Smart homes and smart devices are becoming increasingly common across the United States. And everybody has their own personal reasons for buying smart devices or converting their traditional homes into a smart home. It is anything from wanting home automation for convenience, to home security, and even cutting back on energy usage to reduce monthly utility bills. Some people want for all or a mixture of these features too.
Smart thermostats were one of the first few smart home devices to hit the market. But they were priced at a point much higher than that of a regular thermostat. What is it about these devices that sets them apart from any ordinary thermostat?
Smart Thermostats vs. Standard Thermostats
What is the purpose of a thermostat? To control the heating and cooling system of the household basically – a task that any ordinary thermostat can do, but what is it about smart thermostats then that sets them apart?
Smart thermostats are designed to control the heating and cooling of your home of course, but with added benefits. These devices can be controlled remotely and wirelessly with their mobile applications – that means you could be standing in a grocery store isle, laying back at the beach while on vacation, or even just in the kitchen of your home; have complete access to your smart thermostat and monitor its energy history.
Given that smart thermostats can be accessed through their mobile applications from anywhere and anytime, it accounts for energy saving that your regular thermostat would otherwise never have had the ability to do so. Controlling your device remotely gives you the first-hand advantage of switching your thermostat on or off while you’re away or when you don’t really need it to be switched on because the home temperature is bearable.
Smart thermostats feature built-in motion sensors and by using location tracking of your mobile devices as well, it can detect whether anybody is home or not, in order to automatically turn itself down or switch to an Eco-Friendly mode to save energy. And what goes hand in hand with energy-saving? Reduced billing of course! When your smart thermostat works to save energy wherever it can, you are bound to see a significant reduction in your utility bills over time. The Google Nest Learning Thermostat, as studies have shown, reduces around 10% to 12% in heating bills and about 15% in cooling bills. Wouldn’t percentage reductions like that make all the difference?
Another great thing about smart thermostats is that unlike regular thermostats, these include individual sensors that can be placed in different rooms to give a different level of comfort and temperature according to individual preferences. A well-known smart thermostat brand the Honeywell Home Smart Thermostats also includes Honeywell home smart room sensor with its devices for you to adjust temperatures as you like.
Top 2 Smart Thermostats Hot In the Market Right Now
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Google Nest Learning Thermostat
Priced at $249
As the name suggests, this particular smart thermostat quite literally learns your preferred temperature levels and works to automatically adjust itself throughout the day. Featuring all the other brilliant tech as mentioned above, like remote control access via the Google Home app, energy-saving, and motion detection as well as location tracking, the Nest Learning thermostats also lets users view their energy history. With the energy history, users can view their device’s performance and if anything had any effect on the energy usage.
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Honeywell Home T9 Smart Thermostat with Sensor
Priced at $199.99
The Honeywell T9 comes with a smart sensor that can be placed in a different room than the one the device itself is installed in, and still works to create an average temperature that is suitable to the whole household. The sensors are smart enough to determine whether someone is just passing by or there to stay in the particular room.
With the app, users can create specific schedules for the device to follow throughout the week according to their routine. But whether there is a schedule set up or not, the T9 automatically turns itself down when it notices no one is around.
The T9 can learn cooling and heating cycles, and temperatures to automatically adjust itself without anybody having to manually do it from the device itself or the Honeywell Home App. the device also sends alerts to the user’s mobile devices whenever there needs to be a filter replacement or when temperatures change abruptly.
What’s The Verdict?
A smart thermostat sure is an expensive purchase, but one that lives up to its name. Smart home devices, including smart thermostats should be considered as an investment into your home for long-term benefits. Getting remote control access, energy saving in the process and so many other features is what makes the price reasonable.
Would your regular old thermostat be able to match the features provided by a smart thermostat? Honestly no, but then again switching to smart technology for your home requires its own boxes that need to be ticked. For starters, you must have good internet connectivity because smart devices would otherwise lag – which defeats the purpose of installing a smart home device in the first place. For some people making the switch to having smart technology that brings with it home automation is an adjustment of its own, especially if they’re not as good at dealing with smartphones in the first place.