Motison CyberStat CY1201 WiFi thermostat installation & review
 

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The other day I received my Motison CyberStat CY1201 wifi thermostat. It is a 7 day programmable thermostat with the additional functionality of having wifi, so I can connect to it over the internet and change the temperature setting and/or reprogram it from any device that can connect to the internet.

I've been looking into different wifi thermostats for a while now and finally decided on the Cyberstat mainly due to the low cost of it ($80 shipped). I don't need something super fancy with a touchscreen or color display. I am going from a LUX TX1500 which is a 5-1-1 programmable thermostat. This means there is one program for Monday through Friday, one program for Saturday, and one for Sunday. With the Cyberstat, I can have a different program for every day of the week (which that alone will produce energy savings). However, I'll also be able to override the program from anywhere at anytime with my smartphone. I'm quite confident that this will lead to some substantial energy savings and the ROI on the thermostat will be relatively low.

I'll keep this thread updated as I go about installing and using the thermostat.

CyberStat CY1201 - Wireless Internet Connected Programmable Thermostat - Amazon.com

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1384969097

Last night I only had a few minutes, but I wanted to check the wiring on my existing thermostat. As it turns out, there are only two wires going to it. There is one going to RH and one to W. This is just enough to run a heating system (with no fan control).

However, the cyberstat requires at least one more wire, and an additional wire to just run the fan would be a nice addition while I'm at it. It requires a C wire to power the thermostat, and hooking up a G wire will allow me to run the fan at will. The thermostat has no battery backup. This is likely the case because the wifi probably eats up more power than a normal programmable thermostat. Thankfully, backup power isn't required because the cyberstat uses flash memory. So, once the power comes back on, the thermostat just resumes the program.

Anyway, it looks like I need to run new wire to the thermostat. I am thinking some leftover network or telephone wire (6+ conductor) that I have laying around will work nicely.

For reference, here is what the letters mean:

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Is there a monthly charge to use to web protal/app for remote thermostat operation?

Good question. The answer is no. There is no subscription fee for using their web service.

Also, they do not have a dedicated app for your phone/tablet. You just browse to their site and login to your account.

If cyberstat looks it's link to the wifi/website will it follow the schedule? Is the schedule "stored" in the thermostat or the website? If the wifi on the thermostat breask or company goes out of business does the thermostat simply become a non-programmable or will if follow the now unchangable schedule indefinetely?

Is cycle time or setpoint differential adjustable?

The cyberstat does store its program on its own flash memory. However, I don't know where it gets the clock/date info from. You never set that, so I assume its pulling it from the internet.

All programming is done online, so if the company goes out of business I am out of luck there.

The setpoint differential is adjustable, but not quite as fine as I would like. The options are: +/- .5F, +/- 1F, +/-2F, +/-3F. There is a big difference between +/-1F and +/-2F IMO. I had my previous thermostat set to +/- 1.5 F.

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This past Friday I installed the cyberstat thermostat. So far, it has been working wonderfully. Setup was a breeze, programming is so fast and easy, and everything has been working great.

The install was a bit long though not hard. As mentioned previously, I needed to run new wires from the furnace to the thermostat so that the thermostat could get its power from the 24V transformer on the furnace. My old setup only had 2 wires, one for RH and one for W. This is just enough to tell the furnace when to turn on and off. I ended up adding two more wires. One is to give me control of the furnace fan. The other is to provide power to the thermostat.

So, lets get into running the new wire. For anyone who has run wire before this is pretty easy. For those of you who dont... well you're why I'm posting this. :)



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First off, I shut off power to the furnace. I have a mine wired to a switch, but you may have to turn off a breaker for yours.



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Here is the old thermostat.



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I removed the thermostat from the mounting plate. You can now see the wires going to the furnace. I loosened the screws holding the wires in and pull them out. Be careful not to drop the wire into the wall! I also removed the screws holding the mounting plate to the wall.



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Next, I got the new cable and used electrical tape to tape the new cable to the old cable. I made sure to overlap the cable a few inches to make sure they don't pull loose when I pulled it through the wall.

For wire, I ended up using some network cable. This has 8 wires which is more than I need. I had used (shown - white) a 6 wire phone cable, but it ended up not being long enough, so grabbed some network cable (blue cable you'll see later).



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With the cables securely taped together, I went into the basement and started to pull it through the wall. I kept pulling the new cable through until I got it all the way to the furnace.



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I removed the covers on the furnace to get to the wiring. You can see on the right side of the furnace is where the thermostat wires are going to.



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Next, I found the transformer (shown above) and follow the wires out of it. One is going to be for RH and should already be hooked up. The other will be for C. In my case this was a blue wire and already had a wire nut on it to cap it off since it wasn't being used. If in doubt, use a multimeter to check the voltage across RH and C and you should get ~24V.



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Now, I wired up the RH, C, W, and G. My colors didn't match up exactly, but that is fine since I just remembered what they were when I connected the thermostat.



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The last step of the install includes screwing the new thermostat mounting plate to the wall and connecting the corresponding wires to the mounting plate connections.



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After that was done, I put the thermostat on the mounting plate and I setup the thermostat ,which I'll cover in my next post along with programming and operation of it.

The thermostat has a retro 80's look to it with the LED segmented display.
Simple and effective :)

Interesting to use Cat5 cable for thermostat wire. Works but can be difficult to strip/handle.
Is that a 100,000 BTU Goodman/Janitrol/GMC furnace?

Haha, retro is a nice way of putting it. I'm pretty sure the LED display and minimal user interface is mostly to keep costs down. I can live with that considering the rest of the system works really well so far. I'm quite happy.

Yeah, Cat5 can be a big pain to work with if you don't have the right tools. Thankfully, I have a real small gauge wire stripper (goes down to 30 gauge I think), and that is really helpful. I've tried it without and I just snip through the wire time and time again.

Good eye, it is a Goodman furnace. I believe its around 80K BTU. I forget exactly. I just know its bigger than it needs to be.

The plastic tabs holding the top door on and the pigtail style wiring are a dead giveaway to Goodman :)
Half sizing my own furnace 88k to 44k made a HUGE improvement in comfort.