Remote temperature and humidity sensors feeding back to central thermostat

[mm08822]

Honeywell has a thermostat (2 heat/2 cool) that has connectivity to remote sensors that report temp and humidity. Apparently the tstat averages all humidity readings and could be used to better regulate the humidity in the entire single zone house. Possibly the same for temps.

I have a single stage (1 heat/1 cool) tstat and need to replace it as I am going to a 2 stage a/c system. The current tstat controls a forced hot air furnace for 2 floors.

Does anyone have experience with Honeywell or other brands that have this remote sensor connectivity .......pros, cons, challenges, etc.? Has it improved occupant comfort in summer and winter?

 

[The Metric System]

I have not worked with this Honeywell system, but in general my experience with systems with single prime mover and multiple inputs is that additional control points alone don't accomplish anything that good parameter selection and (ideally) placement of a single probe cannot.

If you want to take real advantage of those added inputs you'd need further refinements like active zoning or (at least) a time/occupancy based switch for which one is the primary.

 

[PoorUB]

Does anyone have experience with Honeywell or other brands that have this remote sensor connectivity .......pros, cons, challenges, etc.? Has it improved occupant comfort in summer and winter?

I used to sell Honeywell, although some has changes since I retired.

Dual sensors just average the temperature from one space to the other. It can still get 75 degrees in one space and 70 in the other. It will not do anything to improve the temperature differences from one space to the other, only air flow balancing will improve that. Same for humidity.

 

[mm08822]

I liked the idea of further humidity reduction during the cooling season but worry about driving 1 area too cold with the temperature averaging feature. I assume temp averaging is not selectable. Then the opposite problem occurring during heating season.

Two stage cooling should be an improvement over single.

 

[fitter30]

RH is like temperature flow from high to low. Some electrical suppiers offer a energy audit that includes a blower door test at a reasonable price. See how tight the house is. When temperature rises in a room RH lowers. Manual dampers for run outs at trunk line adjusting them is better than at the registers.

 

[aggie113]

Not something I'm into, but you could get any temp/humidity sensor (like govee) that is compatible with Home Assistant along with a HA compatible thermostat. Then your config sits behind Home Assistant instead of the thermostat.

 

[pcmeiners]

Worked with an older Honeywell tstat for heat only for an entire building with multiple zones. Not only did it smooth out the heat for all zones but incrementally placed (3) boilers on line depending on outside temps and setback temperature.

 

[starquestMM]

It helps some things, but has limitations. Best thing it does for me is the furnace will kick when i use the basement in the winter. Eventually I will probably go the route Aggie mentioned and have my hubitat take over with my own rules.

One of the challanges is that if no motion is detected it defaults back to the main thermostat. I set my nightime mode to not use the "active room" feature and just use my master bedroom.

I also don't care for the controls on what counts as motion. Its vague and would be improved with some more granularity.

 

[Snapped-off]

All my remote temp/rH sensors are Delta. They all report back to a Delta DDC over BACnet, which feeds into BMS.

 

[BurtEggley]

have an ecobee system like that. It has been very consistent. It only averages the rooms it feels activity in.

 

[todd_fuller]

With Ecobee, it's even more flexible that this. You can have several sensors connected to a thermostat. Their scheduling works where you have pre-defined "comfort settings" and for each setting you can assign which sensors are averaged. For instance, you have 1 in a bedroom and 1 in an office, you can setup a sleep schedule that only considers the bedroom sensor at night and use the office sensor for daytime, maybe in late afternoon you have another setting that considers office, bedroom, and living room and averages all 3 together to control the thermostat.

As Burt alludes to, each sensor also has motion sensing so if you're not home, it will go to a setback temperature until motion is detected.

I like the Ecobee since the thermostat location isn't always optimal and this is a good solution to that problem.

I've also seen a new product out there that locates the control part in the furnace/air handler and the user interface is entirely wireless, called Boldr Klima.

 

[jlv03]

I've also seen a new product out there that locates the control part in the furnace/air handler and the user interface is entirely wireless, called Boldr Klima.

New one for me, looks like their primary target is replacing the wireless remote controls for minisplits: https://shopboldr.com/products/klima

 

[bamawildcat]

I've got a Honeywell T9 with this exact functionality. While I do like it and have no complaints, remember it is regulating the whole house to solve the issue you give it. Want you bedroom at 70 degrees? It'll do it, but it might make the other wing of your house 67 degrees if your system is not well balanced. I had my system balanced, and if all doors are open have the same temperature in the three spots of the house I monitor.