million dollar mansion owned by an oil & gas CEO instead of what it is today.

Haha yeah I hear ya. Anything waterfront is still expensive.

With a ~30min boat ride, you have some other bay systems other than the trinity/Gal bays that are cleaner for fishing/recreation.

 

[tx_shooter]

Looks like I have a week of maintenance work coming up on my house. The doors & trim, garage doors, and a few trim pieces need to be repainted. I am debating an airless HVLP sprayer for the garage doors.

 

[Anathollo]

Looks like I have a week of maintenance work coming up on my house. The doors & trim, garage doors, and a few trim pieces need to be repainted. I am debating an airless HVLP sprayer for the garage doors.

Get a smooth roller (high dollar one not the cheap ones) and you'll get really good results painting your garage doors.

 

[Anathollo]

I've been fighting a bad cold for over a week now so I haven't gotten much done the past two weekends.

But I felt ok enough yesterday to get the masterbath cabinets hung, got the downstairs shoe rack assembled and put together the new couch pieces for our lovesac couch to make it bigger. My wife was happy but I still ended up sweating through a T-shirt in 72° inside so I went and layed back down to rest

 

[Silverback]

 

[tx_shooter]

So I went forward with the Ecobee install this afternoon. I had to check a few things with @Anathollo to confirm my theory on the wires/ ports was correct. I swapped the Honeywell out, the Ecobee in, and had no power. I checked a few things and decided to back out of the install since it was 10p at night and already 75 degrees in the house.

Then the Honeywell was not working either. So after 30 minutes of troubleshooting and trying to reset the air handler I found the blown 3 amp fuse. The fuse is swapped and house is starting to cool down again. Will try the Ecobee again at a later time.

 

[PSU Taco85]

So I went forward with the Ecobee install this afternoon. I had to check a few things with @Anathollo to confirm my theory on the wires/ ports was correct. I swapped the Honeywell out, the Ecobee in, and had no power. I checked a few things and decided to back out of the install since it was 10p at night and already 75 degrees in the house.

Then the Honeywell was not working either. So after 30 minutes of troubleshooting and trying to reset the air handler I found the blown 3 amp fuse. The fuse is swapped and house is starting to cool down again. Will try the Ecobee again at a later time.

Make sure you have a common wire or else the eco bee won’t work. And turn off the 24v supply from the air handler before messing with the wires.

 

[AlienXtx]

So I went forward with the Ecobee install this afternoon. I had to check a few things with @Anathollo to confirm my theory on the wires/ ports was correct. I swapped the Honeywell out, the Ecobee in, and had no power. I checked a few things and decided to back out of the install since it was 10p at night and already 75 degrees in the house.

Then the Honeywell was not working either. So after 30 minutes of troubleshooting and trying to reset the air handler I found the blown 3 amp fuse. The fuse is swapped and house is starting to cool down again. Will try the Ecobee again at a later time.

Don't touch the red wire to anything during install (or turn off power like @PSU Taco85 said). That's why you blew the fuse. Depending on if you have a heat pump, gas or electric the wires / settings will vary. But typically Red-24v, White- Heat, Green-fan and Yello-cool. Then you should have a common that could be Brown, black or blue (typically blue). HP uses a few extra wires for secondary heat (W2) and reversing valve (O). If you have gas I believe you set it for the unit to control fan, and if it's electric the tstat should control the fan. I remember this being an issue with ours and the fan wasn't coming on in time.

 

[tx_shooter]

Make sure you have a common wire or else the eco bee won’t work. And turn off the 24v supply from the air handler before messing with the wires.

The setup has a common and I turned off power to the AC. Not sure where I screwed myself; but next time I am going to trip the breakers at the air handler as well.

@AlienXtx - yeah, the standard wires are there, just the black was used for W1 instead of white.

If I did not have a house full of people coming over today I would go for round 2; but I do not feel like opening that can of worms at the same time.

 

[AlienXtx]

It always oissed me off when some asshat switched up the common color coded way of doing the wiring. 99% of brands use it with the exception of Lennox (junk), but you always get some company that has their tech wire it up fucked so if someone else ever comes along they have to figure it out

 

[Anathollo]

It always oissed me off when some asshat switched up the common color coded way of doing the wiring. 99% of brands use it with the exception of Lennox (junk), but you always get some company that has their tech wire it up fucked so if someone else ever comes along they have to figure it out

Yep or when the white wire fades to an almost yellow wire and you sit there wondering why you have two yellows for a few mins I ended up using some tape to mark the white wire so I didn't mix it up.