If you are planning to buy a wifi thermostat and that’s why thinking that you need to pay $180+, I have good news for you; the Honeywell RTH6580WF Wi-Fi Thermostat costs only about 110 USD (to be exact; as of January 13th – it is $114.99 at Amazon). $110 is not cheap of course if you compare to other regular thermostats, however if you consider the flexibility of wifi access, this is a good deal.
The Honeywell Wi-Fi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat, RTH6580WF allows you to control the comfort of your home from anywhere – if you have internet access. The built-in Wi-Fi allows you to control the thermostat from a computer, tablet or smartphone by using the free Honeywell Total Connect Comfort App.
This universal thermostat has a large, easy-to-read push-button display with pre-programmed energy-saving schedule and a real time clock that keeps the time during a power failure with an option to automatically update the time for daylight savings. The 7-day programming provides maximum flexibility for the ones who doesn’t have a regular schedule and can save up to 33 percent on annual heating and cooling costs. The Smart Response Technology continually adjusts the heating and cooling of your home to ensure comfort at your programmed times. The thermostat has a 1-degree Fahrenheit range of accuracy, a secure alarmnet network and it automatically downloads software updates to ensure it’s always up-to-date.
Let’s go into the details.
Honeywell RTH6580WF Installation and Setup
The Honeywell RTH6580WF is compatible with most 24V heating and cooling systems; including most forced-air, hydronic, heat-pump, oil, gas and electric systems. However it is not compatible with millivolt systems, such as gas fireplaces, or 120V/240V systems, such as electric baseboard heat.
The one important point about the installation is; you need a common (C) wire for this thermostat. You have to have 24V wiring to attach this thermostat, it won’t work with 120V/240V systems.
Features
The Honeywell RTH6580WF thermostat allows 7 day programming with 4 program periods per day – which is flexible enough for most life styles. Currently, almost all programmable thermostats have the same capability. So this one is a ‘regular one’ from this point of view.
The thermostat comes with pre-programmed with energy savings schedule. If you are not into changing the settings, or if you are a little nervous with the ‘programming’ thing, this one is for you. You can use the pre-programmed settings initially. The Honeywell advertises “Save up to 33% on energy bills” with this pre-programmed settings.
The white Honeywell Wi-Fi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat, RTH6580WF has a 1-year limited warranty.
Special Features
Intelligent Alerts:
The Honeywell RTH6580WF Wi-Fi 7 Day Programmable Thermostat has Intelligent Alerts feature; which includes
- high/low temperature notifications of unusual temperatures (to prevent worrying about pipes freezing or potential damage to plants and animals while you’re away),
- loss of connection to Wi-Fi network,
- or loss of power alert.
You can download and use the free smart-phone app for iPhone, iPad and Android to access / program your Honeywell RTH6580WF thermostat. With the free app, you can view local weather to help plan your week and set intelligent alerts.
Smart Response Technology:
The Honeywell RTH6580WF does have the option of being set up to automatically switch between heating and cooling. That is part of the Installer Set Up (ISU) you would need to go through to ensure the thermostat is set up properly for your heating and cooling system. With this feature; the thermostat continually adjusts the heating and cooling of your home so you are comfortable at your programmed times and automatically determines if your home needs heating or cooling to provide maximum comfort.
Real Time Clock:
This thermostat does NOT have an internal battery. All program and installer set up functions are saved on to a chip and retained in case of a power outage. It does utilize a super capacitor for short term retention of the clock. If there is a lengthy power outage and if the RTH6580WF is connected to the internet, when power is restored it will automatically resynchronize with the internet time.
Auto-Update System Software:
The Honeywell RTH6580WF automatically downloads software updates to ensure it’s always up-to-date. So you don’t need to worry about the new software releases and their installations. You don’t need to do anything for an update.
Cons
Some users find installation instructions not very clear, especially installing the C wire, and setting up the WIFI. Once the installation is done for Honeywell RTH6580WF, the system works properly with no issues.
Conclusion
I will give you a very short conclusion on this one : If you are confident to install the Honeywell RTH6580WF yourself, or you will hire someone to do the installation; go for it. It is great thermostat for the price. This thermostat has almost all the features as his other competing products (Nest, Venstar T5800 etc.) with a much less price tag… What could be better?