Hot or Cold on Smart Home Thermostats?
21 November 2020
I’ve covered a lot of different aspects of smart home technology that Debbie and I are evaluating for our new home build Yet another one, relatively recent to smart home, and one you don’t hear about as much are thermostats. Granted, thermostats aren’t a very sexy element of any home, much less a smart home, but anyone who knows Debbie knows how much she loves a cozy home. If there was ever a reason for the saying “Happy Wife, Happy Life,” a working and easy to use thermostat certainly fills that bill.
But the best smart thermostat will not only impact how comfortable you are in your home, it can also affect your household budget. Heating and cooling your home accounts for nearly half of the average home’s utility bills, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. So not only will an effective smart thermostat keep Debbie happy, it’ll have other positive affects on our household. The efficiencies will also extend outside our home to our community and the environment.
Living out in the country and considering the positive benefits to the environment makes me think of the Brad Paisley song “Gone Green.” Brad Paisley is a favorite of Debbie and I and the song seems appropriate. These lyrics make me laugh when thinking about our home build project and some of the green initiatives we’re looking into like solar power.
It’s the little things we take for granted
When we sacrifice to save the planet
Darndest thing I’ve ever seen
That old redneck has done gone green
I got way off on a tangent there …
Traditional programmable thermostats can help reduce those costs by turning your HVAC (heating/ventilation/air conditioning) system on when you anticipate being home, and off when you don’t think you’ll need indoor climate control. A smart thermostat goes far beyond relying on a simple schedule. It will not only enable you to create more sophisticated schedules for every day of the week. It gives you complete control over your HVAC system, even when you’re away from home — thanks to app integration with the systems.
Debbie and I installed an Ecobee smart thermostat in our home in Minnesota after evaluating a number of options. Outside of the standard capabilities most of the systems possess, Amazon Alexa integration was a game changer for us. Circling back on Debbie and her cozy home, being able to simply ask Alexa to increase the temperature a few degrees “to take the chill off” got her on board 100%.
But understanding how Alexa integration may not be a factor or how types of HVAC systems differ, your wants/needs may be different. Here’s what to look for when shopping for a smart thermostat for your home:
C-wire requirement
Most smart thermostats require more electrical power than a set of batteries can provide. Fortunately, they don’t require so much power than they need to be plugged into the wall. They rely instead on low-voltage power provided by your HVAC system. Many smart thermostats require the presence of a dedicated C (common) wire for this purpose, while others can siphon electricity from another source, typically the R (power) wire. But the latter practice is known to cause problems with some HVAC systems, including permanent damage. If you pull out your existing thermostat to install a smart model and find no C wire connected to it, look inside the wall to see if there’s one that hasn’t been connected. If there’s no C wire, my advice is to have one installed. Not all thermostats reviewed require a C wire, but all the manufacturers highly recommend using one.
Ease of installation
A thermostat shouldn’t be difficult to install, even if you’re only moderately handy. The manufacturer should provide comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand instructions with plenty of photographs or illustrations to guide you through the process. The thermostat itself should clearly indicate which wires go where, and most companies provide labels that you can attach to the wires coming out of the wall as you disconnect and remove your old model. The wires themselves should be color coded, but a good practice is to take a quick photo with your phone of your old thermostat connections for reference before you take it down. Plus this gives you a fall back in case something goes wrong with the smart thermostat install. The last thing you want is your HVAC system being down in the heat of summer or cold of winter. Please refer back to “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”
This feature uses the thermostat’s app and your smartphone’s GPS to establish a perimeter around your home. When you leave the perimeter, you presumably no longer need to heat and cool your home, or you can at least have the thermostat adjust the temperature so that it’s not running unnecessarily. When you cross the perimeter again as you come home, your HVAC system can kick into action so your house is comfortable when you walk in the door.
High-voltage heater support
Most smart thermostats are designed to work with central HVAC systems. If your home is heated by high-voltage heaters (baseboard, radiant, and fan-forced convector, for example), you’ll need a thermostat that’s specifically designed to work with that type of heater.
Remote Access
Remote access enables you to control your thermostat while away from home, so that you can check in and adjust the temperature from wherever you have a connection to the internet.
Sensors
Geofencing is great provided everyone who lives in the home has a smartphone. Motion and proximity sensors offer an alternative means of determining if your home is occupied and in need of climate control. The original Nest thermostat was often criticized for relying too much on its motion sensor. If no one walked past it often enough, it would decide that the house was empty and it would stop heating or cooling. Some smart thermostats can also tap into door and window sensors as well as the motion sensors for your home security system. And proximity sensors on the thermostat itself can trigger a thermostat’s display to turn on when you walk past it, making the screens a handy feature on their own, even if for no other reason than providing a nightlight or telling you the current weather.
Smart-home system integration
Every smart thermostat comes with an app so you can control it with your smartphone or tablet, but the best models can also be integrated with other smart-home devices and broader smart home systems. This can range from being able to adjust the temperature with a voice command via an Amazon Echo or Google Home digital assistant, to linking to your smoke detector so that your fan automatically turns off when fire is detected, preventing smoke from being circulated throughout your home. Other options to consider include IFTTT support, Apple HomeKit compatibility, smart-vent connectivity, and home security system integrations.
System complexity
Many thermostats support multi-stage heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as well as heat pump systems. If your home is divided into zones that are heated and cooled independently of each other, you’ll probably need one thermostat for each zone. A single app should be able to control multiple zones.
User interface
Long gone are the days when a thermostat’s user interface consisted of numbers on a dial. The more sophisticated a device becomes, the more difficult it can be to learn to use. The last thing you want to be doing is figuring out your thermostat when all you really want is to be warmer or cooler. A smart thermostat should be intuitive at a glance and easily adapt to your specific needs. Again, please refer to “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”
Below are a few models of smart thermostats you might want to consider. These are the same ones I’m looking at for our home project. If you end up with any of these come back and leave a review as I’d love to hear about your experience.
Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control
Ecobee tops my list as Debbie and I have previous experience. This one however, is different as it has built-in Amazon Alexa.
Nest usually gets all the attention but Ecobee’s latest smart thermostat looks to be the best you can buy today. The new model builds on the model that preceded it, which was itself very well executed. Many other smart thermostats rely on measuring a home’s temperature in just one spot — where the thermostat is located. The problem with that is, that spot is usually somewhere that you never spend any time or on the interior of your home.
Ecobee allows you to place multi-purpose sensors in various rooms in your home, so that the rooms you’re in are the ones that the thermostat instructs your HVAC system to heat or cool to keep you comfortable. Debbie and I took full advantage of this in our home in Minnesota as the Ecobee was installed in an upstairs hallway. We placed a multi-purpose sensor in the family room of our finished basement. This helped balance the HVAC throughout the house and keep the downstairs warm enough in the winter.
Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd generation)
The Nest Learning Thermostat may be the best for users who don’t want to think about their thermostat. Personally, I also like the colorful user interface.
Nest has worked very hard to build out a comprehensive smart home ecosystem with its own products — the Nest Cam security camera series and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors — as well as a wide array of third-party products. That includes everything from ceiling fans to lighting controls and even smart appliances. The recent addition of the Nest Temperature Sensor makes this device even smarter.
The thing I’ve discovered that I’m not a fan of is Nest counts on your buying other Nest products to help determine when you’re home and away, among other things. And though we’re an Amazon Alexa household and it doesn’t affect us, anyone investing in or planning to invest in Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem might want to pass on Nest products due to lack of integration.
Honeywell Lyric T5 smart thermostat
The Lyric T5 is less sophisticated than many other smart thermostats, but you might not care given its price tag. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles that fancier smart thermostats offer (and you don’t need to control a humidifier, dehumidifier, or ventilator), Honeywell’s Lyric T5 is a great choice. It’s not as sophisticated as the others above but it is good at the all the essential HVAC needs and it’s considerably less expensive.
The Mysa Smart Thermostat is a stylish and high-tech choice for making dumb high-voltage heaters a whole lot smarter. These types of thermostats are designed for baseboard, radiant, fan-forced convector, and similar types of heaters, as opposed to the more common central HVAC systems. Understandably, there are few smart thermostat choices for these type of systems.
It has a simple but elegant industrial design making it easier than most to use. Another great benefit is its integration with other smart home devices, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit.
I included the Wyze Thermostat as I really like the company and their technology in general. This is one of a variety of Wyze
products that range from cameras to robot vacuums to smart sprinkler systems. Their thermostat (like the smart sprinkler system) is currently on pre-order, shipping in December. And being the cheapest smart thermostat you’re going to find on the market, they’re practically disposable. I’ve ordered one and looking forward to tinkering with it over the Christmas-New Year’s Holidays.
Like the other full featured thermostats here, no matter where you are, you’re always just a few taps away from dialing in the perfect temperature. While also saving energy — queue Brad Paisley.
It currently works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant development is on its way. The Wyze Thermostat also features simple, daily scheduling. But can also be managed manually, via voice or app for unscheduled needs. Your schedule will resume upon its next start time. The Wyze app will also recommend actionable insights based on your usage to help reduce energy usage.
Like the Ecobee, a remote sensor will be available in early 2021. The 3-in-1 remote temperature, humidity and motion sensor. Larger homes can have cold or hot spots depending on the floor plan. It may be overkill but placing a remote sensor in each room of your home will enable the Wyze Thermostat to balance the temperature throughout the house. A benefit to the “remote in every room” plan is that some rooms should be hotter or cooler than others during different times of the day. You can place a remote sensor in any (or all) of your rooms to dial in the exact temperature you’d like for that room. This is a capability I haven’t found in any other smart thermostat and really like it. Imagine Debbie warm and cozy in the family room or kitchen while I stay cooler in the office.
And like other more expensive smart thermostats, the Wyze Thermostat will have learning algorithms to automate your temperature. It will learn what you like, when you like it, and creates schedules for you based on a balance of savings and comfort. It will also have a filter reminder, based on actual usage, to replace your filters in order to to preventing pollen and dust from entering your home and keeping your system running smoothly.
It might seem weird but smart thermostats get me a little fired up. Hopefully you’re excited about these invisible little workhorses in your home as well. There are few other devices in your home that offer the flexibility and efficiencies that smart thermostats do. Certainly this is only a sampling of what’s available so do your own research but I think it’d be well worth your time. Let me know what you decide to do.
In the meantime, Debbie and I are still tweaking our floor plan with the architect. Stay tuned as we work toward finalizing that and making some other decisions about the house. Debbie and I also wish you all a great Thanksgiving and hope you enjoy time with family if you can. Regardless, wear your mask, social distance, wash your hands frequently and stay safe out there.
