Yes, it looks like that's what I would need. Now I need to find one that wouldn't look silly sandwiched between my wall and a thermostat. It's probably more likely I would have to wait until someone makes a line voltage wifi thermostat.

I believe those are typically mounted in-line with the baseboard. You run the low voltage line to there.

I know the Nest cannot be directly communicated with via SMS, but could it be done indirectly via some gateway device? The use case here, and yes it is limited and so unlikely something that Nest would add, is for customers without a smart phone and wanting to let the Nest know they are coming home at a different time that normal, and therefore turn the heat on at an earlier or later time.

I don't see why not, if you have the capability to write your own interface. It should be somewhat straight-forward once you pass the hurdle of your gateway receiving the SMS data. After that you can pretty much write a script that interacts with the Nest site via HTTP.

The (huge) drawback is that since you wouldn't be going through any kind of API, once their web site changes you'll have to account for those changes in your script. So it can potentially lead to a long road of cat'n'mouse.

I just wanted to update that I purchased and installed that Trane thermostat (actually, a model slightly newer than that one). I had one major hurdle: no C/24VAC wire, so no power to the thermostat (and it doesn't come with batteries because they'd get drained in no time).

Thankfully, the HVAC gods were smiling on me, and I found that the line they ran from the furnace had four unused wires clipped back into the wall. So I merely picked a wire to carry my power, tied it into the other C wires back at the furnace, and used that. It worked like a charm, and now I can set my thermostat from anywhere! I love it.

The other night, my wife and I went out to do a trivia night with some friends at a bar. I turned the thermostat off when we left for the bar, but on our way back (the bar was about 30 minutes away), I set the thermostat to heat the house back up from the 67 degrees it fell to, and by the time we got back it was comfortable. Loving it.

Side note: I also installed a Z-Wave keypad lock. I can lock and unlock our front door from anywhere too

Matt, can you post the exact model number of your new stat?

Does anyone have or know if there are any coupons available for Lowe's for greater than 10% discount? The new Nest is supposed to be in stores now and I was thinking of possibly picking one up on my next visit to my US mailbox. I currently have a 10% off coupon for Lowe's, but I'd love to find one for an even greater discount.

Bruno, I got this model. So far, so good. Then again, it hasn't had to do a whole lot, since the mild weather here has meant we haven't really needed much heating or cooling.

That thermostat probably doesn't do as much, HVAC-wise, as the Nest does, but it does what we need. Our system isn't very fancy. However, I do believe I can use Vera to tell it what the outside temperature is, which can help in automating it. I could also do stuff like get ZWave door/window sensors, and tell my system that when it detects the windows are open, turn off the HVAC.

I'm not aware of any coupons. My wife and I got a 10% off coupon when we moved, and we used that on our new washer/dryer set to save a good chunk of cash.

Yeah, I also snagged a moving coupon from Lowe's for the next time I'm there.

Matt, did the whole Nexia (wifi web-enabled) thing end up being free with that stat?

I have no clue! I had no intention of using their Nexia service, instead using my Vera Lite from Mi Casa Verde as my Z-Wave hub. It's far more powerful and has a pretty active online community, including professional home automation installers.

I've been spending the whole day wiring in the second batch of ZWave wall switches. I now have almost one entire floor outfitted with ZWave control. There's a couple more lights on the main floor I want to add, then about four in our basement and 6-8 on the second floor. I already have over a dozen lamp modules, so I'm pretty set there.

So that means you're not getting any of the advertised web stuff with it then, right? Like temp/performance trending/graphs.

I suppose not, but I'm not really that concerned about it. I'll have to see if I can get that data through Vera or not. I suspect not, but again, that's not really what I'm in it for. I'm into the home automation side of things and integrating it with the rest of my system.

Understood. I was just trying to cover info for suggesting other WiFi enabled stats for friends who will definitely like the idea, but feel $250 is way too much to spend for something like the Nest or Ecobee.

Gotcha. Sorry, I'm not sure if there's a way to have both at the same time. I think I can only connect it to one service, but I'll investigate. I don't mind having more capabilities

Cool, let me know. None of my friends have any type of automation and I can't even think of one that's using a universal remote. Which is (insanely) hard to believe.

http://support.nest.com/article/What-is-Sunblock

(Sadly my Nest is sitting in a box. I can't hook it up in my new Seattle apartment due to an incompatible heating system.)

Wait... Seattle, now? Dang, you get around.

Welcome to the Pacific NW.

And here I was thinking that I might want a Nest soon, but balking at the $249 price tag. Any chance you'd want to part with yours? (Discount for it being a used item of course.)

(Or should I just bid on a 2nd gen unit on Ebay?)

Yeah, I referred him to my company. So we're coworkers now. (Let's go ork some more cows, shall we?)

I'll ponder this and let you know. It's a strong possibility I'll say yes, since I can't integrate it back into my place of living for a while.

If it's a Gen 1 unit, then never mind, Ebay has Gen 2 units in the 150-200 range.

This is a very good thing. I also turned on the new anti-humidity feature. I'll be curious to see how it works during days when we're away from the house and I set the house to "away" mode. Houston, in the summer, counts as a humid climate...

Houston, in the summer, I'm told, counts as practically underwater.

Data so far: I got rid of my custom schedule that compensated for the afternoon sun on the thermostat. Now, the "sunblock" feature is still "learning". It hasn't actually done anything intelligent yet. It's still overdoing it with AC for the hour that it's getting light. If it doesn't get smart soon, I'll go back to my old workaround scheduling.

Per the link above, sunblock may take a few days to learn and fully activate. Their graph shows two days of learning then activated fully on the third.