Sensi

My thermostat burned out a circuit board during winter. I called my HVAC guy who had just checked the furnace two months ago. He said it was the thermostat not the furnace that was the problem. Since we are gone part of the winter I asked him about installing a WiFi thermostat so I could monitor it and house temp when away. He quoted me $486 installed! After quizzing further he said I could easily do it myself. I have a 90% efficient Trane-not geo thermal or heat pump. He did have to hook up the common in the furnace since my old thermostat did not need it and new one may. I researched Consumer Report and saw the rated NEST the highest but I did not want one with all those features-just a straight forward thermostat. The Emerson SENSI WIFi was 6 highest out of 15 rated and the reviews I read said it was simple and straightforward just like my older one. It is programmable with a daily schedule you put in on iPad app or you can control heat and AC without a programmed schedule. It gives you home temp and will send you an e-mail to alert if home temps get out of whack. Also tells you humidity and outside temp and expected high and low for the day. I bought one at Home Depot on sale for $99. I had 5 wires and it was green to green, yellow to yellow, red to red, white to white, and black to black (common). The app on iPhone assists with install-hard to do it wrong. It has been installed for two weeks and works perfectly. It also does geofencing-who knew!

To the folks who recently complain about multiple furnace screen - I don’t know what you did, but open up settings and it’s simple to correct. User error? We have really enjoyed our new thermostat and this app, installed about 4 years ago. Updates have been good. We've had no connectivity problems, and setting schedules and modifying is straigh simple. It can be set to adjust to outside temps too instead of just time of day. (You can set it to reach the temps you like AT the time you like knowing Sensi will actually turn furnace on sooner and full speed if its really cold out, and closer to the schedule time if it’s only cool out.) I LOVE being able to control our furnace from bed - turning it up early if I wake early, or down if we want to sleep in later than usual. We have even used it from the airport to be sure we returned to a toasty house. I thought our old programable thermostat was fine, but I would never go back now as this system allows much more flexibility for saving energy while you’re sleeping or at work, while still keeping you comfortable. A solid app. We have not tried the beta location app that adjusts temp down 3 degrees if your phone leaves, and turns on as you near home... we keep a pretty predictable schedule and just overuse that if it’s an odd day.

When I got my first Sensi about 1-1/2 yrs ago I was thrilled, especially with the app. Sadly, there's very little great in the tech world that psychopathic designers and programmers can't ruin. The app used to be simple and perfect--open it to a full screen view of your thermostat; and control changes stuck. Now, it first opens to a crippled small list view of "all" your thermostats--because most people have five or six right? </sarcasm> You can change temperature up or down on the dinky view, but have to press to then get the full screen version for things like on/off heat/cool or fan. I use the app a lot as a remote to change fan on/auto so now have to navigate every time to do this--so damned annoying. Also, it used to solidly accept control changes now those are super flaky and often don't stick. I just tried going up from 68 to 72 and had to try several times because it bounced back to 70 then down again to 71. Many times it doesn't stick and send to device after closing app and you have to go back. I used to praise this device to anyone any everyone. Now it is just another piece of annoying crap tech that barely works and is designed by psychotics with no clue.