Comments on: Ecobee Smart Thermostat http://www.multimedia-pcs.com/ecobee-smart-thermostat/ HTPC, Gadgets, Technology Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:17:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Erik http://www.multimedia-pcs.com/ecobee-smart-thermostat/comment-page-1/#comment-637 Erik Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:43:28 +0000 http://www.multimedia-pcs.com/?p=733#comment-637 This unit apparently has only the bare minimum (to qualify for energy star) of 4 pre-programmed temp changes per day; has only 30 min resolution! Ridiculous that an advanced, expensive unit would have such obvious limitations!! Robert Shaw units (of course, not WiFi capable) provide 6 pre-programmed temp changes per day. This means you can have wake/breakfast, lunch, return home/dinner settings, or, as I use the extra settings: late-night, wake/breakfast, regular-day, return-home&dinner, after-dinner-tv-watching (yes i only really need 5). Other units also provide 15 min or better resolution. Still a lot of room for improvement in web accessible thermostats. One question I have is does one have to register with them, or, if I have my own dynamic dns capable router, can I bypass their web site? Axis security cameras work this way: if you want, you can feed your web cam thru them and they’ll do the work of keeping track of its IP address if it ever changes, but, if you have your own dynamic dns capable router, you can bypass their hosting service and get directly to your web cam from the internet. I'd hate have to go thru a third party forever. This unit apparently has only the bare minimum (to qualify for energy star) of 4 pre-programmed temp changes per day; has only 30 min resolution! Ridiculous that an advanced, expensive unit would have such obvious limitations!!

Robert Shaw units (of course, not WiFi capable) provide 6 pre-programmed temp changes per day. This means you can have wake/breakfast, lunch, return home/dinner settings, or, as I use the extra settings: late-night, wake/breakfast, regular-day, return-home&dinner, after-dinner-tv-watching (yes i only really need 5).

Other units also provide 15 min or better resolution.

Still a lot of room for improvement in web accessible thermostats.

One question I have is does one have to register with them, or, if I have my own dynamic dns capable router, can I bypass their web site? Axis security cameras work this way: if you want, you can feed your web cam thru them and they’ll do the work of keeping track of its IP address if it ever changes, but, if you have your own dynamic dns capable router, you can bypass their hosting service and get directly to your web cam from the internet. I’d hate have to go thru a third party forever.

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