I’ve had this thermostat for just over 2 years
It mostly works
Mine is wire powered. I have also installed the batteries. OH reports the battery status
I use the Z-Wave binding. It is reliably online all the time. I did not use Smart Start, I manually added the device with the OH Z-Wave binding and pushing the button.
Actual programming of the on board scheduling needs to be done on the thermostat itself.
It has options I don’t use but sound nice.
The BEST thing is it’s 100% locally controlled. NO CLOUD is needed, and even is not available.
I use MyOpenHab for remote access to my home. I have been able to use all of the features of the thermostate that are exposed by OpenHab/Z-WAVE from anywhere in the world where I have internet access.
I only have 2 complaints,
I can only change the currently active Heat/Cool set points. They go back to the programmed set points when the thermostat changes the active period. Changing them permanently must be performed on the Thermostat screen.I think this is a good thing EXCEPT, it does not Change to Heat/Cool/Auto between the configured Home/Away modes. According the the manual, the thermostat should be able to do that and with the only way is a command from your Z-Wave controller(OpenHab). @chris (the main developer of the binding) insists that is because the thermostat is not fully Z-Wave compliant while the manual asserts it is.
You can change modes between Heat/Cool/Auto and the Heat/Cool set points, which revert back to the programmed schedule values when the time period changes.
You CAN toggle the schedule On/Off by changing the thermostat mode to either Economy Heat or Economy Cool, but that does not enable the Away Auto set points. Economy Heat only uses the Economy Heat set point and Economy Cool only uses the Economy Cool set point. The thermostat on the display screen shows the thermostat in Away mode while either Economy Heat/Cool is active and stays there until you but it back to Auto mode.
There are a whole host of parameters that can be programmed into the thermostat, and it is quite fully featured. It only lacks the learning algorithms of Nest or EcoBee, which would REQUIRE a cloud connection, which I DID NOT want. And programming the on board schedule is an On Thermostat operation
That I’m not sure could ever be exposed to Z-Wave/Openhab.
I would not characterize setting up this thermostat as “Easy”… AND I really doubt that your average HVAC contractor would know ALL of the options of Z-Wave.
@apella12 scolded me for not just jumping in and have OpenHab fully control the schedule and set points. I want the thermostat to be as stand alone as it is able since my OpenHab is… a constant work in progress, as I kinda like it that way.