Thermostat for Elk M1

Can anyone recommend a solid thermostat to use with my Elk M1? I ordered the Venstar (for control through the ISY), but have seen in my research that it does not play nice with the M1. Any experienced perspective is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

The AprilAire, RCS (with serial control) and HAI thermostats are well known and solid thermostats for use with the M1. With more work you can do something with Z-Wave, but these serial-controlled ones are the easiest.

Thanks Cocoonut.

Sorry Cocoonut, meant to ask - do you think it better to stay with Insteon and control the thermostat through the ISY (such as a Venstar) or go with one of the ones you mentioned and control through the M1? Thanks again.

I would go with one of the ones I mentioned and get control of the thermostats into the Elk - then anything that can control the Elk can in turn control the thermostat...

My M1 *is* my central automation controller... for example, because my M1 does garage doors, irrigation, lighting, hvac, and security... all I had to do was buy a $50 copy of eKeypad and now I had iPhone control of all these functions in one concise place. At home a copy of Elve controlling the M1 gets me instant control of all those same functions. If I buy an android phone or tablet, a copy of ElkDroid will again get me access to everything - it's kinda nice that way - I let it be the central controller; and just use an auxillary PC for the fluffy rules that I can live without when the HA computer is off.

Thanks much. Really appreciate your insights.

Of the 3 M1 thermostat options mentioned, the RCS is the only one that can be put in utilizing the existing thermostat wiring. The other two require wiring for the RS232/RS485 to the thermostat itself.

Another consideration is if you need to override the "Hold" feature of the thermostat via Elk rules. I know that the Elk can support this with the RCS thermostat. And I know that the HAI cannot do this. I'm pretty sure that the AprilAir cannot do it either.

In my house with the old programmable thermostats, I had a problem where my wife liked to set thermostat on "Hold". She did this rather than just ask me to change the programming on the thermostat. Then she/we would forget to take it off hold later.

The Elk can override the "Hold" feature on the RCS TR60. I liked the HAI look better but I went with the TR60 for this capability.

Both the RCS and Omni are well integrated into the Elk. Prior to purchasing OmniStat 2000, I waffled back-n-forth whether to implement zoning as I have older house with unbalanced A/C. I think RCS has a stronger zone offering.

The automated thermostat is surprisingly one of the better automation features. I had originally had a programmable thermostat and didn’t think there would be much bang for the buck. The only aggravation was I had to cut open the drywall because the white common was stuck inside wall. This gave me opportunity to run additional thermostat wires heat pump or dual fuel system.

I just tried the hold feature, and this rule seems to work correctly with the latest OmniStat2 and Elk firmware. The HOLD has to be placed first.

I don't use hold... in fact I disable or shut off all programming built into my local thermostat and do everything via the rules. I had HAI and loved it before... I have RCS with a zone controller sitting around to be installed (was thinking about being ambitious tomorrow).

You can use the M1 to override the local thermostat hold feature by using rules to monitor a "hold off" event, run a short timer, and set it back to "hold on". That way, the M1 stays in control.