Best Smart Thermostats With Important Pros And Cons
Unlike regular thermostats, Smart thermostats offer a variety of features that will not only keep your home comfortable but also save energy when programmed correctly. Many of the latest smart thermostats contain humidity sensors that will trigger an alert when it detects high or low humidity levels, and some models will display your local weather forecast.
In this article, we’re going to look at the top 5 smart thermostats available on the market today. We made this list based on our own opinion, research, and customer reviews. We’ve considered their quality, features, and values when narrowing down the best choices possible.
So here are the top five Smart Thermostats:
Bosch Connected Control BCC100.
The BCC100 is a serviceable thermostat that allows you to control your home heating and cooling system from anywhere using your phone and mobile app. The physical BCC100 unit is simple, attractive and unobtrusive. A single touch on its 5-inch screen will wake it up, instantly showing you the current temperature at its location.
Simple white text and green, Chiclet-style controls stand out against a medium blue background. It’s a good-looking user interface. It works with most 24-volt heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. These include conventional gas, oil, and electric systems with two heatings.
It has two cooling stages, and heat pump systems with four heating and two cooling modes. The main menu on the touch display shows the current room temperature and humidity and has buttons for system mode. It also displays the current schedule and time and has a Wi-Fi status indicator. You can use the up and down buttons to adjust the temperature setpoints.
Its pros are:
- It comes with wiring labels, small screwdrivers, and mounting screws so you can install it with less hassle; and
- It works with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant for more convenient temperature control.
Its cons are:
- It does not integrate with other smart home devices; and
- It lacks IFTTT support and geofencing capabilities.
- Complex interface.
Although the BCC100’s interface looks inviting, the process of actually creating a heating-and-cooling schedule and making temporary changes to the temperature was a bit clunky, requiring more touches or clicks than other interfaces. Although it is not quite as smart as the other products on our list, The BCC100 is still an excellent choice for homeowners who wan to smarten up their HVAC system.
Lux Geo Wi-Fi Thermostat.
Lux Geo is easy to install and use. It works with two double-A Lithium batteries, a micro USB or the C-wire. It offers you the best thermostat when it comes to functionality. This 7-day programmable thermostat is full of features. You can program the geofencing radius using an app that also lets you check the status of your thermostat at any time. Its geofencing features automatically switch the thermostat to “away mode” when you leave the house and “back to home mode” when you return. Plus, it can tell your system when you are close to home.
With Lux Geo, you can estimate how much you are saving from your bills every time you adjust the temperature. You can also connect it via Wi-Fi with free iOS or Android Apps.
It has an impressive support option with unique horizontal and vertical mount capability.
Its pros are:
- It is budget-friendly. It is more affordable than most smart thermostats on the market.
- It has geofencing capabilities that help you save on electricity costs;
- You can use it with or without Wi-Fi; and
- It comes with an outstanding warranty.
Its cons are:
- It does not integrate with other smart home systems except Amazon Echo and Google Home;
- Its design is a bit old fashioned. Regardless, it performs well and can help you modernize your heating and air conditioning system.
Honeywell Home T9 Smart Thermostat.
If you are looking to add a smart thermostat to your home where you can keep track of the temperature of your rooms, then consider Honeywell Home T9. It has a straightforward app and optional Alexa and Google Assistant voice control. It is a feature-packed smart thermostat that uses remote room occupancy sensors to ensure uniform heating and cooling throughout your entire home. The sensor detects the temperature and humidity levels in a room. It has a range of up to 200 feet and 1-year battery life. Easy to install and manage using a built-in touch-screen display, a mobile app, or your voice, the T9 offers dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity and works with other smart home devices via IFTTT applets, although IFTTT trigger options are limited.
Honeywell Home T9 has a unique design with its bright white 3.5 touchscreens that bring elegance and class to your home. From its screen, you can comfortably read its prominent characters from across the room. It also has color-coded text features that indicate the indoor temperature. When blue color is displayed, it means its cooling, while if it is orange, it means its heating.
The pros are:
- It provides uniform temperatures throughout your home. You don’t have to worry about having a much colder or warmer area;
- It is easy to install and set up; and
- The app is very simple to use.
It works well to program and change temperatures. However, it does not have Home Kit support. It does not integrate directly with other Honeywell smart devices. But in the end, the Honeywell Home T9 does its job well. With plenty of features and settings, it remains an excellent smart thermostat. The second product on our list is Nest Learning Thermostat. This thermostat is 1.2 inches thick and 3.3 inches in diameter. It features a schedule button that displays the current schedule and allows you to adjust daily and weekly temperature settings.
Moreover, there are a bunch of other features that makes this thermostat fascinating: one of them is the auto-away feature. This thermostat uses a motion sensor to detect your presence inside the house and will switch into conservative energy mode if it thinks you are not home. In addition to that, Nest Learning has a split heat and cooling mode where you can set an upper and lower limit to the system, making sure it heats or cools as required.
Nest Learning features a larger display, geofencing support, a furnace monitor, and a few more sensors. It comes in with five different colors: black, white, brown, copper, and stainless steel.
Its pros are:
- It comes with an app that will help you walk through the system through step by step instruction. It is perfect especially for those who are not tech-savvy; and
- It is compatible with other heating and cooling systems.
However, this thermostat is a bit expensive. But it sure is an excellent investment for your home.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat.
This thermostat has an enhanced Alexa and multimedia support, as well as more powerful audio components. The Smart Thermostat packs a new, glass-fronted color LCD screen, with improved touchscreen sensitivity. It’s powered by a quad-core processor, and has dual-band Wi-Fi delivering faster, more stable connectivity. This new engine unlocks enhanced features. Support for Spotify and Bluetooth 5.0 lets you push music to an external speaker via Alexa.
You’ll also find the thermostat’s integrated smart speaker improved, delivering rich sound and wider range. The Eco bee Smart has a magnificent exterior design. It measures 4.2 by 4.2 by 10 inches with a glossy black screen or bezel of over the 3.5 inches. It also has a 480 by 320-pixel color touch display.
For a more efficient voice control mechanism, there are two microphone holes on either side of the screen for echo cancellation and more advanced audio processing. There is also a LED strip on the top of the device that glows blue when used with an Alexa voice command and turns red when the built-in microphone is turned off. The Ecobee Smart is powered by a 1.5 GigaHertz quad-core CPU, 4 gigabytes of flash memory, and 512 megabytes of DDR4 RAM.
To see the current weather conditions and five-day forecast, tap the weather icon. The gear icon takes you to the Quick Changes screen where you can switch from Home to Away modes, and the microphone icon opens a screen where you can adjust speaker volume, enable or disable the microphone, link Alexa to Spotify, and pair the thermostat with a Bluetooth speaker.
The pros are:
- It includes smart sensors to keep rooms comfortable by adjusting your thermostat based on occupancy;
- You can amplify the power of your voice with the advanced Alexa functionality.
- It has a fast and easy installation that you can do yourself while using the handy step-by-step guide on the Ecobee app.
However, because of its advanced functionality, this thermostat is pricier than other thermo statson the market. But, if you’re a conscientious geek like me, the Ecobee Smart will give you plenty of joy and satisfaction.