Well, considering this $50 thermostat would have cost me $50-75/month in electricity, I sent them back. Since it’s been 2 months with no updates to how it handles aux heat (which is a very basic task for a thermostat), I would have been out $100-150 in electric costs by now.
Yup, I figured I would be wasting about 20% more energy each month and that adds up over the course of a year. No way would I buy this thermostat unless they fixed it for our heat pump systems and gave it to me, then I MIGHT look at it again. Until then, when I do have the chance to do a review online I will steer anyone with a heat pump (and there are a lot of customers out there) away from WYZE…
I appreciate your ideas, if I was going to keep the unit, I would have tried it, thanks for the offer and I hope your idea works. It is MUCH more than any of us have seen from WYZE 
BTW, we are well over 100 posts to this thread, 2 months beyond the original issues were raised and NOTHING from Customer Support. The company grew too fast, too quickly, WAAY in over their heads now and this could be a significant amount of damage to their reputation.
I haven’t heard squat from support. I just bought two of another brand, which of course were much more expensive, but so much better. I’m done with these so I guess I’m out $100 plus all the extra electricity. And they claim to be going for energy star? Yeah sure.
I just got the doorbell and it’s pretty decent, so I’m not off the bandwagon totally.
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These posts about the your experiences with the thermostat are very interesting. I’ve had mine installed since the middle of January and I can’t say I’ve noticed much if any change in my energy bill when I set it to w2, but setting it to * did cause a much reduced energy use despite a higher total run time which seems expected. I’ve got a Trane unit here that I just installed this summer.
I wonder what’s the difference is.
The difference is you do not have the Heating Coils wired up. I disconnected the W1 wire which is the heating coils and experienced the same result. Heat Pump runs longer which is fine. But as long as it does not get too cold out this will work. I live in NC so this is not really an issue for me. If I lived in NY this might be a problem.
To me this seems like a simple software fix. I am not sure they realize how much damage they are doing to their reputation, There is no way I would put something as important as Home Security on Wyze. Whomever runs this company should take a long pause and get their collective [MOD EDIT] together. Otherwise this is not going to end well. Their customer service needs to be completely revamped. Although this is difficult it is not impossible. First step would be to fire who ever is in charge and start from scratch.
I will get off my soapbox now.
MOD NOTE: Post edited to conform to the Community Guidelines.
You missed the first part of my post. I had it on w1 and w2 for a while then switched to w1 and *.
W1/W2 is just like my old sensi thermostat and I didn’t see any appreciable difference in usage or energy costs. That thermostat would kick on AUX all the time and the Wyze did as well.
@vaaish A heat pump “system” may have two sources of heat, (1) the heat pump itself which is a reverse air condition and (2) heat strips.
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The heat pump itself is energy efficient and uses the compressor to remove heat from the outside and bring it in the house. You want to be using this most of the time to see a lower heating bill.
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The heat strips use ohmic heating sort of light a light bulb, making heat from resistance. This is very energy inefficient.
When it gets cold out the heat pump does not work too well since the differential between the outside and inside is so large. In very cold temps the heat strips are needed to supplement.
So with the Wyze when you wire the heat strips to W2 they are kicking on a lot and costing more in the electric bill. People on this forum are unhappy they are kicking on so much and but they need them when the temps get low.
When you wire to * emergency the heat strips will never kick on with the Wyze unit, you have to tell it to use emergency heat.
So when you wired to * you saw a lower bill because you were using your heat pump all the time. That’s ideal in cases where you can get away with it.
People are also unhappy because other thermostats that are a lot “dumber” than the Wyze, jump this connection and allow for both and use the heat strips to supplement the heat but in a smarter and more conservative matter. That way you can still save by using the heat pump primarily and only had the strips kick in when it’s very cold and only when the heat pump really can’t keep up, not just to warm the house faster. (the strips heat faster btw)
In case like mine, in KY, the temps don’t drop too much and I have a gas furnace for the second unit. So having the strips on emergency work fine. If that were not the case and the temps were colder I would need to think more about where to use the strips and likely have to use them on W2 and not be happy.
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Monitoring this thread. I too have seen a 20% increase in electrical bill. I wish they would figure this out
Ok so I’m having the opposite problem of everyone else.
I have already hooked up the thermostat which works. I have a duel fuel system with a heat pump and gas furnace. In the winter, I actually want to use my Emergency Heat full time (gas) and not the heat pump, (its cheaper). The app has no temp controls built into the emergency heat, it just stays on forever until you manually turn it off. Who designs any thermostat like that?? I tried just shutting off the heat pump at the breaker but that blows a lot of cold air before the furnace finally kicks in.
The temporary fix I’m using now is to disconnect the heat pump wires from the thermostat and reprogram it for a gas furnace only, then re-plug and reprogram in the summer.
Dose anyone have any better, less labor intense ideas to tie in all systems to work the way I want them to? Thanks
Same issue… firmware update on the way?
Nothing here. I gave up on these and got something else.
I have been going back and forth with support for a few weeks now trying to explain the issue, pointing them to this thread, etc. Zero. I’m now working on getting them to take them back but it is well outside of the return period. I’m better off throwing these in the garbage I guess than letting them eat my electric bill alive.
I have had the same issue.Mine was past the return date also but they finally agreed and sent me a return label.Hang in there dont trash them yet.
I had this same issue. I have a gas furnace with a pump and central A/C. The A/C fan would blow when the heat was supposed to be working. Matched wiring from an Ecobee, no luck. Going to try and get this to work again now that I’m not so reliant on heat…
Any confirmed solutions?
Define “A/C fan”
The giant box in the attic that blows the cold air to all of the rooms via ductwork. Condenser?
I have found this technicians videos very helpful. This should help you understand how hybrid systems work and give you more insight for your wiring situation.
The blower fan that circulates air around your house and over the indoor evaporator coil? or the fan that blows air over the A/C condenser outside?
Also, if you want include photos of your furnace and thermostat terminals that might give others with knowledge more info to troubleshoot your situation.
