No Sensi

I had made one last purchase to add to my voice controlled, internet connected arsenal, a Sensi smart thermostat.  I had looked into getting a Nest a couple years ago but was told my Trane AC would not work with it.   The Sesni actually has better reviews than the Nest and supposedly had greater compatibility, working with over 95% of all HVAC systems.

Before buying it I tried to 100% confirm it would work with my Trane unit.  I could not find that confirmation but I also could not find any info saying it would not work.  So when the box arrived today I was eager to get it installed during one of the breaks in my online training class.

I was surprised when I pulled the Trane thermostat off the wall that there were only three wires feeding it, a red one, a white one, and a yellow one.   When I used the install guide that is included with the Sensi app it asks you to enter the letter for each terminal of your existing thermostat so it can tell you how to hook the wires to the new thermostat.  Well the yellow wire went to a terminal labeled D.  There was no D option in the app which was the first sign I had an issue.

So I called the toll free support line, described my problem and gave them the model number off the Trane thermostat.  After a brief hold the woman gave me the bad news.  My Trane system uses something described as a “communicating thermostat”, a proprietary thing that shoves my system into that less than 5% that the Sensi won’t work with.  Damn it.  I was mad that my new purchase was incompatible and frustrated with myself for not 100% verifying it would work before pulling the trigger.  I boxed it back up to get returned tomorrow.  I guess I will just have to live with a “dumb” thermostat for the foreseeable future.  I guess I could have worse problems right?

Today has been a pretty dreary day with a near constant rain which I believe is the ass end of Colin.  Quick, hard bursts of rain are expected around here.  Long, gray, wet Pennsylvania type days are not.  The chickens are soaked.

I find myself fascinated with the Tesla autodrive feature.  I have watched a ton of videos of the vehicles driving themselves.  It seems like Tesla somehow leapfrogged the self driving car field.  A couple years ago the only way to implement self driving was via a clumsy roof mounted 360 degree spinning sensor.  Technology is awesome.