Smart thermostat for old oil furnace.

[GrumpyDad]

Any suggestions on a smart thermostat that I can remotely set via my phone? I wont use Google products as I am out $200 because of an update they pushed that fried my device and because I was out of warranty they wouldnt replace. So never again. (very well known issue, there are many like me)

I dont think we are going to keep this furnace for more than a couple of years as Im likely going to do minisplits and get rid of this thing.

It only has two wires, so it would need to be something that I could either charge or connect an external power adapter to power. I think they call that the C wire, but Im not sure.

I do not need the ability to program. I just want to manually set it for 68 when we are arriving to our camp on the weekends, and manually set it there back down to 50 once it comes up to temp and then let it sit like that all week while we arent there. I have a wood stove and a fireplace, but those take time to heat up so we use the oil to bring the place up to a comfortable temperature before the wood takes over. The oil furnace takes awhile to heat the place though. So walking into 50 degrees and it being like that for about 45 minutes has wife/kids all fussy. So I thought if I could find something I could trigger remotely for like $75 that wasnt too much of a hassle to setup, Id go for it.

 

[vbu]

We have sensi thermostats and we like them. Around $100 I believe

 

[GrumpyDad]

We have sensi thermostats and we like them. Around $100 I believe

that looks exactly like what Im looking for, something cheaper but can work on my furnace.

 

[vbu]

that looks exactly like what Im looking for, something cheaper but can work on my furnace.

Yeah we’ve had them for years. Each month you get a usage report for each thermostat with how many hours the heat/ac ran and in the app you can track it back per month, going back several years.
Is your thermostat wiring just 2 wires? If you have a spare wire you can more than likely wire up the c wire yourself, that’s what I did to our units. It’s just a ground. Find spare wire, hook to ground on your transformer, and you’re done. If you can’t, I think they sell power supplies for this, but if you have a spare wire you don’t have to.

 

[NewGuy132]

I know you said no Google products, but I run the Nest thermostats. My state has a $100 thermostat rebate so I think they ended up running me like $30 each. They run on just a white and red wire and obviously have an app and can be turned on/off from a phone. Between my house now (4 zones) and my old house(2 zones) I have had 6 and haven't had any issues with them.

 

[Hogwildz]

I have been using an Ecobee for years, and it makes life easier. Unless you lose power, but then you have other problems.

 

[Seanbear]

Losing power sucks, thats one reason I got a wood stove. I have kero lamps, 3 camping lamps, 5 9 Volt batteries, flashlights everywhere, a duffle bag thats loaded and ready to camping in a min. Nothing is more important tan heat to me, and I can cook on it, no electricity needed.