Smart thermostats can make your home more energy-efficient and save you $100 or more per year in heating and cooling costs. They let you control the temperature of your home remotely and can be integrated with your home’s other smart home devices. Some can even automatically learn your habits or work with voice control.
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But unlike many smart devices, smart thermostats require a bit of pre-planning to make sure they’ll work with your existing appliances before you start the installation process. Before investing in a thermostat, you’ll have to get up to snuff on what HVAC system your home uses. If your home uses separate heating and cooling systems, you may need a separate device for each.
What to Look for
Smart ecosystem: It's very important for you to buy a smart thermostat that's compatible with your existing smart home ecosystem — whether that be Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple's HomeKit — because it'll just make your life easier. You'll be able to control it via an app you already use on your smartphone and you might even be able to adjust your temperature using your voice.
Does your HVAC have a C-wire? Most smart thermostats require a common wire — or C-wire — installation, which it needs to stay constantly connected to a home’s Wi-Fi. The good news is that most new HVAC systems have C-wires, which are fairly easy to install yourself. If you have an older HVAC system you may have to jump through some more hoops to make a smart thermostat work for your home (as Consumer Reports explains).
Smart features: In addition to having a nice touchscreen interphase and being compatible to multiple smart home ecosystems, one of the main things that drives up the price of a smart thermostat is if it's smart enough to automatically adjust the temperature. The more advanced smart thermostats use geofencing (for your smartphone's location) or various motion sensors to detect whether you are home or not.
How big is your home? Larger homes with multiple floors may have multiple heating and cooling systems to control the different areas of the house all at the same time. In those cases, you’ll likely need to buy multiple smart thermostats, as one is required to control each of the different areas and its individual heating and cooling system.
Don't want to install yourself? If you don’t want to install the smart thermostat yourself, or you don’t know the answers to the above questions, you can hire a professional to do it for you. A number of retailers, such as Best Buy, Home Depot or Amazon, let you purchase this installation when you buy a smart thermostat.
The Best Smart Home Thermostats
Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd Gen)
The Nest Learning Thermostat has been around for a few years and yet it's still the best-looking smart thermostat you can buy; it has a beautiful LCD touchscreen and a huge and intuitive rotating dial that you can use to adjust your home's temperature. It's the no-brainer option for anybody committed to smart home around Google Assistant (Google owns Nest), but it's also compatible with most other smart home ecosystems. The Nest Learning Thermostat is an excellent smart thermostat for numerous other reasons. It's fairly easy to install and works with most HVAC systems. It is able to learn your (and your family's) habits and then automatically adjust the temperature accordingly. And you can buy and set up separate room sensors to more accurately control the temperatures in all areas of your home.
(Note: the Nest Thermostat E is a more affordable alternative with very similar features and capabilities.)
- Works with: Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
- C-wire: Yes
Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control
The Ecobee SmartThermostat is an excellent option for anybody with an Alexa smart home because it comes integrated with Alexa — no separate smart speaker required. You can talk directly to it and change the temperature. You can also stream audio directly to the thermostat via Bluetooth or Spotify Connect or ask Alexa to play something or answer questions about the weather. The Ecobee SmartThermostat has a large intuitive touchscreen display and comes with a smart sensor that makes it easier to control the temperature of rooms that are further away from the thermostat. If you have a larger home, you can buy extra SmartSensors ($79/2-pack) for relatively cheap.
(Note: The Ecobee SmartThermostat is also Google’s and Apple’s smart ecosystems, but can't be integrated with Google Assistant or Siri.)
- Works with: Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
- C-wire: Yes
Amazon Smart Thermostat
The Amazon Smart Thermostat is a simple and really affordable option for anybody with a smart home built around Alexa. You can control it and adjust the temperature via the app or by using an Alexa voice command if you have a smart device (like an Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show). You can also adjust the temperature just by going over and using its built-in touchscreen. It's fairly easy to install (requires a C-wire) and works with most HVAC systems. It, however, isn't compatible with any smart home ecosystem other than Alexa.
- Works with: Amazon Alexa
- C-wire: Yes
Honeywell T9
Honeywell makes a wide variety of smart thermostats, but its T9 is the best all-around option for those looking for one that's easy to install and use. It's compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants (if you have a separate smart speaker), and it works with Apple's HomeKit as well. One of the key features of the T9 is that it's smart enough to tell if you're home or away; it uses your smartphone's location (via geofencing) and then adjusts the temperature accordingly. It works with Honeywell's Smart Room Sensors, which you place in the various rooms in your house to help the T9 gauge and adjust the temperature.
- Works with: Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
- C-wire: Yes
Wyze Thermostat
The Wyze Thermostat is an affordable option for anybody who uses Wyze's various other smart home devices (such as cameras, doorbells, sensors, lights, etc.) — you can control them all from the same app. It is compatible with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, so if you have a smart speaker or smart display, you're able to adjust the temperature with your voice. Additionally, Wyze sells room sensors to help better regulate the temperatures in specific rooms of your home.
- Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
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C-wire: Yes
