ecobee3 Thermostat Displaying Wrong Temperature? Here is Why!

Ironically yesterday my wife and a reader had the same question on the exact same day prompting this really quick post about your ecobee3 and the temperature that it displays.

‘the ecobee is displaying the wrong room temperature no way is it 69 in here right now’

Of course my wife is NEVER wrong on anything, period and in this case she was also not wrong.

Yes the thermostat said 69 and it was not 69 in the room where my thermostat was installed it was actually a ridiculously warm 78. Is my ecobee3 broken? Is the ecobee3 flawed and reporting the wrong temperature? Is the ecobee3 installed in a really bad location?

No to all three.

The ecobee3 is doing exactly what it was designed to do because it has a remote temperature sensor attached to it installed in our bedroom. The bedroom sensor is also set as the control sensor so when I look at my thermostat it is actually displaying my bedroom temperature not the temperature in the rest of my house.

When I walk up to my thermostat it says 69 but it is in fact 78 and that makes perfectly good sense since in my settings I told the ecobee3 to use the bedroom temperature to control the ecobee. So my thermostat is overheating the home to try to heat a badly ducted bedroom.

Side Note: Clearly I do not want the rest of my house being 78 just so my bedroom can be 78 because that is just ridiculously warm. Remember that the ecobee sensors do not replace proper zoning nor does it correct poor furnace duct work which is my issue ( Read more on this topic : ecobee 3 Remote Sensor Fail )

The other option for the ecobee was to set it so that instead of it looking only at my Bedroom it will do the average between the bedroom and my main floor. That should make our bedroom more comfortable and also stop the crazy overheating that is happening right now.

Now my thermostat is typically reading 71 degrees. My upstairs bedroom is 67-69 degrees and my main floor is around 73 degrees on average. So again my thermostat is NOT showing the temperature at the stat it is showing the average temperature between the bedroom and the mainfloor where my thermostat is installed.

These settings are much more ideal but at times we are still a bit warmer then we would like to be so there is definitely more I can do. Normally the human body can not notice a difference of 2 degrees so ideally I want to try to get my ecobee3 sensors to read within 2 degrees of each other which is tricky since the sensors as cool as they are, do not have magic beans in them.  IE it wont replace zoning and can not overcome my horrible duct work which I consistently whine about.

Another thing I could look at is adding more sensors for more temperature averaging. One ecobee3 remote temperature sensor per floor to give a true operative mean temperature across all three floors. The ecobee3 wont try to heat to the worst condition it will simply average all three floors which would certainly work better then any other thermostat I have used.

Moral is simple. ecobee3 = best smart thermostat on the market. Use it right, know how it works and you will likely end up alot more comfortable then you were before.

Update: January 8ths 2013: As of a few days of running my thermostat using temperature averaging my home as a whole is much more comfortable. The mainfloor is 4 to 5 degrees warmer because of it but from a comfort standpoint its much better. 

5 Second Water Savings Tip for Your Home

I love to blog about energy savings for around my home. Mainly because I am all about saving money. Recently I did a write up on a 5 minute project that can save you 5,000 Gallons of Water and fellow blogger YWWP posted a comment noting that he has an even easier water saving solution which I am calling the 5 second water saving tip.

His tip was simple. He writes quote;

one quick solution: All washbasins have a controller to water flow below it. It is always turned to full 100% water flow. If it is rotated little to reduce water flow to wash basin, it will save water.

He also did up a photo demonstrating how to do it which is not rocket science. Go under your sink, find the valve and turn it off slightly.  There is however a pretty big catch on whether this will work for you or not.

 

He notes in his comment that all sinks have this but unfortunately that is not true. In my own home of my 5 sinks only my kitchen sink has this. So I have no ability to do it in the rooms that count most, like my children’s bathroom where they waste so much water washing their hands for 3 hours at a time.

That said it is still a great tip and one you should do if you can. The only thing I would add is take the time to actually calculate how much water you are saving in your home. It is quite easy with a simple cup of water.

The steps I would do are as follows;

Measure the Water: With the tap in its normal full position fill a 1 cup measuring cup while TIMING it.

Do The Math : 1 Cup is 0.625 gallons of water. Divide that number into how long it took you to fill the cup. So if it took you 3 seconds its .625 divided by 3 seconds. Multiply that number by 60 seconds to figure out how many gallons of water you are using in a minute.

Make Your Adjustment: Make the valve adjustment above and repeat steps 1 and 2 and write down the number. Subtract the two and you now have your water savings.

Here is a quick hypothetical example.

• I fill 1 cup of water in 3 seconds.
• The Math is 0.626 divided by 3 seconds times 60 seconds = 12.52 gallons per minute

I now adjust my flow rate with the valve by 25% and my new numbers are;

• I fill 1 cup of water in 7 seconds
• The math is 0.626 divided by 7 seconds times 60 seconds = 5.35 gallons per minute.

If I subrtract those two nubmers I find that this 5 second fix is saving me 7.17 gallons per minute. Now please note I made up the amount of time it takes me to fill a cup just to give you an example of the math to do. You should not honestly have a sink that is putting out 12.52 gallons per minute unless your house was built in 1950.

Try the fix, do the math and figure out how much water this 5 second fix is going to save you. Thanks to YFWW for sharing it.

 

 

Adding a Character Count to WordPress Admin with JQuery

Recently I was asked to add an excerpt count to the admin area of wordpress. Specifically we added a character count to the excerpt field as well as a bunch of custom fields. The goal of the project was to make sure that all the writing team for the site understood that 170 chars MINIMUM was required in the excerpt field as well as the custom field.s

The code to execute this project was quite simple to do. In the theme functions.php file I created a new function called excerpt_count that uses Jquery to count the characters in the excerpt field and update it on each keystroke change.

First step is we need to declare a document.ready function so that once the ‘Add Post’ in the wordpress admin is done loading it will fire our Jquery Function. So in our functions.php file in our current THEME folder we do it Like so;

function excerpt_count()
{
      echo '<script>jQuery(document).ready(function()
      {
	
      });
	</script>';
}

So now that we are telling the admin that we want to load a jQuery function once the page has loaded and is ready we need to tell it what to do. in this case we want to insert into the page a new field that auto updates as writers add content to the ‘excerpt’ field. That code looks like so;

function excerpt_count()
{
      echo '<script>jQuery(document).ready(function()
      {
       jQuery("#postexcerpt .handlediv").after("<div style=\"position:absolute;top:14px;right:50px;color:#FC0707;\">All excerpts must be 150 Chars Minimum. <strong style=\"color:#000\">( <name id=\"excount\">0</name> chars. )</strong></div>");
     		
	</script>';
}

The above code now waits for the page to load, tells the page to run our JQuery code that inserts into the page a note on the Excerpt length that looks like the photo below.

The next step is we need to make the number update. That is done by watching for keystroke changes and updating the excerpt length accordingly. We obviously only want to watch the excerpt field for changes not the entire page or as people type the article it would also change the number. So now we add a simple function that as the user types every time they lift their finger off a key it counts the value or length of the excerpt field and updates our new div ‘excount’.

function excerpt_count()
{
      echo '<script>jQuery(document).ready(function()
      {
			jQuery("#postexcerpt .handlediv").after("<div style=\"position:absolute;top:14px;right:50px;color:#FC0707;\">All excerpts must be 150 Chars Minimum. <strong style=\"color:#000\">( <name id=\"excount\">0</name> chars. )</strong></div>");
     		jQuery("#excerpt").keyup( function() 
     		{
     			jQuery("#excount").html(jQuery("#excerpt").val().length);
   	  		});
	  });
	</script>';
}

The final and most important step is to now tell WordPress where to call this function. In my case I am only using this on the Add New Post page. So we add one last line that tells it where to load the function. You could obviously put this also on the main posts list page, the edit page, wherever you want to edit excerpts. ( Something I will likely do ).

The final working code that goes into your themes functions.php file will look like so;

function excerpt_count()
{
      echo '<script>jQuery(document).ready(function()
      {
			jQuery("#postexcerpt .handlediv").after("<div style=\"position:absolute;top:14px;right:50px;color:#FC0707;\">All excerpts must be 150 Chars Minimum. <strong style=\"color:#000\">( <name id=\"excount\">0</name> chars. )</strong></div>");
     		jQuery("#excerpt").keyup( function() 
     		{
     			jQuery("#excount").html(jQuery("#excerpt").val().length);
   	  		});
	  });
	</script>';
}

add_action( 'admin_head-post.php', 'excerpt_count');
add_action( 'admin_head-post-new.php', 'excerpt_count');

$20 + 3 Minutes Low Cost Low Flow Toilet Conversion

Low flow toilets are all the rage and the main reason is that they can save you water. In my own home I have three ‘porcelain thrones’ and started doing some investigating into replacing them with the dual flush low flow toilets in order to save me some water and in turn some moolah

Each toilet would cost me $289.99 if I bought them at Canadian Tire.  So converting three of these would cost me in total $867.00. Is it worth it? Well the first question is how much water and in turn money will I save by doing this.

I am all about being green but I also want to do it responsibly and intelligently. Find the least expensive and least cost prohibitive method to not only go green but save money! First step, lets figure out exactly how much water I would save from upgrading my toilets and spending $867.00

CMHC has a very nice writeup on low flow and dual flush toilets and they state quote;

Dual-flush toilets perform well in comparison to 6-litre and 13-litre toilets based on water consumption rates, saving an average of approximately 26 per cent more water than single-flush 6-litre toilets when used in replacement programs. Despite some complaints about bowl streaking, all survey respondents indicated they liked the dual-flush option. Caroma is currently investigating the bowl streaking issue.

So lets use their number of 26% water savings to figure out how much a low flow toilet could save me. Normally on the base of the toilet or inside the tank they stamp the water usage for the toilet but in my case it is missing. Since my house was built after 2000 I know that my toilet is using likely around 1.6GPF ( Gallons per flush ) because of building code standards that were implemented in 2009.This works out to be 2,920 gallons per year of water used just from flushing the toilet.

So for three toilets if we upgrade to a dual flush low flow toilet I could save 760 gallons of water per year. The math to calculate the water savings for my dual flush toilet is as follows;

2920 ( Annual WaterFlow ) * .26 ( 26% savings ) = 760 gallons of saved water.

In an earlier post where  I shared how to save 12,000 gallons of water per year I calculated my cost per gallon of water and it was $0.0159 cents PER gallon of water. So now lets calculate how much I can save every year;

750 gallons ( 26% in water savings ) * $0.016 ( cost of water per gallon ) = 12.00

Now lets do a quick look at the economics of installing a low flow toilet. I would need to spend $867.00 to upgrade all three of my toilets to save $36.00 a year. What is the return on investment? It is 24 years. Water conservation is great and all but I am not made of money and to invest almost $900 is a bit much when the return on investment is 24 years.

Fortunately with a little snooping around you can find an even better solution.

I bought  a Dual Flush HydoRight Toilet Converter Model HYR270 for $20.00 at Canadian Tire that comes with a 5 year warranty and requires no tools and literally only 5 minutes to install.

It offers me the same water savings as replacing my toilets at a fraction of the cost.

I did not install it on all three toilets in my home yet because I want to be sure it works and does not have any negative side effects.

The return on investment for this no tools, 5 minute installation is just over a year. The fact the product has a 5 year warranty just makes it an even easier choice. The system will have paid for itself 3 times over by the time the warranty runs out.

The way it works is quite simple as you can see from the photo below. You remove your existing flapper / chain and arm and replace it with the Hydroright. It literally just slides into your toilet and you tighten a tie wrap and voila. Complete. It has a flush for ‘liquids’ and a flush for ‘non liquids’ which as my photo below illustrates is why you save so much water.

Below is a video for those who are not sure how to install it. The video is 3minutes long and illustrates just how easy it is to install this slick little water savings device.

Combating Solar Gain With An ecobee3

The ecobee 3 Smart Thermostat the coolest thermostat since the last cool thermostat? via ecobee.com

I last wrote about the new ecobee3 smart thermostat in an article titled ‘ecobee 3 Room Sensors Fail‘ and in it I took a deliberate swipe at people who are confusing the ecobee3 remote sensors as a zoning system.

ecobee 3 has marketed the remote sensors as a means to keep the rooms you live in more comfortable but some have taken that to mean it can heat rooms that are poorly ducted or suffer from an inadequate air conditioner or furnace.

The ecobee3 can not fix an over heated or an under heated room due to a poor system installation. Period.

It can however help with an age-old problem that has also been discussed before on this site, solar gain. In my home my ecobee3 is installed in my dining room and the room we spend most of our time in is our living room. The obstacle is two-fold. First off I could care less what the temperature in my dining room is since me and my family only go in that room 3 times a year for holidays. Secondly why is it dictating the temperature in my home?

The room we spend 70% of our day the living room is wall to wall glass and is heated with the REHAU RAUPanel system. So on the very sunny days this room becomes extremely hot but my thermostat in the dining room just keeps pumping heat into the room since it can not actually see the operative air temperature in my living room. Up until now I had no simple out of the box solution to fix this.

The ecobee 3 is my new simple solution.

Included with the thermostat is a wireless remote sensor which enables me to in under 10 seconds setup monitoring of a specific room in my house. The sensor not only monitors temperature but can tell occupancy.

By placing the ecobee 3 wireless remote sensor in the living room and setting it to average the temperatures between the remote sensor and my dining room thermostat I have a bit better control over the solar gain that is happening in the room. Even more significant because the sensor also has a motion detector built into it the device will turn my heating / cooling on or off whenever the room is occupied by me or my family.

This is a perfect use case for the remote sensor because I am not trying to overcome a heating or cooling system problem I am trying to solve an environmental issue of lots of sun over heating the room. Those of you who think you can make your back porch warm with a remote sensor need to leave well enough alone and hire a contractor but for those looking to combat solar gain or even make a well ducted room a bit warmer in the winter or cooler in the summer the ecobee 3 is for you.

The ecobee 3 comes with 1 free remote sensor and they also will sell you sensors in packs of two in case you decide to use them in other rooms.

Why I am Removing My Low Flow Shower Head

Last weekend I decided to go green and install a low flow shower head in my master bedroom. It was an easy decision since the city supplied me with a low flow shower head at no charge. Unfortunately it has had less than impressive results on a front I did not expect.

This 5 minute project to install a low flow MOEN shower head  will save me $94.00 a year and on top of that it will save 2,993 gallons of water every year making me such a green fellow. You can read about all the math and how it works in my previous article.

I will be removing this MOEN low flow shower head for one simple reason, its horrible. The shower head drops our water flow from 2.5gpm to 1.5gpm and my wife complained almost immediately she was not able to wash her hair properly. Initially my response was ‘oh come on’ but after a week even I have had enough of it.

The lack of water pressure is making our normally ‘strong hot morning showers’, long,dreary and depressing hot showers. I compare it to a warm drizzle dripping down my back and it is frankly unbearable and depressing.

I am all for conserving and saving water but it is absolutely not the right choice when it causes issues with my wife and more importantly makes my nice hot morning shower a joke with a bad punch line.

The important thing to note here is that I am not giving up on water consumption I am just going to save water without the inconvenience of a miserable shower. After I install my 2.5gpm RAIN shower head this weekend I am going to install a Smart Plus Hot Water Pump which will save me 12,000 gallons of water per year and $194.00 a year which is over double the financial savings of my annoying Moen Shower head and six times the water savings.

The irony is that I did a writeup on the Taco Smart Pump months ago and instead of doing that I chose to do a shower head. Why? Great question let’s go back to the start. The shower head was free, it installs in literally 5minutes and saves significant water. Unfortunately for me it sucks which is why I am removing my low flow water head and will instead invest 1 hour in my mechanical room to a Smart pump installation.

 

Will Ecobee Work on a WaterFurnace Intellizone? Yes & No

I have been asked this question many times and its a complicated question with a complicated answer. The question is: Will the ecobee work on an intellizone zoning system made by WaterFurnace?

The answer is yes… but it can also be no.

Lets start with an important disclaimer note: I do not speak for WaterFurnace and I do not speak for ecobee. I am relaying my own personal experience having helped install intellizones and ecobees. What worked for me may not work for you and I give you ZERO warranty on any and all statements within.

You screw-up your intellizone or your ecobee its on you! That said everything that I write hear you can verify on your own quite easily.

Does ecobee work on Intellizone?

I think the easiest way to answer this one is to simply point out on my own Intellizone I have ecobee thermostats and they work just fine.

So does ecobee work on Intellizone? Yes it does. Hundreds of WaterFurnace dealers across the United States and Canada are using them and you can bet if they were all having problems those of us who are HVAC nerds in the industry would have heard about it.

So then why are people complaining that it does  not work for them?

Although ecobee works on the Intellizone I have heard of 3 cases where it did not work. One of them I was able to resolve but the other two are still ‘on going’ cases which I am working on.

On the one that I was involved with directly and was able to resolve the symptom was that the ecobee was telling the intellizone to come on even though there was no actual heating call. Needless to say it was quite interesting to me and very irritating to the installer / consumer.

After doing a bit of investigating we discovered that the AC voltage powering the Intellizone was much higher than it would normally be. As soon as we discovered this we got thinking, what if its voltage leak across the relays causing the problem?

In an effort to fix the problem we installed a potentiometer on the power going into the intellizone and dialed the voltage down and low and behold the problem went away.

A potentiometer /pɵˌtɛnʃiˈɒmɨtər/, informally a pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider.[1] If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as avariable resistor or rheostat. – Wikipedia

Now obviously not everyone is going to have a potentiometer much less know how to install one so I went back to the drawing board of ‘ideas’ on how to fix this voltage issue. We came up with all kinds of neat ‘MacGruber’ fixes but none of them are ones I want to particularly list in a blog post for fear of somebody completely annihilating their ecobee or zoning system

What we think was happening is that the over voltage of 27-29volts AC in to the intellizone was causing the Varistors on the ecobee to leak voltage and that small amount of voltage in some cases was enough to make the Intellizone come on.

I say in some cases it makes the intellizone come on because although we saw it in the field I was not able to reproduce the problem on my own intellizone with ecobee’s controlling it.

What ecobee is my best bet for Intellizone?

One of the things I like most about ecobee is the fact that they engage with their partners and when they found out that their might be an issue they jumped to find a way to address it;

In response to the issue the ecobee Engineering team made the following change;

A while ago we noticed that HVAC systems had supply voltages of 27-29VAC instead of the 24VAC standard. So we changed the Varistor from a 30VAC part to a 40VAC part.  This was only done on the Smart SI and EMS SI products.  Therefore, we believe newer Smart SI and EMS SI should not exhibit this issue with intellizone panels.

A Varistor is a protective device used on low-voltage ac circuits like the relays you will find in an ecobee to limit transient overvoltages and current. In a nut shell it protects the relays from burning which shortens their lives.

So if you want to use an ecobee on an intellizone your best bet is to order an ecobee SI model with the particular caveat that you want one that was made AFTER March 2013 which is about when ecobee upgraded the ecobee SI hardware to have a beefier varistor to address issues of HIGH voltage

With any luck this will help you with your Intellizone issues.

Remember ladies and gents, meddle at your own risk and be aware that in doing so you may void your manufacturer’s warranty in the process.