“I am a little skeptical about the Ecobee4 Wi-Fi Thermostat with Room Sensor. You need to explain to me how this system will keep an average temperature without opening and closing ducts. My thermostat is in the hallway and the greatroom is always cooler.”
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Since you referenced opening and closing ducts.... I will also put in my comments here, I have answered this same way on several other questions and it might also help you here; The Ecobee in and of itself can help you with what zone you care about for temperature but won’t help you with being able to truly ‘zone’ the house. You can set what sensor(s) you care about in the comfort setting group, from 1 to as many sensors as you have. During the sleep group, I have it only caring about the remote sensor I have in the bedroom. I actually wanted to zone my house because my bedroom would freeze out during the day while the AC was trying to keep the living room temperature comfortable and then at night, we would overheat because now the living room was fine but the bedroom got hit with the sun during the evening. The Ecobee can with the extra sensors make the furnace care about the other rooms and or average out the house, or at night focus on a smaller number of sensors or even a specific one like I talked about, my bedroom. I myself wanted more though and have areas that I don’t care about turn off the vents when I don’t care about them or when they reached temperature that would freeze out stop after the room temperature leveled off at the desired point. I went with the Ecobee and Keen Home smart vents https://keenhome.io because they actually tie together and work together to get ‘zone’ effects like I wanted. The smart vents can close off when the room reaches the desired level for that specific room and then open back up when needed. It doesn’t “call for heat” or “call for cool” but if you use an Ecobee sensor in that room, the Ecobee can then call for heat/cold based on average for the house or for that specific room and then the smart vents will use that same sensor to detect and close off the vent when the set level for that room is reached. It is the best way I have found to do this kind of zoning without having my whole system replaced with something more expensive. I hope that helps.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I have my ecobee set up in the living room and the sensor in the bedroom. There are motion sensors on both the thermostat and the portable sensor so it'll detect when there's someone near that sensor. The way the average temperature works is it'll take all the readings from the sensor and average it out. So in my case I have two sensors, which is the hallway and the bedroom. If i'm in the bedroom and set it to 75, it'll keep the a/c on until the average reading from both sensors is 75. So let's say the hallway is 75 but the bedroom is 77, the average of these two is 76 so the A/C will stay on until the average of these two is 75.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Just to add to some answers. I use a thermostat and a remote sensor for my 2 floors and I average them. Its has always been 8 to 10 degrees hotter on my second floor. Just by averaging your floors isn't going to do much other than giving it a in between setpoint. I set my fan to run ever 1 hour for 15 minutes. This re mixes the warm air back through entire house. By doing this the difference between floors have changed to be about 2 to 3 degrees instead of 8 to 10. Now my average setpoint is more accurate.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Let’s say your living room is cooler than your hallway. If you have a sensor in your living room and the thermostat is in the hallway, you can program the thermostat to turn the heat on when you are in that room. Yes, your hallway may get hotter than the desired temperature but you will be comfortable in your living room. The sensor will determine when someone is present and adjust the temperatures accordingly instead of trying to maintain that temperature no matter if someone is there or not.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Basically, the way I understand it is when it's set up if it senses you near a sensor (in that room) then that room's temperature is factored in, if you're not in that room it ignores it. Example, when you're upstairs in your bedroom it will ignore the temperature at the actual thermostat downstairs and concentrate on the sensor in the room you're in. I've only played with this a little and it takes a few minutes to set up but it seems to work so far.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.The previous answers are spot-on. I will add that the ecobee can be programmed to include or ignore any of the sensors you have, including the main thermostat - so if you only care about the temperature of the great room, keep your remote temperature sensor there and exclude the main thermostat, and ecobee will run the heating/cooling to maintain your desired temperature in that room.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.The sensor is to allow for 2 data points rather than one.....so the remote area is at least considered when heat or AC is called for. It will not overcome any duct adjustment issues but will kick off a heating or cooling session when the remote area gets too cool or too hot. With the motion sensor, it will also ignore those areas if they are unoccupied.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Great question! It has a separate sensor that you can put anywhere else. The thermostat works to regulate the temperature between the base and the additional sensor. Though, if you have a room that is always a different temperature, then that is an issue of the ductwork installation. It was done by someone who didn't or does not know how to "balance" the airflow of the system. A simple fix if the Ecobee is still not getting it done is just finding the right setting on your vent dampers to allow the right amount of air into a room.
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