Re: Master-Slave Thermostat recommendations?

> I'm looking at doing a subzone in my house. Basically I'd have a huge duct
> go from the furnace to the master bedroom, and a zone damper to control it.
> That zone damper is actuated by 24V, which can be gotten from the furnace.
>
> For now, I'll have the wire go in the master bedroom and use some
> switch/relay to turn that damper on.
>
> What I'd like to do is this:
> Have a thermostat in the bedroom that actuates that damper, but that also
> has a way to remotely turn on the master termostat that controls the
> furnace.
> This is because having the thermostat trigger in the master bedroom would
> not trigger the master thermostat and cause airflow. Things would only work
> if the master thermostat happened to trigger because its own temperature got
> tripped.
>
> So, what I'd like to do is have the bedroom thermostat be able to remotely
> tell the master termostat to turn on or off, bypassing the master
> thermostat's temperature (which it would then go back to once it gets the
> off signal).
> This is of course trivial for insteon switches, but I'm not sure what
> thermostats I should consider to do this.
>
> So, I've read so far:
> 1) Insteon thermostat, which apparently isn't great, but maybe would work
>    either as a master or slave?
>    http://www.smarthome.com/2491T1/Venstar-Thermostat-INSTEON-Remote-Control-Thermostat-1-Day-Programmable/p.aspx
>
> 2) Brian said 'RCS', not sure which one.
>    http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?products_id=1293  ?
>    (not cheap)  
>
> 3) Joel said Omnistat RC-80, not sure if it would work well as a master
>    or slave, and be money efficient.
>
>
> What I'm looking for can use Insteon, X10, or even standard wiring if necessary.
> I'm not sure if there is a way to reuse my existing master thermostat as a
> master or slave (I have the regular 7 heat/cool/fan programmable kind, but
> no remote programming that I know of, and I don't think its wires allow
> signalling to trigger it remotely, but maybe its relay signals can be used
> to control a smarter new master thermostat in addition to my subzone damper?
>
> So, what would you recommend as my cheapest workable setup?
>
> Thanks,
> Marc