Skip both, buy an Ecobee3. More advanced and user-friendly than the Honeywell & less pretentious (and expensive) than the Nest.

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

I self installed a Honeywell Prestige 2.0 system, which is not marketed to be a self-install (lots of moving parts to consider for the average joe), but it went fine...

I just did a lot of homework & planning prior to purchase, and once I got it all up & running ~3 years ago, I haven't had a single hiccup of any kind. That system is totally bomb-proof and very awesome. But also not cheap!

HVAC industry pros almost universally prefer Honeywell, as well as Ecobee. Nest gets consistently panned, if not outright not-recommended.

To note, I am not an HVAC pro - I just lurked on a lot of HVAC forums as part of my own research and planning.

Whatever brand you choose, I strongly recommend having a "C" wire available in your t-stat wire bundle - it's all-but-a-requirement for wifi stats. This is admittedly an oversimplification, but think of the C-wire as the power cord for your t-stat -- a wifi stat really needs one.

Some wifi stat manufacturers offers workarounds for not having a C-wire available (batteries or some way to work other existing wires into a hodge-podge power-stealing scheme), but I strongly recommend avoiding those methods - they just inevitably end up crippling the true capability of the t-stat.

If necessary, run a new (bigger) wire bundle so that you have a C-wire to use - I promise that you won't regret it.

Nest is the worst offender for promoting these no-c-wire workarounds - I realize they do it with the best of intentions (trying to simplify self-installs as much a possible while increasing sales), but it's like like buying a sweet new car and then putting 4 mini-spare donut wheels on it. Sure, it kind of functions, but it's stupidly crippled.

TL;DR = Have a c-wire available - it's the smart play.

Cheers, Chris

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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball

I didn't realize that it was possible for an inanimate device to be pretentious.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Regarding the C-wire on the Ecobee - the unit comes with a "power adapter" you install on the furnace allowing you to (in theory) use the thermostat in home installations where running a new thermostat cable is not an option. It does this via high-frequency PWM of the existing control signals (filter/caps in the head unit store the extra energy and are used to power the head unit); the control signals are cycled on/off quicker than the furnace can react.

We had a new furnace installed prior to purchase of the Ecobee & it would not run properly with the power adapter installed. I ended up running a new 6-wire (?) cable to make use of the C-wire & everything worked normally after that. Trashed the adapter.

To reiterate the previous poster's suggestion: Use the C-wire. Run new cable if you can. Save yourself the frustration.

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

Oh, how little you know...

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

Well, my new Fatbit does tell me to get off my lazy ass and give it some steps.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

If you drive a Prius or Outback then you must get the Nest.

Serious question...if someone already had a programmable thermostat why go to the trouble of installing a smart thermostat?

Because you're good little citizen of the People's Republic.

AKA: Virtue signaling.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Very reasonable question! In cases where you really want to stick to the program, there's no real advantage.

If I'm coming home from work early, I like kicking on my AC/heat while I'm en route (that is if I can remember to do it, ha!!), but that's a totally unnecessary first-world convenience.

For me, the biggest plus is that the remote access/monitoring will cue me via email/text if there's a problem with the system, which can be a nice head's-up (I'm a single guy, so no one is in my house during the day). Knock on wood, no issues like that have happened yet, but I like that peace-of-mind.

If you're a data nerd, such thermostats also offer a ton of data-points for monitoring efficiency, etc. I don't get into that, but some folks dig it.

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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball

because your spouse/kid/both never remember to adjust the thermo accordingly when they leave.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Are there any 'smart' thermostats available for line voltage systems (i.e. baseboard heaters)?

I don't have those so I can't speak smartly about it, but from my prior general research, I know it's definitely possible with at least some of the Honeywell and Ecobee stats.

I'm pretty sure the product descriptions for various stats you'd be interested in would clarify that specific capability.

The best overall help forum I've found is the HVAC sub-forum on diychatroom.com -- there are some super-smart (and very patient/friendly!) experts & pros on there who are absolute rock-stars with providing reliable and sound setup recommendations and installation help. That site is a total god-send for a DIY noob such as myself.

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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball

The problem we have w/ that is that each room is individually controlled rather than a centrally-fed forced air system, so we'd need to buy 8 or 9 of them unless we only wanted to control a small portion of the house remotely.

Yeah, figured as much. I ended up with a programmable one for our living room and left the bedrooms as is. The old bi-metal stat was too slow to react in the large space. The new one was about $60... haven't noticed any energy savings but we do have a much steadier temperature and less noise out of the heaters with the new operating scheme.

I just got four Netgear Arlo cameras for my house (used to have a Dropcam, screw the subscription fees) and I've been very happy with them so far.

Fortunately I had my tree hugger certificate revoked thanks to the VW deseilgate scandal so no Nest in my future. On a positive note (or negative to said Prius drivers), our friends at vw are refunding me a fair chunk of change for a 2013 golf deseil with 75k. To make amends for the hole my wife burned in the ozone layer driving the golf, I replaced it with a much larger Mercedes Desiel which is squeaky clean because it's says blue-tech on the back, and we all know blue means clean.

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When I die, I'd like to go peacefully. In my sleep. Like my grandfather.
Not screaming, like the passengers in his car...

I just installed the Honeywell last week and so far I love it.

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I miss YaHey

Fatbits are so 2016, I'm waiting for the SitBit before I jump in on (im)mobility tracking.

I don't think it's mentioned yet, but the Nest has geofence capability. When you leave it automatically sets it to an eco-mode. Then when you get close to home it turns it back to your scheduled temp.

I won't take offense as I drive a Prius and am coming up on 1 year since we did a full HVAC replacement. We were offered the wireless thermostat option, but did not have it installed because we could afford to jack our heat up since I am driving that Pry-us.