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Community and Q&A

Single Centralized Thermostat

| Posted in Green Products and Materials on

Are there products out there that allow you to replace all of the thermostats in the house with one device? It seems that as the technology advances we’re looking at smarter devices, which means more sensors and controls. I’d rather have a sensor in every zone, and then one device that reads all of the sensors and activates equipment according to the readings and the schedule. So rather than programming a bunch of thermostats just one. And if you decide you want to turn off the HVAC and open a window you don’t have to go around the house turning off ten thermostats.

Does this exist? Thanks.

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Replies

  1. Expert Member
    BILL WICHERS | | #1

    Yes, such systems exist: they’re usually called “building automation systems” and they’re very common in large commercial systems. A common protocol is BACnet. Honeywell makes system components as do many other manufacturers. These systems can do lots of fancy stuff, and along with that ability to do lots of fancy stuff comes lots of complexity. There are companies that specialize in just installing and programming control systems like this.

    Bill

  2. DCContrarian | | #2

    Anything on a residential scale? I don't want to have to reset ten clocks twice a year when the clocks change.

    1. Expert Member
      BILL WICHERS | | #3

      Not that I’m aware of, at least not a complete system.

      I use ecobee thermostats myself, and they self-set their clock from the network. They also do some cloud clustering so a vacation setting on one automatically carries over to the other (I have two ecobee thermostats in my home). You might want to check them out and see if they are a happy medium in terms of what you’re trying to accomplish.

      Bill

  3. jwasilko | | #4

    The Honeywell thermostats can all be centrally managed from their mobile app, or website. We've got 4 and they're great to work with.

    1. DCContrarian | | #5

      How do they communicate with each other? WIFI, ethernet, proprietary?

      Thanks.

      1. jwasilko | | #6

        The thermostats are either wifi, or RedLink with an ethernet gateway on your network.

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