Smart Thermostat: Your Key to Home Comfort and Energy Savings

You probably already know a smart thermostat helps control your home’s temperature. But, do you know all the cool things they can do? Smart thermostats aren’t just about adjusting the temperature from your phone. They can learn your schedule, save you money on your energy bills, and even help the environment.

So how do you pick the best smart thermostat? How much money can they actually save? Should you replace your old one now? We will go through some common concerns, highlight some lesser-known advantages, and even explore if these high-tech thermostats have any downsides. We will break down all these aspects so you can decide if upgrading is a smart move.

Types of Smart Thermostats

Before you pick the perfect smart thermostat, it is important to understand the main types available.

Basic Wi-Fi Enabled Smart Thermostats

This is a good starting point if you are mainly interested in being able to control the temperature remotely from your phone. Basic Wi-Fi-enabled smart thermostats like the Honeywell Home RTH6580WF give you this remote functionality without some of the bells and whistles found on pricier models. These usually work well with standard HVAC systems and require a C-wire, but many come with adapter kits if your house isn’t wired for one.

Learning Thermostats

As their name suggests, learning thermostats like Nest thermostats gather data about your preferences. Eventually, they adjust temperatures for you based on their AI “learning”.

These require minimal programming upfront because they “learn” your patterns. They do still need to be manually adjusted now and then based on any significant changes in your schedule.

Smart Thermostats with Room Sensors

Taking the learning functionality a step further, some smart thermostats include or support optional remote sensors. These sensors track the temperature and sometimes even occupancy in various rooms. This information is sent to the smart thermostat, allowing it to optimize your HVAC system. This provides an even and comfortable temperature throughout your house.

The Benefits of Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats can offer significant benefits for homeowners looking to enhance their comfort and energy efficiency. Let’s explore some key advantages:

Remote Access

Being able to control the temperature with a tap on your phone or tablet from anywhere is probably the first reason that comes to mind when thinking of a smart thermostat.

Automated Energy Savings

Beyond just the convenience, though, this ability can really save money and energy. A smart thermostat can adjust temperatures while you are asleep or away from home so you aren’t wasting money on heating or cooling when you don’t need it. But just how much do smart thermostats save?

Potential Energy Cost Savings

According to ENERGY STAR, a smart thermostat can save around $50 per year on your heating and cooling bills. These are only average savings based on usage habits.

To optimize the potential of your smart thermostat and really cut your energy consumption, consider setting up custom schedules. Base them on your daily routine and preferred comfort levels. It also helps to be more proactive.

Adjust temperatures manually from your phone if you know you are going to be away from home for a longer period than usual. And, following the recommended guidelines by Energy Star is always a good idea.

Time	Temperature (°F)
At Home	78
Asleep	82
Away	85

Smart Home Integration

You get convenient hands-free control by pairing a smart thermostat with your smart home setup. Connect it to Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, or Amazon Alexa. Adjusting temperatures with your voice can be easier when you’re busy or relaxing at home.

Tracking Energy Usage

Many smart thermostats can provide insight into your energy usage over time. These can give more awareness into how you’re consuming energy. Armed with this knowledge you can become more conscious of your household’s overall consumption. If your goal is energy efficiency, this is key information.

Should you make the switch?

While smart thermostats can provide an impressive array of potential energy-saving and environmental benefits, you should also be aware of some downsides before installing one.

Initial Costs

Yes, smart thermostats can save money, but their upfront costs can make that payoff seem a bit far off. Smart thermostats come at a higher initial investment. The Amazon Smart Thermostat is an exception coming in at only around $80. Meanwhile, other good models, like the Honeywell Home T9 Smart Thermostat, can cost $173 or more.

Possible Issues During Power Outages

A smart thermostat that relies on Wi-Fi will most likely become useless during a power outage, making it no better than a manual thermostat. You may still be able to manually adjust some smart thermostats at the unit if power is out. Some units have battery backup or alternative power sources that might keep at least basic functionality active during a power outage.

Data Security Concerns

As with any Wi-Fi-enabled device, security concerns about data collection and privacy have to be considered. Be sure to research your chosen model and the manufacturers’ reputation for data security. Always make sure to set strong passwords and review any security settings on the app you use.

Potentially Unnecessary for Consistent Schedules

You won’t see much in the way of cost savings if you already maintain a fairly consistent heating and cooling schedule. If you generally keep your home at set temperatures, a smart thermostat will only save money if you program those into it.

If your temperatures already meet the Department of Energy’s Energy Star program guidelines for 78 degrees at home, 82 degrees for sleep, and 85 degrees when away, it is hard to imagine seeing much, if any, cost savings at all.

C-Wire Installation

As previously mentioned, you might need to install a C-Wire if your home’s wiring doesn’t include one. Some thermostats, including smart thermostats made by Nest, can pull power from the other wires, negating the need for a C-Wire. However, many people using this workaround with their Nest thermostat have voiced concern about their system short-cycling.

Unless your smart thermostat came with a C-Wire adapter kit, you will most likely have to pick one up for about $25. Installing one isn’t difficult, but you will need to add it near your HVAC system to work.

Potential Strain on Power Grid

A study recently published in ScienceDirect shared concerns by some researchers that smart thermostats may put excess stress on the power grid when all those heating and cooling systems come online at the same time, but it doesn’t appear to have become a real-world problem. You can set your system to start heating or cooling before you normally wake up to help avoid that, however.

Choosing the Right Smart Thermostat for You

Choosing the best smart thermostat involves a bit of careful consideration, just as picking the right thermostat does. Here are factors to keep in mind:

Smart Home Compatibility

It can really enhance your smart home setup when a smart thermostat integrates smoothly into your other smart home systems. Before making a purchase, consider whether or not your existing system supports your chosen brand of smart thermostat. Some, like the Commercial Electric Smart Thermostat work primarily with a specific manufacturer’s system like the Home Depot’s Hubspace smart home platform. But, even that smart thermostat works with Google Home and Alexa. So always double check.

Don’t forget to also consider the level of smart home integration you need. Is the ability to change temperatures by voice with voice commands something that is appealing to you? Or, is your preference leaning more towards using your phone and the smart thermostat’s accompanying app to set schedules and remotely change temperatures? And, would adding remote sensors make your home more comfortable overall by evening out the temperature between different rooms?

Most will find they don’t actually need their thermostat to learn and then act autonomously for them and will prefer being more involved. These types of choices all come down to how involved you want the technology to be in your comfort and how much you want your smart home system to just handle things for you.

Ease of Installation

Luckily, even with their more advanced features installing smart thermostats isn’t more difficult than installing standard thermostats. If you have installed a standard thermostat, you’ve probably learned most are very similar, and even simple to do: Shut off the power at the breaker and then make sure the system isn’t still active, label all wires and take a photo as a backup, remove the old one, wire the new smart thermostat according to instructions, mount the thermostat and backplate, and then restore the power at the breaker. Done. Easy peasy.

As mentioned previously, installing a C-Wire or the included adapter kit, can sometimes complicate things but even those usually only require inserting an additional wire at the HVAC system.

Features to Look for

There are a couple of things to consider to ensure you get a good smart thermostat. First is the device’s aesthetics – it needs to look appealing in your home. The display should be clear and easy to understand and have a modern style. Touchscreens usually look nice, and backlighting is helpful. Make sure your smart thermostat is compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit if those features are important to you.

Geofencing is also helpful. Using the location of the phones in the house, or with a built-in proximity sensor, the smart thermostat can figure out when everyone has left and then make intelligent energy-saving temperature adjustments while you are gone.

Adding smart thermostats to your home is about far more than just getting a basic programmable thermostat, although those are nice, too, they lack the potential environmental benefits offered by a good smart thermostat from the Department of Energy’s Energy Star program.

FAQs about smart thermostat

Is it worth getting a smart thermostat?

This really comes down to how you will be using it. Smart thermostats can be useful, but if you will just use it as a standard thermostat and manually adjust temperatures as needed, you probably won’t gain any benefits. However, you won’t experience any negatives either – except paying more initially for it.

You will need to fully use the scheduling, learning functionality, geofencing and remote temperature adjustment features, at a minimum, to start seeing benefits like energy savings, potential environmental advantages and convenient hands-free use if your system integrates into your smart home system.

What are the disadvantages of a smart thermostat?

Initial cost, reliance on Wi-Fi (although this is negated if you just manually change temperatures), lack of any extra cost savings for users who are already very energy conscious and already keep their HVAC systems set at recommended levels, concerns over data privacy, potential, but not yet proven, strain on the electrical grid, and potentially having to add a C-Wire are some downsides to keep in mind when considering this technology.

Can you just replace a thermostat with a smart thermostat?

Yes. Although the actual wiring is pretty simple there are some things you should keep in mind: make sure your new thermostat supports your existing HVAC system. And, the other thing, as mentioned before, is your thermostat will probably require a C-Wire to provide enough power for its more advanced functionality. Many come with an adapter that pulls power from one of your system’s other wires, so that might be a simple workaround.

Is there a monthly fee for a smart thermostat?

Not generally. That being said, some advanced functionalities and apps might require a paid subscription to unlock. It’s always a good idea to carefully read all the features of the unit you’re buying, and always review the subscription information.

Conclusion

So, is a smart thermostat the best choice for you? As with most technology this all comes down to how you will be using it, what functionality appeals to you, and whether you consider its various downsides an actual issue or just a minor inconvenience. With an ever-growing market, doing research, reading reviews, and matching a smart thermostat to your needs has never been easier.