HomeKit Best current Matter/Homekit thermostat?

[Piplodocus]

I've got a load of matter (WiFi and Thread) bulbs I use with Apple Home. Currently considering controlling my boiler for hot water/heating too since although it's less pretty, it's actually more useful and could save me money heating water when I'm not there, and with winter coming, no doubt make the heating more effcient too.

What's the best (UK 230/240V, if that makes any difference) thermostat/heating/hot water boiler controller? Preferrably Matter to be brand agnostic and maybe more future proof, but Homekit will probably do too.

What do you use and why? Would you get the same again or go with something different? (pros/cons)

I don't know too much about it, but I also have a raspberry pi here I can put Home assistant on (or maybe another one of the 3rd party home automation softwares) too if that gives me more intelligence in the actual automation. Is that worth doing? Or will Apple Home shortcuts do pretty much everything I'd need to?

 

[bigjnyc]

I just bought the Nest Thermostat 4th Gen which works with homekit via matter.... It offers very basic features like setting cooling/heating/turning off etc... and setting the temperature..... For setting schedules and seeing the included additional temperature sensor you still have to use the google home app which is annoying.

I have heard good things about the ecobee as well in terms of homekit compatability. so perhaps you can look in to that one.

 

[Piplodocus]

I've been looking at both of those today (Nest 4th Gen and Ecobee). Both seem to have great reviews and look nice. But after more head scratching it appears they only support low voltage switching. So my house currently has the hot water and heating timer controls with little timer/programmer LCD in the kitchen, which are high voltage, then a wired thermostat in the adjacent room. Same as every house I've lived in all my life!

So I was hoping I'd just replace them both with 2 magic boxes and didn't know if something like a second box was part of these. Or I'd ditch the thermostat and replace the kitchen unit with the smart thermostat, although seemingly not ideal if the thermostat for the house is in what's usually the warmest place with least representative temperature if I'm cooking. But these (Nest/Ecobee) only consist of a single unit that's thermostat and only low voltage switching.

Seems that's not true for things like the Tado system where their starter kit has a wireless thermostat and then a replacement switch box to replace the timer/switcher in my kitchen. The Tado looks nice enough and has Homekit support (but not Matter like the Nest), but some of the reviews I've read seem to imply they're pretty suceptible to spikes and surges and blow up too easily.

So now I have no idea what's what any more and if I can buy a thing that works in conjunction with the nest or ecobee. If so is that actually easy, or will it involve having to run more wiring round my house (not convinced I want that much more expense and having to start chiselling plaster and brick out a load of my walls and redecorating rooms for all this)? I guess if there's a magic thing that works with them, the Nest would need at least a ground wire, a hot water wire and a heating wire? And mains voltage too to actually power it?

So anyone know what I'd need to make the Nest/Ecobee work, or is this all a bit too daft, and really I need something more like some Tado or Honeywell system, which are less reliable or seem a bit behind on support of latest tech? So maybe this is a plan for a year or so when tech has caught up a bit more?

 

[Piplodocus]

(There's not the most obvious info on any of this about, so any good links to info or videos would be appreciated, so I don't have to start reading the installation and user manuals to all these devices...)

 

[Piplodocus]

After yet more reading it looks like I might want this... https://shop.tado.com/en/products/wireless-smart-thermostat-x-starter-kit

It's a new Tado system, has 10 year warranty (so don't have to worry about some of the older system reliability worries), has Matter, and isn't yet available in the UK. 🤦‍♂️

So unless there's any other great ideas, I think smart heating in my house is going on the backburner for now.

 

[flynz4]

So I was hoping I'd just replace them both with 2 magic boxes and didn't know if something like a second box was part of these. Or I'd ditch the thermostat and replace the kitchen unit with the smart thermostat, although seemingly not ideal if the thermostat for the house is in what's usually the warmest place with least representative temperature if I'm cooking. But these (Nest/Ecobee) only consist of a single unit that's thermostat and only low voltage switching.

Regarding the bolded section above, ecobee allows you to position several sensors around the house with various ways to choose which to use. You can have it follow occupancy, or try to get as close as possible to the ideal temperature using multiple sensors (ie split the difference) or choose different sensors based on time (like bedtime).

I haven’t set my multiple sensors yet, but I’ll be moving into my new house this weekend, so I’ll be setting it up soon.