Homewerks Radio Thermostat CT-30-H-K2 Wireless Thermostat with Wi-Fi Module, Dual Wireless Inputs and Touch Screen

by Homewerks

• Sleek 7-day programmable thermostat with touchscreen controls
• Works with nearly any HVAC system--including traditional furnaces and heat pumps
• Designed for use with 3AA alkaline batteries and/or 24 volt AC C wire (or a 12-24 AC or DC source) and milli volt gas systems
• Can control up to 2 stages of heat and 2 stages of cool
• Able to program up to 4 independent periods per day

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Homewerks Worldwide is proud to distribute Radio Thermostat Company of America's most innovative home energy management solution. The Internet-controlled thermostat helps you save money on your energy bills by offering the best, most easy-to-use, technology and tools available. Say goodbye to complicated, inflexible thermostats that are difficult to program; with a Radio Thermostat Internet-Controlled Thermostat, you are in control of your home energy costs and environmental footprint. Whether you're at work, on vacation, or on the go, Radio Thermostat makes managing your home energy use simple and fun. Our easy-to-use web and mobile applications let you heat or cool your home from anywhere in the world. When logged-in, you can raise or lower your target temperature, change modes, and edit your 7-day program. Why is this so important? According to EnergyStar, homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings. Homewerks and Radio Thermostat make thermostat setting and proper maintenance easier than ever, giving homeowners more opportunities to save.

Product Description

e5 Compatible CT-30 With WiFi: 7 Day Programmable Thermostat w Touchscreen, Dual Wireless Inputs, Includes 1 WiFi Power Module

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

208 of 212 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Works great for me despite other bad reviews August 29, 2011

By L. Lim

Amazon Verified Purchase

First off, I bought mine at HomeDepot right when it came out end of last year for $99. I admit the steps to setup can be somewhat technical at times for most folks, like connecting to it via adhoc network (some might ask what the h** is 'adhoc network'), scanning for your wifi, enter code displayed on thermostat, etc. However, I must say that once done following the wizard screen on your browser, it works like a charm.

Here are some counter points on other reviewers' feedback:
- yes, the top and bottom tabs are plastic. top is to cover the wires and bottom to cover the batteries. like all things, if you read the instructions carefully, and handle the tabs like they are supposed to be handled, they should not break easily and they did not for me.
- yes, this thermostat is screwed in to the wall, unlike some other thermostat where you have a screwed in wall plate, and then you 'pop' in the thermostat. i have one of those pop-in type at home, and the only reason they are pop-in type is because the batteries are at the back, hence you need to pop the unit out to replace batteries. for this thermostat, since the batteries are in the front covered by an easily removable tab, you don't need to take the unit off the wall to replace batteries. So having the thermostat screwed into the wall is not an issue for its design.
- i have 3 of their apps installed (iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, and Android), and they all work perfectly for me. The Android app is probably the least stable of them all, but functionally it still works. The website also works perfectly for me as well. BTW, you can provide your email on your website such that you can be alerted if your thermostat have not reported status to radiothermostat.com in 24 hours due to network issue. This just happened to me 2 weeks ago and it's great to be alerted. (turns out my DSL modem has died).
- wifi, once connected, never drops for me at all. the only reason i can think of for others with wifi dropping could be the distance between the thermostat and the router. i can't comment on the antena design of the router since mine is about 50ft from my wireless router, but if you experience wifi dropping issue you might want to buy a wifi extender or stronger wireless router. i have seen before where the use of microwave can impact wifi connectivity momentarily as they are on the same frequency (2.4 Ghz).
- the *biggest* hassle for me during setup is to connect the 'C' (power) line to the thermostat since that wire was not run from my furnace originally. since this thermostat is wifi and the wireless is constantly on, it uses more power than the batteries can provide. the batteries are there only for backup. if your furnace doesn't have a 'C' line to power the thermostat I believe others have bought a separate transformer to power the thermostat separately.
- at $99 from HomeDepot and cheaper here on Amazon, you can't beat the price and convenience.
- for exactly what I needed this thermostat to do (monitor temperature and remotely set the thermostat before I arrive), this thermostat is ready for primetime IMO, and does what it is designed to do.

The added benefit of a free service from radiothermostat.com to operate your thermostat using a web UI and not fuzz with all the router firewall and port forwarding is a BIG plus. I know because I have 3 other networked devices at home where I need to configure the firewall on my router and all the port forwarding manually, and that's not something I would recommend to non-technical folks to take on themselves. They just recently upgraded their firmware to open up the APIs so that developers can create custom apps to control this thermostat. I am hoping to see more apps developed for consumers.

Here are some cons I remember:
- I remember when I first set this up and picked WEP security, somehow it would not work right for WEP, and I had to pick WPA or WPA2. I think the recent firmware upgrade may have resolved this.
- There's a 'away' mode on the mobile apps to set the unit when you are not home. However, there's no such a 1-touch icon on the physical thermostat UI itself. Some folks including myself wish they would also put an 'Away' icon on the UI of physical thermostat itself.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about setup and product as I am very happy with my unit, or you can use the forum on radiothermostat.com for Q&A. I just felt compelled to leave a counter feedback for this reasonably good product that deserves a better review.

-- update 9/10/2011 --
Recently I had to install a new wifi router because my old one died (hence the courtesy alert email was sent from radiothermostat.com to let me know they have lost communication with my thermostat for more than 24 hrs). One thing I noticed is that once the thermostat lost connectivity to the router, it starts up its adhoc wifi mode again so that 1) you can see it in the list of available wifi sids on your computer as "thermostat-xxxx-xxx", and 2) you can then select to connect to it so you can configure it again. This is exactly what I did, point my browser to it, follow the wizard UI, and within 2 mins, my thermostat is connected to my new router without any issues. Once the thermostat is connected to a wifi router, it no longer broadcast itself as an adhoc sid, and you can connect directly to it by its assigned IP address from the router. BTW, the thermostat displays the last octet value of its IP on the top right corner of its LCD screen. Say its assigned IP address is 192.168.1.207, then it will display "207" in its LCD so you know. BTW, once my thermostat regain connectivity with new router, I received an email shortly from radiothermostat.com that my thermostat is back online again. What great free service.

-- update 12/28/2011 --
* Looks like radiothermostat.com is now run by EnergyHub.com. The UI and software look slightly different, but overall functionality is still the same.
* My Android app also just got updated with EnergyHub's UI and flow.
* Definitely works with WEP now with the recent (late 2011 Summer) firmware update.
* Geeky comment: If you leave your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone next to your bed, then you practically have a thermostat remote control. I have found myself, at some colder nights, reached over to my Android phone, popped open the radiothermostat app, and raise the temperature slightly...what convenience...

-- update 5/15/2013 --
* Just installed a 3rd one yesterday (bought here at Amazon this time) and went smooth as silk.
* I have noticed the price of this is device is starting to climb quite a bit. Was $99 at Home Depot before, now it is $169. I wonder if it has anything to do with LockState taking over the brand (trying to lock in the market and recoup acquisition cost?). Previously it was Filtrete Radio Thermostat, on Amazon it is now Homewerks, and on HomeDepot is LockState.
* So far all 3 installed Radio Thermostats are working flawlessly.
* I can testify that EnergyHub would send you an email if your thermostat loses communication to them which relays the communication to your mobile devices and browsers. I disconnected broadband for the last few months while my house was under remodeling, and I received a 'Your wireless thermostat is offline' email notification weekly just to let me know. This is a good free service for owners of this device.

169 of 172 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars How to tell if yours is going to work August 9, 2012

By Sean C.

Amazon Verified Purchase

So , now i see all the bad reviews - i purchased one of these 8 months ago, had no issues, then went ahead and bought another -- and had the same results as the people writing bad reviews.
Since i had one that worked (and 3 that didn't - amazon made a special case and let me return one 'one more time') I was actually able to isolate the exact problem - it's the USNAP module
I tried various combinations of my two thermostats, the modules, and location (Upstairs/Downstairs), and through the scientific method was able to determine the exact problem:

if your USNAP module says model "RTMV-01" -- 5 Stars, you are good to go, able to program schedules via your iPhone, and all the other internet goodness this was designed for.
If your USNAP module says "RTWG-01" -- 0 Stars -- quickly return this to Amazon, as it will not work. This will save you hours of resets, soft resets, secret modes, switching module sides, testing power with a voltmeter, crying softly, etc etc

To Sum up --- RTMV-01 ***** -- RTWG-01 negative infinity stars

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Works great and was easy to setup September 5, 2011

By B. Jones

I can see where others may have problems, but the unit works great for me. I had a friend familiar with HVAC systems help me install it on my apartment's two-stage heat pump system. Luckily, I had a "C" wire for power already run (it was actually labeled "Z" on the old thermostat). For the record, I have the version of this product sold at Home Depot (it's simply branded 3M Filtrete; same exact underlying product).

I would say if you can ensure you have the "C" wire in place or installed for you (should be cheap) and have a modern wireless router using modern encryption (WPA or WPA2), the unit should work great. As with *any* WiFi device, you can have signal problems related to distance, interference, etc... but I have had absolutely none. The thermostat runs on the 2.4GHz wireless band, so if you have a dual-band wireless router, ensure you are either using the 2.4GHz band or 2.4GHz+5.2Ghz (if your router supports simultaneous dual-band). If you're using 5GHz exclusively, the thermostat can't connect, as I learned quickly. I'm using this router: Cisco-Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router with both 2.4GHz and 5.2GHz bands enabled.

Software: I'm running the 'Thermostat for Windows' program as well as the Android app. The $10 for the 'premium' version of the Windows software was worth it for me to get the "server" features, and of course the Android app is free. I've used the website interface a couple times as well; it's decent. They release application updates frequently and keep a good change log, so I'm pleased with the level of support for the software.

Misc: I love the fan circulation feature which turns the furnace fan on at an interval you set to keep air circulated, even if heating/cooling isn't active. Previously, I left the fan running all the time because my apartment gets stuffy, which I felt wasted energy. Apparently this feature isn't built into the thermostat; the 'Thermostat for Windows' software sends the thermostat commands to turn on/off the fan based on your desired interval.

Bottom line: it works great, my friends think I'm a nerd for having it, and I love it.

**EDIT: I had actually purchased the $320 EcoBee sold here on Amazon. I ended up returning it because it was ten times more complicated to install (had a thermostat and a separate control module you had to mount and wire into the furnace itself). The Radio Thermostat is $200 cheaper and was installed by a novice in under an hour... just something to consider.