Smart thermostats are thermostats that allow you to automate your home’s heating and air conditioning. Instead of needing to adjust the temperature manually, to keep heating and cooling costs low, the smart thermostat does it for you. This is of tremendous benefit because you don’t have to worry as much about having overly expensive bills, and many smart thermostats allow you to create schedules and to even control the temperatures with your smartphone, even when you’re not actually at home.
For example, it might be a cold, winter day, and you’re driving home from work. Before you leave, you can go onto your smartphone and change the temperature, so that when you arrive home, it’s nice and warm.
In this quick guide, we’re going to cover the main things that you should be looking for when searching for the right smart thermostat. Other features and aspects are more superfluous, but the ones that we’re going to cover, are of the utmost importance.
Smart Thermostat | Recommended
Last update on 2024-04-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Device Integration And Functionality
As mentioned in the intro, most smart thermostats allow you to use your smartphone in order to access the data that they are producing, and to control your temperatures. Not all of them work with iPhone’s, though, and not all of them work with Android. Similarly, not all of them work with other platforms, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Depending on the platform/device that you are using, you may not have the ability to utilize your smartphone in the ways that you desire. This is why it is so incredibly important to make sure that your device is supported by the smart thermostat.
Along those same lines, the applications that these smart thermostats provide aren’t always very good. Sometimes, they don’t allow you to create a schedule, or the schedule that you can create is for the week, rather than enabling you to schedule for specific days. Other times, you have very limited control over the temperature.
Most apps are very good, but others severely inhibit your functionality which, chances are, isn’t what you want. Instead, you want to look for an app (and brand) that enables you to utilize your smart thermostat to the best of its capabilities.
To figure out which apps are good and fit your specifications, pay attention to the product information for each smart thermostat. Also go to the page of the app itself, to read the reviews and see the features.
Sensors And Detectors
Every smart thermostat comes with sensors. The best ones come with a variety of sensors that provide you with even more data. Specific data that enables you to better understand the temperature of your home, as well as the energy usage that is taking place.
Make sure that you look for smart thermostats that have both temperature and humidity sensors. These are the two key sensors that are absolutely essential in providing you the best and most pertinent information.
More and more smart thermostats, however, are also coming with light and activity sensors and detectors, which are also very useful.
Using this information, the smart thermostat doesn’t even need to be programmed by you, it will use algorithms to best moderate the temperatures of your home, saving you money on your electricity bill.
Take the time to read the marketing pages and reviews of the smart thermostats you are looking at, to figure out the sensors and detectors that are included.
Overall Features
Every smart thermostat has the ability to monitor and control your heating and cooling. This is a given, but many of them also allow you to get real-time readings of those temperatures, have better integration with mobile devices, and some even allow you to use the smart thermostat as a speaker for music.
More importantly, however, is whether or not the smart thermostat that you are buying supports the cooling and heating systems that you have in place. Some smart thermostats only support specific kinds of heating and cooling systems, others are more extensive in that regard. Some only support one particular type of HVAC system, while others support many kinds of systems.
This, in of itself, might be the most pressing and important consideration of all, because if the smart thermostat doesn’t support the system that you have, then there’s no reason to buy it, because it either won’t work, or won’t allow you to control and monitor the system to the extent that you want.
Fortunately, you can find this information on the product pages, and if it’s not there, read the reviews and see if you can find an online manual on the manufacturer’s website, because those will go into more detail.
Smart Thermostat | Recommended
Last update on 2024-04-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API