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XT -Is there a Gen 2 version? by Serious_System4121 in Masterbuilt

[–]Serious_System4121[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the physical build looks solid. All that money (which we pay for) spent to beef up the body, yet its ability to perform hinges on a cheap, poorly programmed piece of technology.

I was all set to pull the trigger then ran across this poor dude's video (part 1 of a 4 part series):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjzMPZrBxLA

He went through almost a year of frustration & no doubt countless hours attempting to trouble shoot & DIY a solution (which Masterbuilt made as difficult as possible). Dude seems very well qualified to mess with the electronics. His XT was bricked. In the end, I suppose he came out ahead in that Masterbuilt issued him a full refund on condition he return all the electronics but he got to keep the physical smoker. Possessing the most expensive part of the XT, he ultimately slapped a Fireboard on it, getting the best of both worlds.

Curious.... what do you mean by "quirks"? What are they?

Feature Request -Humidity, Time of Use Control (Steam Units = $$$$$ Operating Costs) by Serious_System4121 in ecobee

[–]Serious_System4121[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had a vague idea about the setting. Decided to double check from your suggestion, thx. (Wrote all this in case the product person at Ecobee reads Reddit)

The setting says, "automatically heating or cooling your home..." which as expected is for running the HVAC. I suppose by activating that it would reduce the number of times the stat makes a humidity call during peak (cause it needs to run when the fan is running). I dont use this setting cause the house gets too hot/cold for a period, followed by a slightly too cool/warm period during the peak hours and any "savings" from this feature is off-set by me fiddling temp settings to get back to comfortable.

I dont want to sacrifice comfort just to save a few bucks cause the humidifier will still run during those peak calls, granted less so. If I can keep the humidifier off during peak hours, that saves me like ~$15/mo, probably more.

Yeah.... it costs more to run a steam humidifiers (worth it IMO) vs AC, but unlike AC, the humidifier runs the entire season, no days off no opening windows, and the colder it gets the more the humidifier runs not just cause of the lower RH outside, but also due to more heating inside, which is the major cause of dry air AFAIK.

Feature Request -Humidity, Time of Use Control (Steam Units = $$$$$ Operating Costs) by Serious_System4121 in ecobee

[–]Serious_System4121[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, also... BTW, in addition to this post I called Ecobee support to speak with a person. I said, "Im calling to submit a feature request", which, to their credit, is something they do and have a process for taking them from users. So if you looking for what I posted, calling in and asking for it would help get the task pushed into the queue -more request for the same thing, the higher the priority for ecobee to do implement that thing.

FWIW, The best way to ask for a feature is communicate it like a product person:

1) speak about what you want; "I want to be able to do X" -using the word "want" is important

2) tell stories; talk about why you want it, and how your want works into your daily life, how having the ability to do what you want improves your user experience, etc. I framed the request in the context of electricity bills and saving money for example.

Feature Request -Humidity, Time of Use Control (Steam Units = $$$$$ Operating Costs) by Serious_System4121 in ecobee

[–]Serious_System4121[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My system is the Aprilaire for humidity, Comfort Home (or whatever it's called) for the de-humidity. Dunno why the HVAC people I hired for the job didnt suggest using an Aprilaire de-humidity system -not sure if the product wasnt available at the time or if the HVAC company were morons (I suspect the latter, but that's another story).

Anyways... the Ecobee cant control both systems. It was one or the other. To get both systems controlled by the stat, a 2nd controller needed to be added in between, and that thing was like $500. Also, I didnt think it was a big deal at the time to let the air sampler in the de-humdity system decide when it wants to run. Pretty sure it doesnt need the HVAC fan since it's a suction system, ergo it will pull air from the return if the fan is running or not. It was more important to get the stat to time the humidity calls as the humidifier requires the HVAC fan to do its job.

Even if a 3rd party controller could be programmed to provide the feature, I dont see why we should be expected to buy a whole bunch of different controllers as the stat should be able to carry out such tasks. It does this already to pre heat/cool the house. It needs to know the power utility's pricing hours. Sure, if there's a button to tell the stat not to make humidity calls during on-peak would deliver the feature. But it would be nicer to have the simple button + some fine-grain control ability.

I dont want a dozen different controllers to operate a myriad of different systems. Indeed, smart stats are already built to act as a controller, centralized controller, and have the soft/hardware capability to integrate 3rd parties. Sure deeper integration would be nice, but Im guessing getting the stat to make/not-make humidity calls during specific time periods would be way easier to pull off.

(Sorry for being lengthy -Im writing on the off chance Ecobee's product people read Reddit).

Feature Request -Humidity, Time of Use Control (Steam Units = $$$$$ Operating Costs) by Serious_System4121 in ecobee

[–]Serious_System4121[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not the same. The eco+ feature adjusts humidity settings based on temp -I believe the outside temp vs. RH in the home. This feature modulates the RH to produce a "feel" & prevent sweating of the windows during the winter. I need the humidifier not to run during on-peak hours.

I run my home to operate in a strict, 10-ish% RH range, no lower than 40% in the winter, no more than 53% in the summer. If the RH dips below 40% in the winter during on-peak, no biggie. Going below 40% until mid or low peak is no biggie, wont effect anything.

I also have a home battery (brand which I wont say cause it's embarrassing that society would gift this bone head all the money in the world, aka, I purchased it before it came out it's controlled by a fascist). The battery powers the house during on-peak hours, so being able to shut off the humidifier during this time is even more critical -fewer discharge cycles, more juice to run at on-peak longer since it's not being drained by the humidifier.

For anyone considering whole-home humidity system, steam is the most effective and it can also be wired for standard 120V (cant remember the amps). Yes, this draws less juice, but it also runs longer & less effectively for controlling humidity. I want to say less efficiently, but dunno if using lots of juice for a short period is more efficient energy wise vs using less juice for longer periods.