Smart Thermostats are one of the best tools you may encounter to reduce your heating and cooling costs. Did you know that you can reduce these costs up to 23% annually by getting a good Thermostat?
These Smart Home Devices were designed in 2007 by Stuart Lombard the Ecobee Founder because he wanted to reduce costs and his family’s carbon footprint.
But after the years have gone by, Smart Thermostats transformed into an incredibly useful device of your Smart Home.
From Voice control to measuring how many people live in the house, Smart Thermostats are an awesome option if you want to save money!
Ecobee Smart Thermostat With Voice control
With a sleek black design, the Ecobee is the Fastest Smart Thermostat of the Ecobee Family. As it has a Quad-Core Processor you will experience a quick interface and responsiveness better than any other.
A Smart Home Device with great specifications means that it is designed to last.
At some point in your life, you bought a high-end Smartphone or a good laptop… what is the common factor between these articles? They lasted more than if you would have got the medium or low-class phone.
The fact is that a high-end device such as this Smart Thermostat has better components inside that will last you more than cheaper models. As an engineer, I know designers reduce the quality of their materials to reduce costs and in the long run… that’s what you get.
It comes with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri all in one package.
This gives you full voice control over your Thermostat even if you’re not Home. And perhaps this is one of the best features to make it a Smart Home device. You can call your friends, make appointments, do Google research, set alarms, reminders, tell fart jokes and tons of awesome things.
If you want to know what can you ask to your Smart Thermostat. Check this blog post
You can ask Siri, what is the temperature at home and adjust it on the way there. Also, you can change temperatures in different rooms depending on how you labeled them.
“Hey Google, change the temperature in the Living Room to 75”
It comes with a Smart Sensor that measures temperatures in multiple rooms for maximum control. As it has a Motion Radar, it will detect if there are people in each room and make decisions whether to increase or decrease your temperature accordingly.
Pretty neat, huh? This feature is a must-have on a Smart Thermostat.
You can save money on your electricity bill by turning it On/Off depending if your family is at home, but the fact that it can control exactly if there are people in every room and the temperature values on each area makes it very accurate.
Once it detects where your family spends most of the time, it will prioritize those areas of the house and avoid increasing or decreasing comfort temperature in other rooms. Smart Decisions for a Smart Home.
The smart Sensor will detect cold and hot spots. Depending on how your house has been set up, you may feel rooms with different temperatures.
It affects how your cooling system is configured inside the house, which side against the sun is located and tons of other factors that are impossible to counterattack.
But if you get a Smart Sensor for each room you will give the comfort that your lifestyle needs. You can pair up to 32 sensors to get the most out of your Smart Thermostat.
Lately, Ecobee released a free update to all of their Smart Thermostats. The idea is to increase maximum efficiency and comfort without minimal effort. If you want to learn more about ECO+ update, click here
Advanced Thermostat Features
- Pair your dehumidifier to your smart thermostat to lower the humidity! All automatically
- If you have a humidifier, the Smart Thermostat will regulate the humidity to avoid frost on your windows or excessive heat when is hot inside.
- It’s compatible with most HVAC systems. If you want to know if your old thermostat is compatible with the Ecobee just remove the cover and compare the wires with this useful tool
Why you should get the Ecobee Smart Thermostat?
It is well proven the capabilities to reduce annual electricity costs when you have one of these. Besides that, you will have a Smart Voice Assistant on every place of your house if you have a Smart Sensor installed.
This is a great tool to keep you up-to-date on the news, your calendar, remind your family birthdays, and so more great features for you to explore
Keep in mind that you have to configure it after installing it or otherwise it won’t save you energy. The main reason why these thermostats “don’t work” is because people haven’t properly configured it. If you want me to help you out with this, leave me a comment below and I will give you a hand!
What else is to say? It looks damn awesome whatever place you install it. It has a beautiful design and screen definition is no joke. You will have an awesome Smart Thermostat that will stand out by itself.
Google Nest Learning Thermostat
What I love about these thermostats is the fact they pay for themselves. You may think that it’s just a pretty thermostat with a huge screen, but once it learns your cooling needs it will start to save energy!
You can keep track of your electricity bill to see if it reduces or not, but it is proven that it will pay for itself in two years or less.
Detecting through the app whether you’re home or not, it will automatically turn off/on to save you energy on a daily basis.
One issue that is common when trying to save energy turning off your HVAC system is the fact that once you get home you have to wait for the temperature to build-up.
Using the App, you can increase or decrease temperature before arriving home!
I love this feature… because you’re going to get home and feel the comfort that you love without having to spend money with the cooling system all day long turned on.
And if you have a routine, it’s even easier because you can schedule your arrival daily to save even more energy.
Using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant will save you some steps if you want to change the temperature. You can just ask:
“Alexa, change the temperature in the Living Room to 70”
Or you can change it on the App, on your computer accessing the Nest’s site or even add an extension in Google Chrome so it will be right there on your web browser!
Another awesome feature is that after a week, the Nest Thermostat will start learning your temperature patterns. If you wake up from Monday to Friday at 7 am and put it to 70ºF to have a cozy breakfast, it will learn it and do it for you!
At night, you usually turn down the temperature. It will automatically do it for you so you can go to bed peacefully!
And on the weekends if you spend most of the time outside, it will turn it off to save even more energy!
You just need to call your favorite Voice Assistant and start cooling/heating your house.
And one of the trendiest features is Farsight. When you come closer to the thermostat, it will light up to show you the weather, time or temperature.
Downsides of the google Nest Thermostat
What I don’t like about this thermostat is the fact that I have to buy additional sensors for each room.
In all houses, there are rooms that are warmer or colder than the rest that needs to be adjusted every time.
And the price is a little bit high for a thermostat that it doesn’t have a Smart Sensor included.
If you want to use IFTTT (If This Then That) is no longer available on Google’s account for the nest.
Ecobee3 Lite
The best Smart Thermostat if your only purpose is reducing your electricity bill and save a couple of bucks on the purchase.
It has Artificial intelligence to control your HVAC system and dehumidifiers to reduce consumption, but to increase its efficiency you will have to get the Smart Sensors additionally to get the full experience. It will detect if there are people in certain rooms and control temperatures accordingly.
For example, if all of your family is watching a movie in the living room every Tuesday, the other rooms will not be cooled/heated as there isn’t anyone there, helping you save money intelligently.
You can change your house temperature virtually anywhere using Android, iOS or an Apple Watch. And after editing it, you can review energy reports and tips to increase your savings!
Local weather channels are connected to the Ecobee3 Lite. It will automatically take decisions according to the outside and adjust your temperature inside to boost your comfort! No wonder these Smart Thermostats are so famous around the world.
If after using your Thermostat it senses that there is a problem with your dehumidifier, HVAC or other cooling components it will notify you on your smartphone to keep you updated!
If you want to deal with cold or hot spots, the Smart Sensors are a must-have. Every house has this problem! Certain rooms need to be heated more because you have a child, the position of the house makes certain rooms warmer and tons of other factors.
But if you pair it with the sensor, it will automatically help you control specifically that room to give your loved ones the comfort they deserve!
Things missing on the ecobee3 lite
- Built-in Alexa Voice Assistant: You can’t wake up your smart Thermostat with direct voice control
- You can’t ask to play music on Spotify or music Streaming.
- You don’t have an Accessory control on the package
- It doesn’t sense occupancy by itself.
- You need to get the Smart Sensors additional.
- Wi-Fi 5 GHz: This is not a problem because most of the 2.4GHz Smart Thermostats behave as fast as a 5GHz does.
Google Nest Thermostat E
A Smart Thermostat designed with the main purpose of saving you energy.
Costing almost the same as the Ecobee3 Lite, it has all the capabilities to save you money on the purchase and on the electricity bill.
Like most of its predecessors, it has great features such as a Sleek design, Smart voice Assistants like Google, Alexa, and Siri where you can access your house’s temperature on your smartphone or laptop.
The main question here is why you should pick Nest Thermostat E over the Ecobee3 Lite?
And the answer is simple:
If you are into the IFTTT (If This Then That) You’re an Ecobee3 fan
Or if you believe that a 5GHz connection will save you a couple of milliseconds while connecting to your Smart Thermostat through Wi-Fi, you should get the Google Thermostat E.
Because asides that, all the features are practically the same.
They have Smart Sensors on both models to sense if there are people in their rooms and make decisions to choose if it’s necessary to increase or decrease the temperature.
The installation may differ between both models, but that’s not a reason to choose one from the other right? We choose a Smart Thermostat because of its saving money capabilities and the awesome features that come with it!
You can’t go wrong choosing one over the other, these companies have become so competitive that it’s up to you which one do you want.
I guess if you are a Google fan, you will get the Thermostat E because Nest was bought by Google and maybe in the future, we can see other integrations, but at the moment, they remain the same.
Conclusion
You now know why it is a safe investment to get a Smart Thermostat. Besides saving you money on your bills, it can become a great tool on your Smart Home.
Using this technology at home is one of the easiest ways to reduce your family’s carbon footprint. Just a matter of changing a simple thermostat, you will decrease your consumption and the CO2 emissions.