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Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

This is ingenious (and thermostats are notoriously simple) but I'm surprised it was easier than just running a neutral wire for an Ecobee.

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On the topic: I've had an ecobee 3 for the past few years, and I'm pretty happy with it - if you're in the market I'd highly recommend one. Killer features are mostly from the room sensors:

* Keep upstairs comfortable at night, main floor during the day

* Auto home/away mode (based on motion). This works so well, I only just changed the schedule to account for working from home about a month ago

I also like "Run fan for minimum of x minutes per hour" as it makes a noticeable difference on sunny days where the South side of the house is normally a lot warmer than the North.

Other than that, the app is decent and it's easy to connect to Home Assistant.

I have an older wifi thermostat controlling my fireplace, and a very useful automation I only just added turns on the furnace fan when the fireplace is "on" (temp set above 21) which helps keep the house balanced.

My only complaint about the ecobee is the Alexa integration will listen when I tell my Echo Dot to play music then I’ll end up with the Dot playing Apple Music and the Ecobee playing I Heart Radio or whatever because it doesn’t support Apple Music. So two songs playing and one on a garbage thermostat speaker. I wish it could just have Alexa support but only for thermostat stuff then ignore anything else.

Why not turn off Alexa all together on the stat and have the regular Alexa control it through the integration?

Well the thermostat is in the living room and the echo is near the Alexa enabled microwave in the kitchen. So then we wouldn’t be able to adjust the thermostat from the living room without buying another Echo or Echo Dot.

I too am pretty happy overall with it. The web portal is pretty bad though. Its very finicky about logging in and maintaining its session. The app "Just Works" for the most part.

Yeah - it’s a fun project. I considered doing the same, because of course.

However there is more than one solution for ecobee.

1. Replace the existing wiring! Probably not as hard as you think.

2. Use an external power supply - this is supported by ecobee.

3. There are 2 to 3 wire converters: https://support.ecobee.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008702251-FA...

Roll your own is fun, but these options are all going to be quicker and result in a better solution.

Didn't realize external power supply was available on ecobee, I contacted support (before purchasing) and they only gave me the neutral wire suggestion.

Yeah - I was also misinformed by support both before and after purchase.

They have a great resource library but their support staff don’t seem to get enough training.

Edit: I had to fish a new wire for one thermostat, and rewire the furnace for another. The results were well worth it though because of the wireless temperature and occupancy sensors.

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