Reddit reviews ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat with Remote Sensor, 2nd Generation

Ecobee 3 w/ room sensor on sale on their site for 199. 11/18 - 11/28.

https://www.ecobee.com

Amazon currently is showing the same price.

https://www.amazon.com/Ecobee3-Thermostat-Sensor-Generation-Amazon/dp/B00ZIRV39M


Edit: added links

I'm no indoor air quality expert but based on this website your CO2 levels are only slightly above normal. I wouldn't do anything drastic unless you feel the levels are effecting your health. Here are some cheap things you could do to slightly lower the CO2 levels:

1. Open windows more frequently.
   
2. Add a fresh air intake in your basement. This is a simple duct (often flex) that connects to the outside and has a trap at the bottom to keep cold air from pouring in in the winter. This would supply make up air for your kitchen hood or if you have a draft vent gas water heater. In fact I would very highly recommend it for safety reasons if you do have a natural draft gas water heater as it can help it prevent back drafting.
   
3. Never use your ventless fireplace. They are illegal in some areas and IMHO should be banned. I doubt it's the source of your air quality problems but I would make a plan to scrap it.
   
4. Get a smart thermostat that you can set to run the fan on your furnace periodically. I believe the ecobee 3 does this but the nest thermostat may also. This will stir up the air in your house and help with the elevated CO2 levels particularly in closed bedrooms.
   
   If all of the above don't work the device you're looking for to add fresh air to your home is called a Heat Recover Ventilator (HRV.) Basically it's an air exchanger that pipes fresh air into your home while minimizing heat loss or gain. You should be able to get one with or have an inline hepa filter as part of the system. You're looking likly looking at $500-1000 for the HRV and 1-3K+ for installation depending on your local prices and how difficult it will be to retrofit this onto your system. If you go this route I'd recommend getting several quotes from local HVAC companies.

Buy the Ecobee. Amazon has them on sale for $199.
https://www.amazon.com/ecobee3-Smarter-Thermostat-Remote-Generation/dp/B00ZIRV39M/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1465586829&sr=1-1&keywords=ecobee+3

https://www.amazon.com/Ecobee3-Thermostat-Sensor-Generation-Amazon/dp/B00ZIRV39M

$185 shipped on Amazon.

Brand new (still in the shrink wrap!) Ecobee 3 thermostat with remote temperature sensor. It's this one.


Asking $170.

No doubt your remark was meant in jest, but to set the story straight, the ecobee3 got its name because it was the third hardware model of thermostat released by ecobee (the ecobee Smart Si and EMS Si were more or less identical, with one targeting home owners and the other targeting commercial establishments). Here's a complete list of their thermostats:

• ecobee Smart Thermostat
  
• ecobee Smart Si & ecobee EMS Si
  
• ecobee3
  
• ecobee3 2nd generation with HomeKit support
  
• ecobee3 lite
  
• ecobee4
  

Same predicament! It is on amazon.ca. https://www.amazon.ca/ecobee3-Thermostat-Sensor-Wi-Fi-Generation/dp/B00ZIRV39M/

Just throwing it out there that relocating the thermostat or adding a remote sensor won't fix your underlying problem of a drafty apartment. All this will do will change the "set" temperature of the thermostat to keep the apartment at a comfortable temperature.

A cheap solution? Buy a cheap thermometer and place it in an area you want to be comfortable. Note the set temperature of your thermostat to keep it at this temperature and adjust accordingly.

As /u/niceflipflop stated, your cheapest option for what you're describing will be $240+.

FYI this is a $185 smart home thermostat on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Ecobee3-Thermostat-Sensor-Generation-Amazon/dp/B00ZIRV39M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1496173307&sr=8-2&keywords=ecobee3

You can control your window AC with this (app, web portal, Alexa) as long as the AC has an infrared remote capability:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P2KP0MQ/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_nlx8ybTGWYFZ5


Then use this thermostat for the central HVAC unit.

Ecobee3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZIRV39M/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_Nlx8ybHQE7BMW


A window AC is cheaper, but you'll get better results adding a unit to your central system for sure.

ecobee3 Thermostat with Sensor, Wi-Fi, 2nd Generation, Works with Amazon Alexa https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZIRV39M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_EHSxzbDFPF8HW

It only comes with one sensor, but more can be added if you'd like.

The best part about this thermostat is you can have it completely ignore the thermostat temperature and only go off of the remote sensor temp. Or you can have it average the temp across multiple sensors.

AFAIK, there is no inexpensive z-wave or zigbee temperature sensor that works with Wink. There are a few alternatives:

• A Spotter Uniq (v2) - if you can find one. The temperature sensor in these is far more accurate than the temperature sensor in the original Quirky Spotter.
  
• According the Wink support, the sensors for the Leaksmart water valve controller can also sense temperature. I have no experience with these, but the Leaksmart package is not inexpensive and the Leaksmart sensors are about $70.
  
• If you have an ecobee3 thermostat, the Wink app receives temperature updates from the ecobee3 sensors. The sensors themselves are in the price range of z-wave sensors (~$70 for two). Wink robots can be triggered using readings from these sensors. There is a delay of about 30 secs - 1 min.
  
• If you're prepared to go out of the Wink ecosystem, you can consider wireless sensor tags. The tag manager is ~$50 and the tags are ~$30. While these don't connect to Wink directly, they have an IFTTT channel that you can use to trigger Wink robots. This also works well, with a delay of about 1 minute.
  
  I am using ecobee3 sensors in one location and wireless sensor tags in another. They both work well with the Wink app. I use the ecobee3 sensors to control a window AC using the Remotec ZXT-120 z-wave/IR gateway that is paired to the Wink hub. And I use the wireless sensor tags to control a dehumidifer - also using the Wink hub and the same Remotec z-wave/IR gateway.

Amazon Link.

There's a lot of things you can do, depending on the level of effort you're willing or able to give, or the amount of money you have. Answers have already been given on how to participate in climate change groups or movements, so I'll skip on those and just talk about energy efficiency. The beauty about most of the common energy efficiency improvements is that they will also save you money, so even if you're not all about being "green", you might still care about saving money. Here's just the things I can think of off the top of my head, and I don't expect most people to do all or most of these, but almost anyone can go over this list and find a few things from it that they could easily do and save money from.

• The most obvious, and most important: Reduce, reuse, recycle. For the average person, almost everything you use throughout your daily life caused pollution in some way to make. Packaging for your food, water bottles, and the food itself required energy to make. If you can find ways to use less, reuse the things you do use, or recycle the things you must throw away, those will all help in reducing future pollution. Some simple things you can do: Buy large containers of food instead of multiple smaller containers. Buy reusable durable tupperware that you can store leftovers in, rather than using aluminum foil or plastic wrap that must be throw away or recycled. And when recycling, at the very least, always recycle aluminum, it's easily reusable and getting new aluminum out of ore takes a lot of electricity.
  
• If you have a decent amount of money the first thing I would do is go completely solar or wind power for your house. It can be an expensive investment, but depending on your circumstances it could pay itself off in 5-20 years. Also many states offer rebates or incentives to buy solar power, so its worth looking into. If you can't buy solar panels for your house, many power companies allow you to purchase green energy, this allows you to buy your power from a company that is generating the power from solar or wind, so you're helping the environment by the same amount, you're just not getting rid of your energy bill.
  
• If you have a lot of money, go solar, get batteries to store the extra energy, get an all-electric car like a Tesla and you never pay for gas again and you refill the car for free using the solar energy you've harnessed.
  
• If you can't afford going solar, maybe replace all of the bulbs in your house with LED bulbs, you can get LED bulbs on Amazon or at a Walmart for about $1.50 apiece, I replaced all of the 60-watt bulbs in my house with 5-watt LED bulbs that will last 10x longer and use 1/12th the amount of energy. This helps the environment but also lowers my energy bill by about $8-10 per month. After just a few months the bulbs have paid for themselves.
  
• Turn off lights and fans for rooms you're not in.
  
• Get a smart thermostat, like an Ecobee3. They cost $225-250 usually but mine lowered by energy bill by about $12/month so it'll pay itself off in less than 2 years. I live in a temperate climate so my bills are generally lower as well, if you live somewhere less temperate than your savings may be even greater. A smart thermostat can be smart about not cooling or heating your house when nobody is home, and with the Ecobee3 and its remote sensors it won't bother turning on the heat or A/C if the room that needs it is currently unoccupied.
  
• If you have single-pane windows, get double or triple pane windows, or storm windows.
  
• Improve home insulation if needed.
  
• Seal any air leaks in your house.
  
• In the summer: Consider using fans to push out hot air or bring in cool air depending on climate and time of day. A fan will use 25-50 watts of power, running your A/C is going to be 1400-3000 watts of power, depending on your setup.
  
• In the summer in a multi-story home, close most of the vents downstairs, this allows the A/C to mostly cool the upstairs which is hotter, and the cooler air will naturally move downstairs anyway. In the winter, reverse it, close the upstairs vents and heat just the downstairs, letting the heat rise upstairs.
  
• In the winter: If you have a multi-story home, try to circulate the air in the house, otherwise your upper floors can be 10+ degrees warmer and you're spending a lot of money to heat the downstairs only to have the hot air just go upstairs where it's already warm enough.
  
• Turn off your consoles, don't let them sleep. Xbox One uses something like 25 watts while sleeping, PS4 uses around 8-10 watts. If you left them both sleeping for an entire year, that is about 305 KWh of electricity wasted, which adds up to about $30-$50 of money per year you've spent just paying for them to sleep.
  
• If you can't get an all-electric car, consider a hybrid, if you can't afford that, consider fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles like a Mazda 3.
  
• Avoid unnecessary acceleration and deceleration in your car. Basically, putting the pedal to the metal is inefficient and wastes gas, and hitting the brakes means you've spent energy accelerating and now you're converting that energy to heat. In practice you can get a few extra mpg just by not accelerating too quickly, and not following other cars too closely in traffic (which generally results in lots of braking). Also its been proven that driving more efficiently also reduces traffic congestion overall, so you can be happy about that, if you care. Driving this way is also better on your engine, drivetrain, and brakes.
  
• Stop by your local tire shop and have them check your tire pressure. Low tire pressure will cost you a couple of mpg from your gas milage and can wear out your tires more quickly.
  
• Maybe you don't need a car at all. If you live near decent public transportation, that will use a lot less energy than your own car. Or maybe you could ride a bike.
  
• Carpool. If you're able to carpool, every extra person in a car means one less car on the road, you guys can split the costs of gas and maintenance, and if there are carpool lanes you get to use them all for free. Extra bonus: The more people that carpool, the less cars will be cluttering the highways and causing traffic jams.
  
• Some TVs are more energy efficient than others as well. My current 65" TV uses 270 watts! I'm hoping to upgrade in about a year and new ones I'm looking at already get down to 150 watts for a similar size.
  
• Turn down the brightness of your TV to the lowest brightness that still looks good and lets you see all of the details. Some TVs can get very bright, brighter than they need to be. Your eyes will adjust somewhat so there's no need to keep your TV brighter than you need it to be. You'll save money by turning it down a bit.
  
• When you replace your appliances, look for energy-star appliances, they're guaranteed to be fairly efficient.
  
• Take showers, not baths. The average bath uses around 30 gallons of water, the average shower uses around 20-25 gallons (for a 10-minute shower). In addition to saving money by using less water, you're also paying to heat less water, so you double up on the savings. Also, if you opt for a low-flow shower head you can reduce water and heating by another 20%.
  
• Turn down your water heater to the lowest level that's still comfortable for you, a lot of people keep it turned up too high, causing it to run more than it needs to, which shortens its life span and wastes money and energy.
  
• If you have a lawn or outdoor plants, water them early in the morning before the sun comes up, and at night after the sun has gone down. The heat and sun during the day will evaporate a lot of the water, watering when the sun is down will allow the plants to use more of the water, which means you don't need to use as much water.
  
• Buy appliance timers for things that are using multiple watts of power even when you don't need them.
  
• If you're willing to, eat less meat. Obviously this is not for everyone (I still eat meat frequently, just not large portions of it), but meat comes from animals, those animals require lots of food and water over their lifetime, and some animals like cattle also expel quite a lot of methane (one of the worst greenhouse gases). Vegetables aren't "free" for the environment either, some require a lot of water to grow, which doesn't help with water scarcity. Some veggies like almonds or sprouts are especially bad in this regard. A single almond takes 1.1 gallons of water to grow! Here's some more.. But overall veggies are going to use a lot less water and food to grow, and pollute much less than the animals used to make meat.
  
  Things to consider:
  
  
• Pumping water also requires power from the city to keep water pressure and get water to your house, so using less water saves the city money and means less pollution.
  
• Electric cars use batteries and other materials that cause pollution to make, so they're not free from causing pollution either.

It's 185$ new on amazon... is this the right one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZIRV39M