Nest Thermostat

Ecobee3 Thermostat

Honeywell Thermostat

Schneider Thermostat

Hive Thermostat

Tado Thermostat

Best Wireless Thermostat Buying Guide

A good thermostat can make your life easier and comfortable. With one installed, you need to worry less about controlling your heating or cooling system. If the room gets hot or cold, it senses it and automatically directs the heating system to bring down the temperature to the optimum level.

Today the thermostats along with temperature are smart enough to detect the number of occupants and adjust the room temperature.

If you are planning to buy a thermostat you need to examine the features, pros and cons of the thermostat before making the decision, Also since there are a lot of different types of thermostats available today comparing them in every aspect is necessary.

To save you the time so we have compiled a list of best thermostats and reviewed them and the comprehensive table we have created will help you to choose the best wireless thermostat for your home.

Best 6 Smart Thermostats (As of October 2017)

Nest Learning Thermostat Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat Schneider Electric Wiser Air Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat Hive Active Heating and Hot Water Thermostat – SMARTHOMEBUYER RECOMMENDED Tado Smart Thermostat

SHOPPING COMPARISON NEST

HIVE

TADO

Nest Learning Thermostat – Good looking thermostat with sharp touch screen capability

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Nest Learning Thermostat is an award-winning touchscreen thermostat, developed by Nest which is one of the earliest pioneers of working with the smart home system.

It is a third generation thermostat with a larger touchscreen display than its predecessors.

The best feature of this thermostat its automatic adjust energy settings based on the habits of a person living in a room, but for this feature to become active, it takes a few days or a week for this thermostat to learn your patterns or habits.

Over time the Hive can automatically figure out when you’re home and out, this helps to save energy when nobody is home and adjust itself to comfort people when they are home. To avoid interference with 2.4 GHz WI-Fi band it uses 5GHZ band instead. It has an easy to use touchscreen interface with its i-drive style wheel interface.

With Nest Thermostat installed at home, homeowners can look through their energy efficiency reports through the smartphone app. The reports show the amount of money one is saving. Also, if there is any discrepancy in the performance of air conditioner or furnace, it notifies to the homeowner.

The Nest Thermostat is slight more expensive than its counterparts, but it’s reliable and good performer.

It comes with Zigbee and Bluetooth features but these are inactive at this time. They are built for the future use.

When the device is saving energy, it displays a leaf icon on its screen and it is easy to install as it does not have individual room sensors that need additional configuration.

Nest Thermostat can work in coordination with the smoke alarms such as Nest Protect to regulate heating and cooling systems at home. The nest also notifies the homeowner by sending an alert and indicates the high levels of the smoke of CO2 on the thermostat. Moreover, it can also function along with Nest Cam to record the home environment whenever the Nest Learning Thermostat is set to ‘Away’. There are a lot of companies who manufacture smart security systems that are compatible with Nest thermostat.

Pros

Sleek design

Easy to install.

Has Zigbee and Bluetooth capability

Interacts with other Nest and third-party devices.

Supports for Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT.

Cons

Lacks remote sensors

Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat – With multiple sensors, it controls individual rooms

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Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat can adjust the temperature of multiple rooms by monitoring and control the heating and cooling systems in different rooms of your home. It uses multiple sensors each installed in different rooms to determine the occupancy, room temperature, and send the data to the main thermostat where it calculates the temperature difference and controls the heaters and coolers accordingly. For instance, if your kitchen gets hot during cooking, the system will automatically detect it and lower the temperature in the room.

When people are in multiple rooms, ecobee3 Thermostat calculates an average of temperature in individual rooms to calibrate the best settings. The Nest smart thermostat we reviewed earlier unlike the ecobee3 thermostat lacks individual sensors. The design of ZigBee compatible ecobee3 is driven to offer comfort rather than save energy.

This thermostat is complex to install as its main device, and sensors need to be connected by a C wire that draws continuous 24V power from the heating and cooling system and transfers it to the thermostat for its functioning. Other typical thermostats have built-in batteries which we like.

Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat has a sharp display of 320×480 pixels. With a mobile app designed for this system, users can control it from anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. It works with different home automation systems such as Logitech Harmony, Apple HomeKit, Wink, and SmartThings.

Pros and Cons of Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat

Pros

Supports multiple sensors that improve energy management.

IFTTT and Apple HomeKit compatible

Cons

Ecobee3 does not offer live chat support.

Needs expert help for installation

Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat- Follows Voice Commands

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With Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat you don’t need to type in commands on your phone or touchscreen, just say it and it will do it.

It is definitely not the sleekest Thermostat but is popular because of its convenient voice control feature. It is programmable to basic voice control commands. But the traditional way of interacting with the thermostat with a touchscreen is still there. However with Amazon Echo now so widely popular this is now widely available to all smart heating systems.

It has a good sharp display that is very user-friendly and responsive.

Just like the ecobee3, Honeywell Wi-Fi Thermostat needs to be connected through a C wire (Common wire), which makes installation quite complex. This thermostat is compatible with Wink automation system and the advanced voice control technology used by this Thermostat is sophisticated enough to recognise the commands even in a busy household. It recognises commands such as ‘make it two degrees cooler’, ‘make it three degrees warmer’ etc.

You can also customise the colour of your touchscreen to match the décor of the room or suit your personal style. It offers a good number of soothing colour options.

Pros

Includes an email alert feature other than Mobile app alerts.

Good Customizable user interface

Has the ability to learn to improvise when there are irregularities in the heating or cooling prior to the scheduled time.

Can control the fans

Cons

Can be time-consuming and complex to install, help from a technician might be needed

Does not give data reports

If the music or TV is loud, it might not recognise voice commands

Schneider Electric Wiser Air Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat – offers customised advice on saving energy

Wiser Air Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is developed by one of the reputed energy companies, Schneider Electric. You can control this thermostat through its touchscreen, laptop, smartphone or tablet.

An interesting feature of this thermostat is its demand/response program that communicates with the utility company of your choice and receives customised advice on better energy usage patterns for your home. The touchscreen display on this device is small and it is not as good looking like the ones in ecobee3 and Honeywell thermostats.

It has Comfort Boost feature which supports quick heating or cooling in 15 minute time bursts which are useful while you wake up in the morning. It has a wiser pulse that indicates a particular mode of the system by glowing with different lights.

Unlike the Ecobee3, this thermostat is easy to install. Its touchscreen follows an intuitive and sleek design and It’s compatible with IFTTT which allows it to connect with various home security and comfort products and services.

Pros and Cons of Schneider Electric Wiser

Pros

It is easy to install. You wouldn’t need a technician.

It is perfectly sized and has an intuitive design

In its energy reports, it shows a number of dollars saved

On average, saves 10% of energy

Cons

It does not support vacation scheduling

Hive Active Heating and Hot Water with Professional Installation – Works with Amazon Alexa

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If you are using a boiler or room heater without a thermostat, you are probably wasting a lot of energy and paying excess energy bills. Hive is a smart active heating thermostat that controls the heating equipment at your home. With this £249 unit installed you can control your water heater from your mobile, laptop or tablet.

All you need to do is have a Hive app installed in these devices. It is professionally installed by British Gas Engineer which is known for its quality smart energy equipment.

The Hive lets you program up to 6 daily routines which could be later triggered remotely by your phone. Also, it supports heating and hot water boost, which helps to speed up the water heating process for up to 6 hours. The geo-location feature gives you alerts when you leave home.

Other useful features include Frost Protection, Pin Lock, and Holiday mode where Hive goes to sleep and activates automatically when you come back. It is compatible with Amazon Alexa.

You can read our full Hive Home review here – Hive Home Review

PROS

Looks slick and classy

Comes with a very user intuitive app

Reliable connectivity

CONS

Professional installation required

Tado Smart Thermostat – Great design and advanced geofencing

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Tado is the latest brand to cement within the smart thermostat market in the UK. With its sleek design and easy to install guide we rate this thermostat highly within in its competitor group.

Tado pride themselves on just how easy it is to install and all information can be found on their website. We do however recommend contacting the company if you are unsure and need help from professionals.

Its sleek and minimal design make it winner using LED’s rather that digital displays like the Nest and Hive. The app is also very easy to use.

What we like most about Tado is that the company offer a 12 month money back guarantee if you haven’t saved energy using their products and they claim you can save up to 31% on your enegy bills although we’re yet to test this.

Its advanced geolocation allows you to add multiple users to the home and heats up and cools down the house when those users are within a certain distance from the home. No need for timers or schedules.

You can also buy add-ons such smart radiator valves allowing you to control your heating at room level allowing you to save even more more and heat only the rooms that are necessary to you at the time.

Like Hive and Nest, Tado also works with your smart home assistants (Google and Amazon) and also works with Apple Homekit and IFTTT.

PROS

Great LED design

Easy to set up

Advanced Geolocation

CONS

Connectivity is not as good as other thermostats

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