Is it too much to ask for an intuitive thermostat?
It seems to me that if there is going to be a hardware widget mounted on the wall for the sole purpose of humans fiddling with it, then it ought to be engineered and optimized from that perspective first (UX: user experience)...
At a glance, I see heat settings on the left, cooling settings on the right, and the actual temp in the middle. No?
Yeah, I believe the point here is that this is a mockup of what an intuitive UI would be, not a shot of a bad one. I also was confused at first, the title doesn't really clarify.
Ah ok thanks. I think the pic is intuitive enough but sure isn't much of a looker.
Left side sets the "heat to" temperature, right side sets the "cool to" temperature. Top buttons raise the value, bottom ones lower it. The center display shows the current temperature.
What if I want a temperature that varies throughout the day? I prefer it to be warmer during the day and cooler at night (for sleeping).
Furthermore, in the summer we get a lot of humidity which needs to be removed from the house. Our thermostat has a setting that allows the system to cool several degrees below the minimum temperature to dehumidify, then it relaxes back up to the minimum.
The humane interface need not be the only interface. I would have no problem with wifi control, or even a more complex scheduling/feature system that is controllable from a web interface. Consider it like this, if someone else (like a house-sitter without a smartphone) needs to control your thermostat, what controls should be presented to them? Probably not an overly-complicated calendar system on a tiny display accessed through deep menus and key combos, but just hotter/colder, fan/no-fan, on/off, etc... just the simple basics.
It looks like a photoshopped version of a good UX. If that's the case, then based on the comments you've made a good mockup 😆
Thanks. Maybe next time the title & description will be more clear, but i still take it as a complement to the ui that people are confidently telling me how to use it.
If it goes below 66 the heat comes on. If it goes above 76 the cooling comes on. Seems simple to me. It lets you define a range of acceptable temperatures rather than just one set point. Saves energy.
It looks like the left and right are the min/max temp and the center is the current temp.
Mine's super easy and works perfectly with Google Home. However...
Had to have an HVAC guy out, forgot why, but I had been running it without the heat pump mode since I installed it. Damn.
Other people have commented on it already, but it seems fairly intuitive to me, and gives you all information you need at a glance. Other thermostats ive used will only have one number display, so if you want to see when the heat will switch on you have to adjust the temperature so the display changes. This actually seems like a great and easy to understand solution.