At last it arrived on Sunday and installed successfully on the same day, I just couldn’t wait to try it out. The installation took about 40 mins in total in addition to removing the old thermostat and reading the instructions. The unit requires that your old AC must have a Common or “C” wire, basically remove the faceplate and check your wires before buying the Ecobee3.
It was an easy install, simply Disconnect the Mains from the AC unit in the roof, label the wires, remove the old thermostat and install and rewire the new Ecobee3 Thermostat! Simple Plug and play really for the average DIY’er.
[shashin type=”photo” id=”3096,3097,3099,3101″ size=”medium” columns=”2″ order=”user” position=”center”]Then I started the Main power to the AC Unit and the Ecobee3 came to life! It was an easy install, I read some of the comments suggesting that the touch screen was hard to use but it was flawless, and the on Screen keyboard to enter the WiFi password into the Ecobee was what you would expect from any modern touchscreen. In the end of the installation, i activated the remote sensor and placed that in the bedroom, where I need the temperature to be regulated the most.
[shashin type=”photo” id=”3105,3104,3103,3102,3106,3109″ size=”medium” columns=”2″ order=”user” position=”center”]To access the Ecobee3 from the phone, it was a simple download from the App store and I was able to connect to the Ecobee3 by entering it’s code in to the ecobee App.
[shashin type=”photo” id=”3112,3113,3111″ size=”medium” columns=”3″ order=”user” position=”center”]The ecobee3 is also accessible via PC through the Ecobee3 website and in the future through the Apple Watch (don’t have one so didn’t really try).
Courtesy of Ecobee.com
Overall it is what i wanted initially which was a movable thermostat I can take to any room (the wireless sensor) and being able to increase or decrease the settings from the comfort of my bed, but I think it opened up my eyes to the possibilities of energy saving, increasing the life of the AC compressor via scheduling and setting the compressor work time.
The downsides (which are a work in progress) are that the scheduling intervals are at 30 minute increments (you can’t really expect our life to work with 30 minute increments!) I would like to set a higher temperature just before I wake up i.e. 4:50 AM not 4:30 AM in scheduling, so I think there is room for improvement there as well as having the ability to create the scheduling titles ourselves and not be restricted to (Away, Home, Sleep), as well as accessing the different sensors around the house via the app or website which you can only do on the unit itself (I think they are upgrading this feature as they added an icon in the website). I’m sure all of the downsides are an area of improvement and will be looked at for future updates!
Ecobee3 Web AC Management
But I totally love it, and I think I will be looking for products for a smarter home and especially those products that an average-moderate DIY’er can install which will have an impact both for the comfort of our lives, educating my children on Smart Homes and the overall environmental impact. Feel free to shoot any questions in the comments section!
Comments 2
This only works with in-wall controlled ACs but how about ACs that work with IR remote controls? Can they be supported too?
Author
I think for that you will have to look into something like “Tado” which is an IR blaster that is controlled by wifi with a built in proximity Sensor, theoretically should work with many AC units.. It was a kickstarter project which is now available to preorder..
Here’s the link :
https://www.tado.com/en/air-conditioning-control