The best smart thermostats can automate the heating and cooling of your home, making sure it's the temperature you want when you want it. Instead of using a schedule to heat and cool your home, smart thermostats give you more control by letting you adjust the temperature from your phone even when you're away from home. No more coming home late to discover that you are wasting energy because the heat has been on full all night.
Smart thermostats also let you change the temperature with your voice and can work with other smart family devices like smart lights and plugs and also smart switches, so when you walk in the door, the lights are on, your favorite songs and you play. home is at the perfect temperature.
It's not just about home automation, smart thermostats can help save energy and potentially money. Some internet-connected thermostats use artificial intelligence to identify how long your home takes to heat or cool, adjusting your schedule accordingly so that you use as little energy as possible. Others offer room-by-room temperature control or can warn if you've opened a window and turned off the heating.
Many smart thermostats make bold claims about how much you can save, but the actual amount will depend on how you currently use your heating and cooling systems.
If you run them all the time, it is very possible that you will save a lot of time, but if you are already using a program to adjust the temperature of your home, the savings will not be so great, but everything helps.
There is a wide range of smart thermostats to choose from, and the different models all have their selling points. In this guide, we've listed the best smart thermostats you can buy from the biggest names in the business, including Nest, Ecobee, Hive, Honeywell, and Tado.
For each smart thermostat, we're going to explain their main selling points and what particular environment each one of them is best suited for. For example, you might prioritize cost over smarts, or appreciate a smart thermostat that looks like a piece of art rather than something utilitarian.
Due to the nature of the market, a direct comparison isn't really that helpful, so the units here aren't ranked by number according to our preferences. On her site, we recommend each of these smart thermostats: they are all excellent. It is up to you to decide which one best suits your needs and your home.
UPDATE: Google recently released a more accessible version of the Nest Thermostat. The $XNUMX internet-connected climate control is currently only available in the US. UU., And it is not clear if it will reach the R. United and Australia neither. It keeps cost down by ditching the dial in favor of a touch panel on the right side that lets you adjust the temperature. I You can't adjust your schedule for it either, but it has built-in Soli radar.
The Best Smart Thermostats 2021 - Ranked
Nest Learning Thermostat
The smartest little one in the class.
Features Dimensions: diameter: 480mm, height: 480mm Display: XNUMX-bit color LCD, XNUMX x XNUMX resolution Sensors: XNUMX sensors for temperature, indoor humidity, proximity, near field activity, field activity Far, Ambient Light Zone Control: No Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Wireless Networking, Bluetooth Low Energy TODAY'S BEST DEALS
Reasons to purchase
Reasons to Avoid -No zone control-Won't work with Apple HomeKit Nest is one of the biggest names in the smart home market, and for good reason. This Google-owned company offers well-designed products that are simple to use and packed with intelligence. The Nest Learning Thermostat (XNUMXrd generation) is known for its ability to learn your routines and adjust accordingly. This means that over time your heating system can adapt to your needs, without you having to do anything. It also takes advantage of location-based features that can track the location of your phone and turn the heater on or off based on its location. But don't worry, it'll turn off the heating and let your guests freeze when you're gone, as its built-in sensors let it know if anyone's home. The main criticisms of the Nest Learning Thermostat are that it doesn't offer zone control, and if you're new to the technology, it can be a little tricky to set up and use. The lack of zonal control means that although you'll be able to digitally monitor your property as a whole, you'll still need to manually adjust individual radiators. That said, if you're looking for a high-end system, the Nest is a good solution. On top of this, with Google behind it, Nest is a good system to invest in if you plan on building a larger smart home setup. Read the full review: XNUMXrd Gen Nest Learning Thermostat
Active heating Hive 2
A small thermostat with the necessary intelligence
Features Dimensions: 480 x 0 x XNUMX mm Screen: XNUMX-inch TFT color screen, XNUMX x XNUMX resolution Sensors: temperature Zone control: with multi-zone active heating Connectivity: Zigbee HA XNUMX BEST DEALS OF THE DAY Reasons to buy
- Beautiful design + Simple to use
Reasons to bypass
- Professional installation required - Does not work with Apple HomeKit
Hive is owned by Centrica, one of the UK's leading energy distributors, so you can be sure you're in experienced hands when it comes to your heating needs. Although the company is British, Hive products have been available in the US since XNUMX. The thermostat itself is a cooperation between Hive and Swiss designer Yves Béhar, who's in charge of everything from the August smart lock to Paypal's brand identity. This premium style makes the Hive Active Heating Thermostat something you'll be proud to have on your wall. In addition to this, Hive has a huge ecosystem, so you can monitor a wide range of Hive products with a single application. And your thermostat is no slouch, earning our ``recommended'' tag thanks to its easy interface and simple voice assistant integration. It's worth noting that like the Nest Thermostat before it, Hive Active Heating doesn't support Apple's HomeKit, so best avoided if you've already invested in the smart home ecosystem. Manzana. With a small dial in the middle of its solid temperature control design, the Hive Active Thermostat gives you the ability to keep things super simple, while being packed with features for those who want better control of their system. Read the full review: Hive Active Heating two
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
Honeywell Evohome
The simplest zone control available
Features Dimensions: 480 x XNUMX x XNUMX mm Screen: XNUMX-bit color LCD, XNUMX x XNUMX resolution Sensors: temperature sensor Zone control: yes Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth THE BEST DEALS IN THE DAY Reasons to purchase
- Impressively Simple Controls + Great Zone Control
Reasons to bypass
- Expensive - Not the most aesthetic
Honeywell Evohome gives you complete control over your home, with individual thermostats for each radiator that let you set a separate heating schedule for each room in your home. It's pretty hard to understand the difference this feature makes until you've tried it yourself. If you live in a house where different inhabitants prefer a different temperature, or if one room always seems to be warmer or colder than the others, this system will be a blessing. On top of this, it also works with brilliant underfloor heating, so even if you have a large and complicated heating system, the Evohome gives you full control over it all through an app that's a joy to use. The radiator control panel and thermostats aren't going to win any design awards, as they do in flat white plastic, but that's not really the Evohome's purpose. It's a simple system, without the bells and whistles of the Nest or the Hive, but if you've got a complicated heating system that you want to monitor digitally, it's pretty hard to beat. Read the full review: Honeywell Evohome
Tado smart thermostat
The best zone control on the market
Characteristics Dimensions: one hundred four × one hundred four × nineteen mm Display: led matrix Sensors: temperature sensors, indoor humidity, ambient light Zone control: yes Connectivity: through Tado Internet Bridge connected to the router through the Ethernet port THE BEST DEALS OF THE DAY Reasons to buy
- Very elegant design + Zone control
Reasons to Avoid -The app is quite difficult to use: LED matrix displays The Tado Smart Thermostat has to be brilliant. It offers the zone control of the Honeywell Evohome, a sleeker design to rival the Hive, and geo-fencing smarts to match the Nest, but it fails to bring all these features together in one cohesive system. It's really beautiful, by far the most engaging zone control on the market, but the app isn't intuitive to navigate and, compared to the impressively simple-to-use app on the Evohome, is honestly pretty difficult. That's not to say it's a bad system, it's still comfortably a four-star product, and we don't imagine anyone who buys the Tado will regret buying it. And it's very close to being the perfect system, one that combines the best features of other offerings. The downside is that he simply can't get past his opponents. Apple HomeKit integration is one thing that sets the Tado apart on this list: if you're the proud owner of a HomePod or else have a firm footing in the Apple ecosystem, this is surely the best smart thermostat for you. It's also worth noting that the things keeping Tado from standing out are any software glitches rather than hardware glitches, so these might be resolved over time. The Tado Smart Thermostat isn't currently available in the US, but since the Tado cooling system is sold there, we'd be surprised if it isn't available sometime soon. Read the full review: Tado Smart...