Ecobee Thermostat
Ecobee is a smart thermostat that competes with Nest, it doesn’t have as much brand awareness however it is arguably a superior product. The major benefit to any smart thermostat is that you can automate schedules and control the temperature remotely in order to save money on your utility bills. There is no sense in heating or cooling your home when you aren’t there, Ecobee has a feature that will automatically change the mode to away when you’re gone using a geo-fence and your phone to determine your location. It also has optional sensors which can be placed around your home to detect occupancy and temperature in an area. That way your home’s heating and cooling needs are adjusted based on the room you’re using and an overall average of the temperature throughout which may vary from room to room and level to level.
The newest versions of Ecobee have Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant built-in which can be nice if you don’t already have an echo nearby. All of the versions including the Ecobee Lite will integrate with your voice assistant, so if having that built right into the thermostat isn’t important to you, there is an opportunity to save money. Installation is straightforward, you’ll want to match the colored wires from your previous thermostat to the new one if you don’t already have a C-wire there is an adaptor that can be added to your furnace in order to send power to the device. For homes with multi-zone controllers, humidifiers, or heat sources other than forced air you’ll want to check the box to ensure compatibility.
