Hey all, I spent the weekend updating my home’s thermostat to a smart model. I took a somewhat unusual path and went with a discontinued 2nd Gen Nest thermostat. Read about my journey - Nest Thermostat in 2026 - Artificially-Awesome
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I’m loving my Aqara Matter smart thermostat. It can do everything the Nest and Ecobees can do and works entirely locally communicating directly with my Home Assistant instance and costs less than the competition. No third party app necessary. Configurable over Wi-Fi or Zigbee over Thread.
I thought this was referring to it being set to 68 degrees, because 67 and 69 trigger two generations of people 😅
Congrats on the C wire! I was lucky in my 1950s house that when they installed AC in the 90s they ran a new thermostat wire with the C wire, they just didn’t hook it up, so all I had to do was find a power source for it and hook it up in the basement!
I’ve gotta ask - why a nest thermostat? There are cheaper options out there that you haven’t got to de-evil. I use a Honeywell Z Wave unit and it’s great.
Oh, those could be de-evilled? Will definitely look into it. I have one that the previous owner installed and I just disconnected and have always used as a dumb thermostat.
Great question and the answer is a combination of things. First, I got an absolute great deal on it, just $25 shipped. Second, I knew the hardware itself was really high quality. And lastly, I don’t have a zwave radio in my home (this far) and looking at the ZigBee thermostats seemed like a bit of a minefield. I do mention in the blog post that I was considering a Zen ZigBee thermostat and then when I found the super cheap Nest decided it was worth a try even if I later replace it.
Nice luck on the A/C upgrade! I’ll never I understand why a house this modern skipped out on running a 5+ wire cable.
That is a sweet deal! Can’t reccommend a z wave dongle enough though. I don’t really have much wifi stuff in my smart home any more.
I agree and I’ve always tried to keep WiFi IoT devices to an absolute minimum. I have a couple dozen ZigBee devices that have been rock solid, and if my count is right I have 6 on the WiFi IoT network.
- Lay-Z-Spa smart control built on an Esp32
- A vintage fan that I replaced the internals including an Esp32 for remote control
- Two WLED Esp32 controllers
- A Govee controller
- And now the Nest
This feels like a reasonable number, and being mostly based on reliable Esp32 boards helps. With that said, I would absolutely urge anyone adding smart home equipment to look into ZigBee, ZWave, Thread or some combination.
My Zigbee devices have been reliable and have very low latency which is really important for things like lights / switches.
Why z wave over zigbee?
They’re both good. Z wave runs at 1ghz instead of 2.4ghz so the range is generally better. It also has a reputation of being more reliable, so I’ll pick it for things that are essential like door locks, thermostats, light switches, etc. For stuff like smart plugs, temp sensors, door sensors, actually most sensors generally, I usually go zigbee unless the zigbee network doesn’t reach the location.
Wow, this came up at a good time for me. I’ve been running ours like an old school one since they tried to make me link my account to it.
Good luck! We are on day 3 with it and it has been reliably following the schedule and responding to temporary overrides as expected.
I am degoogled in as many places as possible but I have a nest thermostat that was in the house when I bought it.
I’m going to try this for myself! I can’t believe it never occurred to me before.
Good luck! I imagine it will be really satisfying to restore full function and keep your data out of Google’s hands.
I have a 1st gen Nest flashed with NLE. No google, no Nest app, just local control with Home Assistant. I love it.
This is a great write up, thanks for sharing! I’d like to do something like this when I own a home someday.
Thanks for reading! I see posts like this every now and again and always wanted a reason to do one for myself. I’ve also been itching to be less of a lurker and make some posts here.
