Relative needs a thermostat to keep track of house temp remotely. There is only one zone I believe. Something inexpensive, don't need a Nest, for example.

I would take a look at the Ecobee. You may not need all the features, but having multiple sensors can be very helpful. I have one sensor in the basement, one in each bedroom upstairs. This way I know the temps on every floor of the house.

The basement one is especially useful when we go on vacation in the winter. I set the house to 55 degrees and an alert to tell me when the basement goes below 40. Something could break a basement window and freeze your pipes and you would never know there was a problem because the main floor stays at 55.

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C(-)ris
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Throwback Thursday Signature:

Yes, that's the idea, keeping track of temp for an unoccupied house.

The new Wyze Thermostat looks interesting and is priced at only $50, however they aren't shipping until December.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
-- François de La Rochefoucauld

Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

my local power company has sales and they had nest for only $40 and eco bee for a little more, I think $60 but I don't recall for sure.

My Honeywell works great and seen a model on sale for $99. Integrates with their own app and Alexa

Do they have a “C” wire? Most wifi thermostats require a constant power source (the C wire), but older set ups aren’t usually equipped with one. There are a couple that will work and there is a work around on the furnace end of things, but you/they need to be aware of the requirements of the particular thermostat they choose.

[smartthermostatguide.com]

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!#$@@$#!

If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is sitting on my keyboard.

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Undun
Do they have a “C” wire? Most wifi thermostats require a constant power source (the C wire), but older set ups aren’t usually equipped with one. There are a couple that will work and there is a work around on the furnace end of things, but you/they need to be aware of the requirements of the particular thermostat they choose.

correct, eco bee comes with a power kit extender to work around this requirement. Basically you install a little box inside furnace and that converts that 5 wire setup inside the furnace into. 4 wire setup that goes to the thermostat.

I had one of those fail after 4 years. It still worked, but the relay inside made a terrible bussing noise (probably 60 or 120 Hz) that was so annoying! I found a replacement on eBay.

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C(-)ris
I would take a look at the Ecobee. You may not need all the features, but having multiple sensors can be very helpful. I have one sensor in the basement, one in each bedroom upstairs. This way I know the temps on every floor of the house.

The basement one is especially useful when we go on vacation in the winter. I set the house to 55 degrees and an alert to tell me when the basement goes below 40. Something could break a basement window and freeze your pipes and you would never know there was a problem because the main floor stays at 55.

I second the Ecobee. It is quite capable, but can be just a basic thermostat if you don't want to mess around with digital assistant integrations and whatnot. I can use the app or login to my account on ecobee.com to monitor and change my thermostat settings from anywhere.

As mentioned, the benefit of the Ecobee is the remote sensors. You can use these to monitor temperatures away from the thermostat.

With the Eve app and HomeKit, you can use the Ecobee temperature sensors as a trigger device. You would need to add an AppleTV or HomePod in order to support HomeKit remotely.

The original Emerson Sensi is about as no-frills as it gets, and does not require a C-wire (it can run on two AA batteries instead). We have been using one for over five years with no issues, and neither the app nor Alexa have given us any problems, either.

[www.amazon.com]

how long do those AA last?

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space-time
how long do those AA last?

I replace them annually, but have never actually had them die on me. It probably helps that we rarely use the backlight (which turns on whenever a physical button is pressed) because we just tell Alexa to change the temperature, switch from heat to A/C, etc.