Wifi controlled heating/cooling for detached garage?

[ianmgull]

I'm buying a new house next month and one of the more exciting things (for me) is I'll finally have a (detached) garage to set up a proper shop. It's in northern Ohio, so I have hot humid summers, and bitterly cold winters. I'd like to set up something for heating/cooling and was wondering if anyone knew any solutions that could be controlled wirelessly.

I know that there are now wireless thermostats for your house, but I don't know of any window unit or standalone heater/AC that will work with a thermostat. Is there anything that might work here? I'd love to be able to kick climate control on an hour before I head out to the garage.

In case it matters, it's not a very big garage. Probably 1.5 car or a small 2 car with about an 8 or 9 foot roof.

thanks

 

[redman333]

I don't have the info directly on hand but there have been people that got the wireless thermostats to connect to window unit ac. Not sure about heat but I know I saw a CNET writer get his wall unit(think hotel heater) to work with a nest. Just Google it for now. I'll try to see if I can find the link a bit later today.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CoogarXR]

My heat and AC are old units with knobs (not digital). I just flip the breaker to turn one or the other unit on. I bought a network enabled thermostat that will eventually control contactors to turn the power to the heat/ac on instead.

So that's how I'm gonna do it. Someday... I have all the stuff, it's just a matter of finding time to connect it all.

 

[Walter_TA]

get Smartthings and an appliance module. Turn off the power till you want it to cool, then turn it on with your phone. 150.00 or so. you will need a network connection.

 

[ianmgull]

get Smartthings and an appliance module. Turn off the power till you want it to cool, then turn it on with your phone. 150.00 or so. you will need a network connection.

I figured something like that would be the simplest solution. I guess I'd have to find one with an analog thermostat as opposed to digital because often the digital ones don't remember the last temperature they were set at.

I was hoping to find something where I could actually control the temp via wifi, but this might be the simplest solution.

 

[Falcon67]

All current models of "window shaker" AC units have timers. If I plan to work in the shop during the summer, I set the timer on my AC units to come on - say - 19 hours from when I exit the building in the evening. Simple.

A timer will not work because those type of units will just power up but not start running. Same as power cycling the breaker.

Alternately, you can throw money at it.
https://www.acwholesalers.com/Fried...30V/42752.ac?gclid=CLT9yejB49MCFQSLaQodbhkLpg

For heat, I use a 17K BTU electric and if work is planned, I just leave it on a setting that keeps the work room around 60F until I get out there. It's a Dayton G73, it could also be controlled with a line voltage (240V 30A) type thermostat or 24V contactor+wifi t-stat+24v transformer setup.

 

[crackerjack9]

WeMo outlet adaptors work really well if you have a wifi signal. There wouldnt be a thermostat but you could control the power to the outlet remotely by the app. And you can set it to go on or off with a schedule.

 

[Falcon67]

Those are great - but you can't control window units with a power outlet. If you could, they would immediately start up when you first plug them in - they don't.

 

[matt_i]

A coworker showed me his Honeywell thermostat setup that he controls from a smartphone app. So he could dial up the heat while on the way home.

the thermostat is just a signaling device, you'd have to integrate this into whatever sources you have for heating + cooling. Relays and contactors are the typical fare.

 

[Falcon67]

We have a Honeywell - it's wifi/control setup is not as nice as the Filtrete it replaced (Filtrete would not work well with the house heat pump). The Honeywell has already - in a year - lost it's wifi chip. The Filtrete was in service for 8 years before we changed the HVAC system out. I'll not buy another Honeywell part. JMO. Considering buying a new model Filtrete as the old one may have had some firmware problem with the Ruud heat pump controls. The Filtrete would also store usage data in the cloud so you could compare run times and such. The Honeywell app/web connection does not store run time info.

Not recommended

 

[Denwood]

You can control with an appliance module, motion or door sensor (which report temp) and an automation hub. Just don't use smartthings..not stable enough. Vera would work better. You'd need two simple scenes, one to turn the AC unit on, another to turn it off. This way you can specify a temperature delta between on and off temps.

I use both Vera and Smartthings. The business site uses Vera and temp inputs from nine ecobee stats to manage HRV units, night cooling, alarm integration etc. I also manage multiple automated SolarSmart window units in that building using Vera.

 

[dogdog]

WeMo outlet adaptors work really well if you have a wifi signal. There wouldnt be a thermostat but you could control the power to the outlet remotely by the app. And you can set it to go on or off with a schedule.

Don't use Wemo for these things.... it sucked craps *** big time. for one thing, it is not secure, for another you'll needed another device just to control the temperature.... wemo is just a switch and app only control, anyone have access to your wifi or network, have access to your wemo device.

Honeywell or few other manufactures, have a wifi thermostat, that worked well, and more secure. allows you to set temp for both heat and cool as well as control over web browser instead of just apps.

 

[crackerjack9]

out of curiosity, why would it matter if someone had access to my wemo device? Wouldnt the bigger issue be that they were on my wifi?

 

[dogdog]

Dunno your security concern.... a friend visiting,guest , shared wifi, forgotten to secure your wifi, got brute forced ? Other than wemo plaque with bugs and support.


something additional...
A separate login process/app to a device is an extra layer of security and flexibility and scalability as in multi site control as well... instead of poorly implemented cloud base control....
You know that wemo apps doesn't allow you to have multi-site control in one device/app.
Aside from having no temp control for heating or cooling....

On the other hand, having a wifi thermostat device, I can easily rig it up to run an attic fan say a 30AMP attic fan.... but you'll have to be reasonable with the temp in order to make use of the temperature to stop the fan once it reach a certain temp....(means don't expect the attic fan to run your garage down to 50 deg in the Summer time, and just not sure about insurance things, but it can be done) It can be done with a 24VAC transformer, the same wifi thermostat used for heating and a 24VAC contactor like the one for your outdoor AC Unit or one of those 3-32V SSRs, you can always add a higher temp control device made for attic fans in-line to the fan.

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

There are some mini-spit heat pumps that can be controlled via an app on your phone. One brand that's popular on here: http://ingramswaterandair.com/mrcool-mrcool-series-c-45_124_4659_4661.html