“Millennials love the Nest. I'm not sure why. It looks like an over-sized golf ball on the wall to me. Many people like the Nest because of the programmable thermostat functions. Many do not realize that this feature has been available in many thermostats since the late 80's! The only feature Nest had over other thermostats 5 years ago was the Wifi control.Enter the Honeywell 8000 series. The 8000 series has a high end look. It looks and feels like a thermostat in a high end home, not one found in a college tech dorm. In addition to all of the same features as the Nest, there are two big features where the 8000 series wins: 1) Dehumidifier control. Do you and your spouse fight over the temperature control? My wife and I did. Why? I hate humidity. She likes warmth. For the first time in our marriage, we've found a temperature balance. I run the thermostat at 74, but it is smart enough to keep the humidity between 45-60%. How? Once you configure the thermostat with the desired temperature and humidity, it will work to create a balance between the two. You might be tweaking for a week or two, but once set, it's perfect! Wait, you don't have a dehumidifier? You do! Your A/C is a dehumidifier. It will cycle your A/C to control humidity yet monitor temperature control so you don't freeze. If you have external dehumidifier or humidifiers, it can optionally control that too. 2) It has a smarter schedule control. For example, we have our heat set to 65 overnight and 70 by 6:30a when we wake up. Most thermostats will attempt to make 70 beginning at 6:30a and it might not be until 7 before it gets there. The 8000 will ensure that your home is 70 at 6:30a by learning over the first few weeks how long it takes for your home to increase/decrease temperature based on indoor and outdoor conditions. Pretty smart! 3) It has a fan cycle function so the fan only will run 35% of the time the unit would otherwise not run just to keep the air moving in your home. All of these are optional features that can be turned on or off. Some other added features are the outdoor temperature and humidity display (via internet), of course wifi control on a webpage or Apple/Android app, and the ability to send you emails if the indoor temperatures or humidity exceed minimum or maximum thresholds.This requires a "C" wire. What does that mean? In short, count your wires in your current thermostat. Do you have 5? Is one of the wires connected to a "C" terminal? If so, you're set. The C wire allows the thermostat to be powered from your furnace. As a result, your thermostat does not require batteries. If you currently have 4 wires or 4 wires and a battery, you will need a HVAC technician to wire the 5th wire. Chances are your wiring already has it within the wire (just not used) and unless you have a furnace that was made in 1960, your furnace is capable as well. It just needs to be connected. Neither of my units had it, but I grabbed the unused wire and connected it myself to the "C" contact on the furnace and now I'm good. If you're not confident, have an HVAC tech do it. You're already saving $150 dollars over a Nest, use $75 of it for a tech.Finally, there is a red light indicator to tell you when something's wrong, such as your filter needs to be changed, it's calling for cooling or heat but the furnace is not responding, etc.The 9000 series you find at best buy just adds a color background, is higher priced, and it's not as responsive as the 8000. The 9000 is Honeywell's answer to the Nest. Save your money.”
“I purchased this product so that I could control the temp at a weekend home that we have. I was ONLY able to install it myself because I know an HVAC tech who told me what wire to connect to which wires on the thermostat. Otherwise it would have been impossible to figure out. the rest of the set up went very smoothly. I have only had it a week but it seems to be doing the job as I hoped. I recommend it with the proper install knowledge.”
“Like the air circulation feature I did not know about and the ability to set the system to auto cool or heat. Wish that the temperature input for switching from heat pump to aux heat could be set in 1 deg. increments rather than 5 degrees. Phone app works well makes it easy to program the heating and cooling schedule. Haven't tried the vacation schedule yet, but that's a nice feature.”
