EDIT - I'm trying to do a better job with my ask. (See below) I'm sorry if my OP was confusing. I basically want a smart thermostat that doesn't need the internet to be smart...


Does anyone have or use a smart thermostat purely on wifi, with no internet connection?

I'd love an option to set/program my thermostats over wifi but NOT have them linked into Amazon or Google or Apple or Facebook or DTE or Consumers, etc.

I suppose I could firewall it but I'm just curious if anyone has one they're using strictly on wifi?

Thanks,

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Veeper,

If Bezos and Zuckerberg don’t know your temp preferences how can they set up you meta pod for the future?

Maybe you should find Bluetooth compatible? I always thought Wi-Fi had to be connected to the Internet. However, I have seen game cameras that say they are Wi-Fi but connect to your phone and not the Internet. I don’t know much about it. But I’m interested in answers.

You would need bluetooth only model which I don’t believe exists. However anything which would use a phone app to program would still be linked to the internet.

Personally, tracking my heating and cooling preferences would be the least of my worries.

IMO, I would skip the wifi and just do a regular Honeywell programable thermostat with a display that you can set right at the unit.

I think you'll find all of the bluetooth or wifi-capable units have an app that allows you to access the unit from your mobile device ... so they have the Internet access feature.

Maybe something like this? With a unit like this, it's probably very easy to program and update and you'd do that on the unit's screen instead of an app on your phone or computer.

2 options that I can think of

I have a Proliphix IMT550 (wired model)
It has its own web server - No Internet access, unless you have remote access to your home network via something like a VPN.
They make two models: Wifi and Wired that supports PoE.

Proliphix was bought a few years ago, not sure if the product line is still made.

2nd:

Home Automation connected thermo using zwave/zigbee and then use an HA hub like Hubitat that doesn't require internet to work.

https://www.zwaveproducts.com/...s/z-wave-thermostats

https://www.smarthomeperfected...t-zigbee-thermostat/

I’m having a hard time understanding how something can be WiFi enabled but not connected to the internet???

I have a total of 4 Ecobee lite thermostats in various houses that I can program and/or monitor from anywhere through their app. Very easy to use and a lot of useful data once the thermostat has been running for a month or so. Although you probably aren’t interested but you can probably get a rebate from your local utility provider and sign up for peak use reduction…


https://www.ecobee.com/en-us/

I’m sure one of our router savvy folks can answer this, but shouldn’t it be possible to block a thermostat from the internet with some sort settings in one’s router? It would still be connected via WiFi to your LAN and thus visible to the other devices on your LAN, but it would not be able to connect to the WAN and beyond. In other words, your phones would still be able to change the temp while you are at home. You would lose that ability while you were away.

^^^Maybe a 'Parental Control' feature could accomplish this...

Thank you for all the replies. I really appreciate it and didn't mean to sound cryptic or confusing.

I've probably done a poor job phrasing my request. My apologies.


I really want a wifi-enabled programmable thermostat or thermostats (we have hydronic heat with 4 zones), but I would like for it to not necessarily NEED to have internet access. I don't care if it's made by Google or Amazon or whoever, but I simply want to isolate it to my home network so I can just pull out my phone while I'm at home, and edit the programming or turn the heat up or down.

If that makes sense.

I'm assuming once I set the IP, I can probably just block inbound/outbound connections. I can't imagine it would need to have external access to anything.

My apologies for the terribly written question.

They way you described your question the second time is exactly the way I read it in the first place, so it couldn’t have been phrased too poorly.

I have an EcoNet thermostat. Give me 10 minutes and I’ll see if it works when cut off from the internet.

Thanks. I'm not super tin-foil-hat-guy or anything, and my house isn't a faraday cage; however, I did have a programmable light switch that was sending all kinds of stuff through the app's provider and swapped it to a TP-Link Kasa switch and then blocked the piss out of it.

It's nice because it turns my soffit lights on and off at sunset and sunrise (respectively), and I don't have to fiddle with it, nor do I need to talk to it and ask it to do jumping jacks when I'm out of state.

I get that smart stuff needs a certain degree of connectivity to be smart, I just don't think my thermostats need to be sending shit to try and sell me other shit, or attempt to make me more "green" via social engineering or via my energy providers.

Maybe I'm just getting old already.

Well, mine needs an internet connection. Both the app and thermostat need an internet connection when just connected to my LAN. I’m guessing this is so that my kids for example, can not just download the app and change the thermostat.

Most of them need an interweb connection, the apps are designed to work only when connected to the web, I know that my ability to run the nest stops when it's off wifi from the phone.

Now I can still run the t-stat locally but at that point you might as well have just a regular t-stat.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Now I can still run the t-stat locally but at that point you might as well have just a regular t-stat.

Fair point.

One of my usage cases is that the 2nd floor thermostat is in the room two of my boys occupy and I don't want to be in and out of there to change the heat at all, after they go to bed or before they wake up.

Ultimately they're not going to be living here forever, but it sure would be nice in the meantime.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I’m having a hard time understanding how something can be WiFi enabled but not connected to the internet???

There's no reason why not. It would communicate only on your own, local network, though.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I have a total of 4 Ecobee lite thermostats in various houses that I can program and/or monitor from anywhere through their app.

That's why you need WiFi thermostats with Internet connectivity: You want or need to be able to communicate with them from anywhere.

Personally, a thermostat, which is probably about one of the first things most people home-automate, is one of the few things in which I have little interest in putting on either my local network or the Internet. Have surveillance cams, alarm system, lighting, irrigation system, home entertainment, and even the kitchen range (in read-only mode) IoT'd, but not the thermostat.

Occasionally my wife or I want to bump it up or down a degree. We walk over to the thermostat and hit a button ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Veeper, there was somebody, I no longer recall who, that made a WiFi-connected thermostat that didn't phone home. Relatively obscure manufacturer. IIRC, it was a somewhat spendy product. Good luck!

quote:

Veeper, there was somebody, I no longer recall who, that made a WiFi-connected thermostat that didn't phone home. Relatively obscure manufacturer. IIRC, it was a somewhat spendy product. Good luck!

This describes the IMT550w
I listed above

quote:

Proliphix IMT550

Googlization indicates they were bought out back in 2016 by Yardi a large property management software company but it no longer looks to be active. https://www.yardi.com/news/yardi-acquires-proliphix/

Honestly don't see what the issue is with having a smart stat that communicates with the company that makes it, but get that some folks do.

In order to fund the development of the product they need a revenue stream, so it's either monthly fees or data exchange. Not sure what private data that we're giving up that is going to be used in a negative way, if you want a remotely programmable t-stat, it's just part of that world.

Maybe some Eco-Terrorist will break into their servers and see who's running the heat at 80 or AC at 68 and out us on Twitter or Fakebook, send over 20 stinky environmentalists to protest T-Stat abuse or some shit at the casa.. Unless it's the ecologically sound gal from Yellerstone, she wasn't bad looking and seems to like older fellers in cowboy hats so there is that....

Have the Nest and the data we get from it really isn't useful as far as energy analysis ability, you don't get run times, temps, ambient any programming that might help with power use consumption. Basically you get a pretty unit that works well, has limited intelligence but, you can run your kids T-stat in MI while sitting on the crapper at a truck stop in Dubuque Iowa.

I'd be interested in one that provides better data and reporting on energy use, time, hours run, setting, outside temp, per watt cost etc


OTOH, having to climb the stairs a couple of times a day is good cardio so....

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Proliphix IMT550

Googlization indicates they were bought out back in 2016 by Yardi a large property management software company but it no longer looks to be active. https://www.yardi.com/news/yardi-acquires-proliphix/

Even if the Proliphix is still extant, it looks like they've joined the crowd:

quote:

Proliphix introduced the industry’s first Internet Protocol (IP) thermostats in 2005. Its current offering, ECS, uses cloud-hosted remote management software...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Honestly don't see what the issue is with having a smart stat that communicates with the company that makes it, but get that some folks do.

It's not just that. It's also that, once you put it on the Internet, it's another potential hole in your LAN's security.

I suppose that, if I really wanted a network-connected t'stat I'd probably go Honeywell.

I certainly wouldn't go with anything Google or Amazon. Nor would I integrate such a thing with Google Assistant, Alexa, or HomeKit.

I had a programmable Honeywell thermostat for many years.

We recently had our HVAC system replaced, thermostat was included, basically the same model that we had been using.

The distributor had a special deal, free upgrade to what amounts to the same thermostat with the addition of remote access via WiFi connection. Not a "smart thermostat" in the sense that it learns stuff, like the Nest, just a manually programmable (seven days, four time periods per day) thermostat with the ability to do the same functions from a free app.

Where some WiFi enabled devices, like my Brother printer for example, can be reached over the in-house WiFi network, the Honeywell thermostat does not work over a local WiFi connection without access to the outside world.

If I want to use the app, the signal goes from my phone or iPad to my WiFi router, then upstream to the mother-ship in Honeywell land, then back down to my WiFi router, and then to the thermostat.

If the Honeywell server is not reachable for any reason, be it internet problems or a Honeywell problem, the app is useless and I have to walk my narrow ass all the way over to the thermostat and do whatever settings I want by pushing buttons or, the next level up in Honeywell's offerings, using the touch-screen on the thermostat.

I have a Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat and am happy with it. No "smart" BS, it just connects to an app on my iPhone so I can control it remotely.