Z-Wave Thermostat for HS2

[Mark42]

I have an old Wayne Dalton WDTC-20 which has always been somewhat problematic and would like to replace it with a new battery operated thermostat.

The GoControl TBZ48 would fill the bill but HomeSeer informed me that they have never tested it on HS2.

I am running the last HomeSeer 2 version, HS 2.5.0.81 with a ZTroller at firmware level 1.17.

Is anyone running a TBZ48 on HS2? Any other recommendations for a battery operated thermostat for HS2? TIA

Mark

[Techvet]

I just finished upgrading our HS2 system and replaced the RCS ZCV4 set-up with a Honeywell HZ432 Zone Controller and Z-wave thermostats. In the process I hands-on evaluated the GoControl TBZ48, its identical twin, the RCS TBZ48 and the Trane XR548. I have previous experience with the Honeywell Z-wave thermostat by installing 4 of those in a friend's house.

Of those 4, your battery operated options are the GoControl and RCS units. Both will work with batteries only or with a R and C wire from the unit. There are some aesthetic differences, but functionally they are 100% identical and RCS makes both units. Both are nice thermostats and seem to play well with HS2. There are some limitations with both. The most obvious one is that when battery powered they do NOT act as Z-wave repeaters. That is reserved for the R/C wire powere option only and there is no way to override it in the set-up. They also are NOT dual fuel friendly. I won't get into an explanation of that here, but this is likely a throwback to the RCS connection as my prior experience with the ZCV4 set-up was the same.

[Wadenut]

Went with the Honeywell ZWStat on HS2 2.5.0.81. Just needs to be polled when there's a temperature change on the child device to update the parent device's parameters. Could be polled on an interval as well if you preferred that. Other than that, works fine.

[Mark42]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the information.

I jumped the gun and bought a CT-100 for the 2nd floor but it's good to know what other options are available for the future; the main floor thermostat is a battery operated non Z-Wave Honeywell device.

It added to the network ok and seems to be communicating ok. I haven't physically installed it yet, just testing the communications so far.


In looking at the household power consumption, I realized that I was powering the furnace all summer (no whole house AC) just to keep the WDTC-20 powered (its' batteries are for backup only, without 'C' wire power, the batteries will die in 2 days).

Replacing it with a battery powered device will allow completely powering down the furnace and saving a few dollars.

Mark

[Wadenut]

The Honeywell ZWStat then does have battery backup. It only backs up the internal clock so the stat doesn't actually operate without power; but if your intent is to shut down the furnace, this wouldn't be an issue.
In fact, the battery in mine was DOA and I haven't bothered to replace it yet. Just have to reset the clock after power failures - no loss of settings, etc.

[Techvet]

The CT-100 is a very good choice. I played around with one of those too (I have no idea why I didn't mention that earlier) and it's probably the best of the battery powered bunch. I thought the screen was too busy, but it gets great reviews and they are popular with the HS crowd.

[Mark42]

The CT-100 appears to be working well in the HS2 environment.

It created a thermostat parent with 4 children; 2 temperatures, 1 relative humidity, and 1 battery.

One of the temperature children reports when it changes, the other children do not appear to report on change.

I have not yet observed under what, if any, conditions the parent will report on change in HS2 e.g. change in operating mode.

It appears that if you specify a polling frequency in the parent, then the parent and all the children are polled. If instead, you poll the parent in script via hs.PollDevice, then only the parent is polled.

Given my limited requirements and to preserve battery life, I am polling the parent every 20 minutes in script and the battery child once per day at midnight in script. As mentioned, one child temperature continues to report on change; the other temperature and relative humidity are not required at this time.

[joegr]

...In fact, the battery in mine was DOA and I haven't bothered to replace it yet. Just have to reset the clock after power failures - no loss of settings, etc.

It's more likely that the contacts on the battery holder aren't making good contact. Honeywell seems to have a problem with that. Both of mine failed in that way, and I had to modify the holders to get them to work. The problem is that not only are there contacts to the battery, but then there is another set of contacts between the battery holder and the thermostat's PCB.
I thought it was not much of an issue too, since only the TOD is lost when power fails. However, I found that the thermostat would not operate until the time set screen was answered.
(It's a shame that HomeSeer can't/won't send the commands to the stat to set the time and date. The stat does have the ability for that to be done from Z-wave.)

[Wadenut]

It's more likely that the contacts on the battery holder aren't making good contact. Honeywell seems to have a problem with that. Both of mine failed in that way, and I had to modify the holders to get them to work. The problem is that not only are there contacts to the battery, but then there is another set of contacts between the battery holder and the thermostat's PCB.
I thought it was not much of an issue too, since only the TOD is lost when power fails. However, I found that the thermostat would not operate until the time set screen was answered.
(It's a shame that HomeSeer can't/won't send the commands to the stat to set the time and date. The stat does have the ability for that to be done from Z-wave.)

Good to know this. I'll test the battery, and if it's good I'll just wait until summer to take it off the wall and have a look inside.

I wasn't aware that the TOD could be set remotely. It is too bad HS has never made the Z-Wave interface a little more open so we could tweak a bit. There are many devices with more functionality than HS implements.

[langenet]

Funny, I thought this was built in to the z-wave api. My Trane stat gets it's time set from HS. Mind you, it doesn't have a battery. I suppose it doesn't need one.

[Wadenut]

It's more likely that the contacts on the battery holder aren't making good contact. Honeywell seems to have a problem with that. Both of mine failed in that way, and I had to modify the holders to get them to work. The problem is that not only are there contacts to the battery, but then there is another set of contacts between the battery holder and the thermostat's PCB.
I thought it was not much of an issue too, since only the TOD is lost when power fails. However, I found that the thermostat would not operate until the time set screen was answered.
(It's a shame that HomeSeer can't/won't send the commands to the stat to set the time and date. The stat does have the ability for that to be done from Z-wave.)

I had another issue to solve with the propane furnace today and got into this. I don't remember it ever working all that well; I normally burn wood. Thought it was my Stat wiring but eventually found some digit had set the high temperature limit in the furnace too low. When it cut out I lost power to the thermostat as the switch turns off the power supply (explains constantly having to set the time). I don't think I did that, but...
Anyway, in the process pulled the ZWStat apart. Sure enough, the battery holder wasn't making contact with the board. Simple matter of carefully bending the contact a bit, now OK.

[drozwood90]

I use 2 WDTC-20 and one CT-30 without any issue.
The CT-30 is on the furnace and the other two I use just to read the temperature of the three "zones" in my house.

I've not seen any issues since moving to a Hometroller Zee. I used to have strange things happen.

I should also note that my entire Z-Wave network is these three thermostats, two door locks, and 3 misc. appliance modules I use for range extension and controlling my self-made portable automated watering system (P.A.W.S.). So, could be that I have next to nothing in my network?

--Dan