Like my thermostat. To hook it to the wifi it has two parts. One connected to the furnace board that is the wifi board. Then a second device near my router that bridges the part at the furnace to the router. Why? Why can’t the part at the furnace board just connect directly to the router? I have several other things like this, most I don’t hook up.
edit Some clarification. Thermostat talks to furnace board via wire. Next to the furnace board is an add on board that is the wifi board. Next to my router is a small box that plugs directly into the router and the power. The wifi board at the furnace talks to this small box to get to the router. Why is the small box needed.
Another example. I am looking at a hot tub. To connect it to the wifi you need two parts. One wired to the tub, and one wired to your router. It talks wirelessly between the two. But why the box near the router, why not go direct from the wifi add on part at the hot tub to the router. Should cost them less.
edit, update: Some have commented they could be using a different protocol and/or frequency that allows greater range and such since they don’t need as much bandwidth. This would also reduce frequency conflict with existing wifi devices.
Others pointed out that configuring the wifi connection would require a way to give the board a password. Which they can avoid if they add that wired device that sits next to the router. Customers can interface with that via phone or computer and enter like a serial number for the board that will sync them.
Also, it has been pointed out that newer thermostats often do have direct wifi to the router, so no extra board on the furnace even.
Short answer: it’s not needed, or at least it wouldn’t be with a different thermostat. There are plenty of smart devices (most, actually) that have built-in wifi. I have a Nest personally because the local gas company was giving them away but you might also look at Ecobee and about a hundred other brands.
Walled garden, they want you to buy more of their hardware so it all works together nicely and you only give one company all your money.
If everything connected to WiFi, you could pick and choose any thermostat to work with any furnace.
For the thermostat it could be that wifi could be spotty in a basement so they stick to the tradition that you already have a wire to the furnace so just use what’s there and then it can keep it powered too.
yeah, but I mean the thermostat talked to the wifi board at the furnace via wire. That wifi board then talks to a device I have to plug into my router instead of the wifi board talking directly to the router.
I guess I don’t understand your issue. What is your thermostat?
It’s not an issue. It works. I just don’t understand why they don’t use normal wifi from the board to my router instead of inserting their extra device there. Others have commented they could be using a different protocol and/or frequency that allows greater range and such. Someone else pointed out that configuring the wifi connection would require a way to give the board a password. Which they can avoid if they use their own device, as I can interface with that via phone or computer and enter like a serial number for the board that will sync them.
Because adding network connectivity is an afterthought and they don’t want to rebuild the device for the small percentage of people that need it networked.
The part that connected to the furnace board is an addon. It’s only purpose is internet. Yet it still needs a device connected to the router for it to talk to.
That’s silly, brand?
I have a few hvac devices and they just added a wifi module. Sounds like yours isn’t even that, it’s proprietary wireless radio.
honeywell for the furnace stuff. It is more than 10 years old. Seems the new setups have the actual thermostat talk directly to the router. So I guess they decided it wasn’t a good idea after a while. For the hot tub I am looking at… cal spa. Maybe they just haven’t updated their tech in more than 10 years.
Wifi boards in bulk cost less than a dollar each to produce at scale. So manufacturers don’t really care about the costs of how things connect to what, since the cost of making something wireless is pretty small to begin with.
sure, but by not using basic wifi connectivity between the special board at the furnace and the router, they have to manufacture the product that sits next to the router and talks to their special board at the furnace. Seems like just tossing in a basic wifi board would be we cheaper, and simpler.
