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Ecobee 3 - Eco Settings Issue

zsjordan

Member
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
11
Location
Delray Beach, FL
Hey all,

I recently purchased an Ecobee 3 which comes with the remote smart sensor. I was hoping to use this as a sort of damper system. I have the main thermostat in the living room by the front door, and can run the house at 78. At night time, I need our bedroom to be 70 in order for the wife to be happy. At night, I have the system focus on the remote smart sensor in our bedroom (set to 70) and the main room thermostat has no control during this period. Ever since I've had this thermostat, I thought it would help my energy bill, but it hasn't seemed to pay off.

The other day, I noticed something fun. I have the Ecobee set to engage with all the ECO+ settings with the exception of the auto home/away function because the sensors are in bad placements to truly understand if we are home or not. The other morning, I noticed that a green ECO+ icon appeared (around 9am) and the temperature was set to 66, which I did not set. The ECO+ message says that it's "using cheaper, cleaner energy to prepare for more expensive peak hours. My normal schedule (78 degrees) was going to resume at 9pm. What that means in actuality is that the AC would have run all day long because during hot summer Florida months, there is no way my house would have gotten down to 66 and stayed there. So my concern is, if anyone knows the real answer, that I don't think that ECO+ setting would have actually saved me money by running my AC all day long at 66 instead of the normal 78 that I kept it. I canceled this setting for the day because I didn't want to be dumping money.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm very much considering turning this feature off because I don't want this to be happening when I'm not home and costing me more in my monthly bill than usual. Any help would be so greatly appreciated.
 

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jlv03

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2020
Messages
347
Location
SE IA
I don't have an Ecobee, so I'm not sure how it operates. I do have several Nest thermostats, which probably have similar functions.

First question I have is - are you sure the A/C was kicking on? Or was the thermostat giving an indication of what it might do through the day to cycle the A/C to reach your 9PM set point?

I'd almost be inclined to let it run for a day to see what happens. Is it just throwing 66 on there to artificially drop the temp every once in awhile to force the unit to run periodically, even if the temp drops below the set point?
 
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66cj225

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 4, 2011
Messages
332
Location
NH
66 sounds like a heat setback setting. Does the device know it's in FL on AC? Do you have a time-of-day savings on your electric? "Dumping money"? When the outside unit shuts off, you're saving money.
 
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