You definitely want to talk to an installer if you have a Heat pump since not all thermostats can handle them. As for the C wire that is strictly a third wire which delivers power to the thermostat, I believe 12 or 24 Volts and you most likely have it. My 26-year old gas furnace which when I bought the house had one of these $10 or $15 thermostats with a physical slider only had 2-wire cables running to the thermostats, but the furnace has a terminal for the third wire so when I bought our Honeywell T5 smart thermostat I installed it where the old thermostat was which is downstairs and more or less on the other side of the wall from the furnace so it was easy to just pull a 3-wire cable through the wall. I am most likely getting rid of natural gas entirely next year switching to a high-efficiency cold climate heat pump with backup electric heat and at that point I will have to see which thermostat I can use. When I renovated the building where my retail store is located and installed 2 rooftop Anmerican Standard heat pump with natural gas backup units I had to also go with a thermostat from American Standard since any of the consumer models you typically see like Google Nest, Ecobee and so on were not compatible. However, the app is also accessible and it can also be connected to Alexa and/or Google Home so it really didn't matter. I wish I could get away with only an air source heat pump, but where I live in northwestern British Columbia it unfortunately can get too cold for that to be an option and you still need a backup heat source which means either electric or natural gas. Our government really pushes electric and to get rid of natural gas altogether because British Columbia gets well over 90% of its power from hydro electric sources, primarily 2 and soon it will be 3 dams in a row on the Peace River in Northeastern BC so we have clean power and plenty of it. We also have a wood stove which I love to use when it's really cold as it's just the most pleasant and comfortable type of heat. The week before Christmas we had more than a week with temperatures of -30 to -35 Celsius at night (that's -22 to -27 Fahrenheit) and during the day it rarely got warmer than -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) and here my setup works great, our thermostat is in the basement which is used rarely so we just set it to 16 Celsius (60 Fahrenheit), I then close all vents upstairs and run the woodstove which heats our open concept 1,100 square foot upstairs perfectly and the furnace comes on for maybe 5 minutes once or twice an hour.
-----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Kevin Minor Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2022 8:24 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? Hi. I'm supposed to get one of these thermostats for Christmas, but the one I'm interested in requires a C wire to work. I don't know if that's common on heat pumps, or even what it's for. I'd appreciate information on this. My heat pump is about 15 years old, so it may not be a problem. Thanks in advance for any information. Kevin and Jilly -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of sarai.bucciare...@gmail.com Sent: Monday, December 26, 2022 9:05 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? Yes. It works with the Alexa app. No need for the pricy thermostats. This one works great. -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of M. Taylor Sent: Monday, December 26, 2022 7:34 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Cc: vipho...@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? Hello Sarai, This is most interesting. So, the model is called the Amazon Basic Smart Thermostat? The price is definitely right. I will look it up. Thank you, Sarai. Mark -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of sarai.bucciare...@gmail.com Sent: Monday, December 26, 2022 5:18 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? I have the amazon basics smart Thermostat. Cost $60 and works great. -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Katrina Anderson Sent: Monday, December 26, 2022 6:52 PM To: vipho...@googlegroups.com; viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? Hi Mark, I have a Honeywell thermostat, which I access via Alexa to perform basic functions. Yes, I had to register with Honeywell and/or Total Connect Comfort (TCC), but I don't recall the process being difficult. I've had this thermostat for several years, and only recently discovered it could be accessed via Alexa. The process of connecting Alexa to the device was easy as I recall. The thermostat can be accessed via the TCC app, which is very accessible via voiceover. When I first got the thermostat years ago, before I found out about the app, JAWS had trouble accessing all features (e.g. programming the device), so I relied on sighted help. However, JAWS had no problem at all with the website when I tried a year or so ago. Rarely go to the website though as the TCC app is great for programming, etc. And, again Alexa does a great job with the basics like ID of indoor temperature, changing the temperature, etc. HTH Katrina -----Original Message----- From: vipho...@googlegroups.com <vipho...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of M. Taylor Sent: Monday, December 26, 2022 5:01 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Cc: vipho...@googlegroups.com Subject: An Alexa Compatible Thermostat, Anyone? Hello Everyone, Okay, I know that I have asked this question before but, now that I must buy a new thermostat for my home, within the next week or so, as my 32 year old model is starting to fail on a virtually daily basis, what Alexa compatible thermostat do you either recommend and / or are currently using? I am aware of the Nest brand models; I thought they were Google-only models but I think they also can work with Alexa, right? Does anyone have any experience with Nest / Alexa compatibility? Also, I know that Honeywell makes Alexa models but, from what I have read on the web, today, one must setup an online account with Honeywell before the device can be used with Alexa. That sounds like a lot of trouble to me; maybe. The only thing I know for certain is that I want a model that will work with Amazon Alexa, out of the box, because I do not want to use a third-party app, is I can avoid doing so. I have come to trust the Alexa app for iOS and iPad OS. Mark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone, The Next Generation" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone2+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone2/003b01d91975%2499bd5350%24cd37f9f0%24%40ucla.edu. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. 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