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Sorry for posting here, as I didn't know where else to put it ... I was looking to replace my thermostat because it's utterly crap, (have to keep the control panel door open, battery compartment doesn't fit quite right and it has to be put at an angle, the apartment always heats even when it's set to low temp, etc.) so I was eyeing some options from Nest, and I was wondering whether the 3rd Thermostat or the Thermostat E was a good choice for me. The E is almost 100 CAD cheaper, but there the finish is wrong, the screen is a bit wonky so I wasn't quite sure about it... but the 3rd gen is 100 CAD more expensive Anyone here has any experiences with these? what would you recommend?

There was a sale up here for the 3rd gen at $50 CAD less, so I grabbed that. The better screen + premium finish + remote thermostat sensors are something I can get behind for $50 CAD rather than $100. I'll update once I get it installed!

What's wrong with a Honeywell T87?

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

What's wrong with a Honeywell T87?

Not the OP, but I have the hardest time seeing those. Always have. I've insisted on digital thermostats ever since I moved out on my own.

Ayup, and it's nice to reduce heating/cooling bills when you're not home at certain times 5 days a week. I've got a dumb programmable 'stat that doesn't talk to anything but the furnace/AC unit, so no worries about being botnetted or automatically getting a firmware upgrade that breaks something.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

My wife’s a stay at home mom who homeschools so programmable offers close to zero value for our specific situation. I just need the digital. I think it is a complication of the color-blindness that there isn’t enough contrast with either the current temp bar or the set temp.

Also they're just small and bleh.

My brother has a Nest 3rd gen and it's awesome. I was actually at his house today while the HVAC guys installed a new A/C and had a little time to play with it. Then he texted me when i was leaving and said "leave it alone, i have it on my phone i'll change it."

I've had a Nest for the last 6 years and I have really enjoyed it. It has actually saved me from frozen pipes before too. I was out of the state for a week around Christmas right after I bought my house. I had just installed the Nest a couple weeks earlier. While away, I started to notice that my house's temp kept dropping. I ended up calling my dad who was able to go check on the house. By the time he got there it was 38°F inside and the forecast called for lows around -10°F. He found that the furnace cover had not been put back on properly and it had rattled loose enough to trip the interlock. He put the cover back on properly and everything was fine, but it definitely wouldn't have been fine if I wasn't able to see the inside temperature from 700 miles away.

TLDR: I really like my Nest and it probably saved me $1000's of damage within the first month it was installed.

I've had this for 3.5 years: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FLZEQH2/

Highly recommended.

One thing to look into is whether your energy provider offers a rebate or discount for certain models. When we bought our house 3 years ago I replaced the thermostat and found that ComEd was offering rebates for installing smart thermostats, but it was limited to the Nest, Ecobee 3 or Honeywell. I ended up with the Ecobee 3 and a $100 rebate on top of a discount that Amazon was providing at the time, so I ended up paying less than half the retail price.

Edit: I just checked the ComEd website and the program has expanded to include 11 models up from 3.