Best way to integrate a thermostat with Homeseer (through the M1 Gold or not??)

[scott12v]

I am in the process of building a house and am starting to make some purchase decisions. I will be installing all of my own structured wiring as well as the Elk M1 Gold (recently purchased). I am also new to Homeseer.

I will have two separate heating/Cooling Zones (1 AC/Heater located in the attic and 1 in the basement) and will have two separate thermostats.

I am trying to determine the best way to integrate a thermostat into Homeseer. I see three options:

1. Hook the thermostat directly to the Homeseer PC
2. Hook the thermostat to the Elk M1 Gold
3. Get an X10 or Z-Wave thermostat

I had originally thought that Z-Wave was going to take the place of X10 as the best solution for lighting control and therefore, I had convinced myself to go with the Z-Wave thermostat. However, I'm coming to believe that Z-Wave may be supplanted by UPB or Insteon before it really gets off the ground. Because of this uncertainty, I'm a little wary of my option #3 above (I really don't want to go with X10).

That leaves me with options 1 and 2...what functionality do a gain/lose by hooking a thermostat to the Elk rather than directly to my Homeseer PC.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

[AutomatedOutlet]

I would say that the most reliable solution would be to use the serial thermostats directly connected to the M1.

[Rupp]

.. or use a Z-Wave tstat controlled by HS.

[Mark L]

I would (and did) connect my RCS directly to the Elk. It woulds perfectly.

Mark

[AutomatedOutlet]

Yes, although HomeSeer is a great software package, I like the idea of thermostats connecting to a solid state device instead of a PC with windows.

[scott12v]

Thanks for the responses.

Scott

[FryGuy]

I just purchased the M1 today. Did some research and pretty sure that if you go the M1 route you have to purchase an additional Elk M1XSP card per thermostat. Cost per card is roughly $60 (so total of $120 for 2).

That being said, if money isnt a huge issue seems to be the best solution (and the one i'm doing). Please correct me if i'm wrong

EDIT: I was wrong :-) read next post

[david0126]

M1XSP and thermostats

You will only need one M1XSP for four RCS thermostats. The M1 Zwave interface that supports four thermostats and lighting control is in beta testing now.

[Threadhead]

I have to disagree with just about everyone. I have the HAI thermostats and while I had them connected to my Elk for a while, there is MUCH more control when connected directly to Homeseer and you use the HAI thermostat plug-in. For example, you can easily access HS through the web and set all of your tstat settings with a couple of clicks. Also, my tstats can show the outside temp, which you could not set if they were connected to the Elk. Plus, I have my HS system pull off stats based on the usage of the system and save them in a MySQL log.

The fears of connecting thermostats to a "non-solid state" device are really unfounded. They will follow the program sechedule that you set regardless of wether the connection goes down or not.

You can do a lot more to the tstat and get more information if you do NOT connect to the Elk. The HAI tstats are nice, small, easy to program and fairly inexpensive. Be sure to check them out (Martin has them at great prices).

[frobnitz]

Are there any Z-wave stats out there besides the RCS one? I don't see much advantage in Z-wave over the conventional serial stats they sell. That said, I would love another choice from the mainline thermostat people that looked nicer. WAF is important for anything that hangs on a wall...

Thanks,
Mike

[bktabinga]

Regurgitating an old thread...

Had a quick question since I am waiting on my HAI stats...

Plan is to hook them up to the M1 Gold, but after reading the post previous, their seems to be a valid argument that hooking up to your computer doesn't "degrade" you in anyway, considering tstats will run regardless of a working HS connection.

Question more revolves around what plugins to get and if they even work.

1) If you have HAI connected to M1, is buying the HAI plugin a waste of money in the sense that a) it won't be able to read the stats because no direct connection to PC, or you are replicating what the ELK HS plugin will do.

2) Does the ELK HS plugin replace the need for the ELK RP software? Could you essentially program the ELK with logic using HS. Will that logic work once shoud HS disconnect, i.e. is what is programmed via the HS plugin stored in the ELK memory.

3) Assuming you didn't have ELK RP software, what is the difference if HAI stat is connected to PC or ELK...either way, shouldn't TSTATS be running on internal programming?

4) With all the different options for control, what trumps what? If some visitor changes local settings, does that void HS logic... Or for example, ELK logic versus HS logic versus local input override???

5) Lastly, debating the $99.99 MainLobby ELK interface...(because I really love those cool keypads and HAI stat images)...you throw that plugin in the mix, man you have a smorgasboard of options...how does one make sense...if I operating like a Windows machine, I would swear there would be conflicts abound... it seems that the more capable stuff is, the more confusing it gets.

[bola09]

Z-wave thermostat work well for us

I moved to my new house about six months ago and the z-wave thermostat is one system that has worked flawlesslly. I have three system, one for each floor and, I have never had any problems with any of them. All setting and control are done through homeseer and, the possibilities are limitmess really.

One thing I have discover with homeseer/z-wave is not to set your recurring events less than hourly. I did and, it literally shut down my system. With due respect to all the negative comments about PC, if you are able to devote one PC to home automation, I think you will find the reliability satisfactory. At least, that has been my experience.

[Stef]

Hi,

Among all the new product, are there any tstats that would work for electric baseboard heating?

[kuntakintay]

With due respect to all the negative comments about PC, if you are able to devote one PC to home automation, I think you will find the reliability satisfactory. At least, that has been my experience.

I agree. Most of us that are running advanced automation systems in our homes have pretty stable hs servers, and I can say for a fact that unless I am screwing around with things, my server uptime is near 100%. I think that I may have had 1 occurence over the past year where the server crashed and HS was hosed, and needed a reboot. I usually reboot every 2 weeks regardless as I am always TWEAKING something... Now with that said, I live in a warm climate, and dont have to worry about freezes, so take this with caution. I can respect those that worry about their heating systems being on a microsoft based product... ;-) Sounds like everything is stored at the device though, so only thing you would loose with a crash is remote control of the system.