Hey all, I spent the weekend updating my home’s thermostat to a smart model. I took a somewhat unusual path and went with a discontinued 2nd Gen Nest thermostat. Read about my journey - Nest Thermostat in 2026 - Artificially-Awesome
Hey all, I spent the weekend updating my home’s thermostat to a smart model. I took a somewhat unusual path and went with a discontinued 2nd Gen Nest thermostat. Read about my journey - Nest Thermostat in 2026 - Artificially-Awesome
Great question and the answer is a combination of things. First, I got an absolute great deal on it, just $25 shipped. Second, I knew the hardware itself was really high quality. And lastly, I don’t have a zwave radio in my home (this far) and looking at the ZigBee thermostats seemed like a bit of a minefield. I do mention in the blog post that I was considering a Zen ZigBee thermostat and then when I found the super cheap Nest decided it was worth a try even if I later replace it.
Nice luck on the A/C upgrade! I’ll never I understand why a house this modern skipped out on running a 5+ wire cable.
That is a sweet deal! Can’t reccommend a z wave dongle enough though. I don’t really have much wifi stuff in my smart home any more.
I agree and I’ve always tried to keep WiFi IoT devices to an absolute minimum. I have a couple dozen ZigBee devices that have been rock solid, and if my count is right I have 6 on the WiFi IoT network.
This feels like a reasonable number, and being mostly based on reliable Esp32 boards helps. With that said, I would absolutely urge anyone adding smart home equipment to look into ZigBee, ZWave, Thread or some combination.
My Zigbee devices have been reliable and have very low latency which is really important for things like lights / switches.
Why z wave over zigbee?
They’re both good. Z wave runs at 1ghz instead of 2.4ghz so the range is generally better. It also has a reputation of being more reliable, so I’ll pick it for things that are essential like door locks, thermostats, light switches, etc. For stuff like smart plugs, temp sensors, door sensors, actually most sensors generally, I usually go zigbee unless the zigbee network doesn’t reach the location.