Apparently, the world is a global village, and people need to communicate, participate in projects and events virtually, and execute tasks remotely. Therefore, there’s a need for internet, multimedia, and most crucial, wireless communication networks. With wireless technologies, people can share data, voice, images, and even videos in a snap. Same for room thermostat, with wireless technology people are easily to set their home climate wherever they are. Especially for NBIOT application, LoraWan is widely used.
There’re several wireless technology that are Frequently used for thermostat control, expect Lora, such as Zigbee Thermostat, Bluetooth Thermostat, WiFI/Zigbee Thermostat and so on. Let’s take a look at the main difference of these wireless smart thermostat,
Bluetooth thermostat
Bluetooth debate is that both have been key drivers in the IoT world. In fact, each could easily be integrated together for better functionality. While Bluetooth tends to be less battery hungry than Wi-Fi and LTE, it is still more power-hungry than LoRa, except if you are using Bluetooth low-energy. The battery can last at least for 1 year for Bluetooth thermostat.
Wi-Fi wireless thermostat
Wi-Fi is superior when it comes to bandwidth, it suffers when it comes to battery life and range. Most networks might struggle to work past 15 meters, which makes it unsuitable for scattered IoT devices.
In comparison, the low power and long-range nature of LoRa make it ideal for these devices. However, LoRa will struggle to send a single image, let alone large files. It thrives at sending small packets of data, such as temperature and humidity.
Zigbee wireless technologies thermostat
In the case of Zigbee, each node can communicate with any other node in the mesh network, making it ideal for distant multi-hopping. When used with the right device design, Zigbee can easily rival the power efficiency of LoRa., WiFi and son.
Z-wave wireless thermostat
Z-Wave and Zigbee are quite similar in that they are both low-power networks that work under a mesh protocol and are meant for short to medium-distance data exchange. On the flip side, LoRa runs under a star network topology, where every node communicates with a specific gateway.