As homeowners are becoming increasing energy conscious, many are turning to using smart thermostats to help heat and cool their home more efficiently. While the Nest is probably the best known out of all the smart thermostats currently on the market, several of the others now available are proving to be formidable competitors to the Nest.
A Nest Overview
One of the greatest features that Nest that appeals to its buyers is how easy it is to program. You can choose to program it yourself or Nest can program itself intuitively usually within a week of installation. It does this with the use of its motion sensors to determine the heating and cooling needs in your home based on the coming and goings of your family. It also determines the optimal temperature for your comfort by remembering every time you manually adjust the temperature.
You can always override the program that Nest has developed for your home at any time. This can be done by changing the temperature on the thermostat or by connecting via Wi-Fi from your Smartphone, computer or tablet from home or from anywhere you have an Internet connection. You can also receive notifications of any heating or cooling malfunctions in addition to service reminders such as needing to change your air filter via any device you have set up to communicate with the Nest.
While the Nest has a smaller screen and footprint than most of its competitors, it can easily blend in with almost any home design scheme. For those who want to save energy in their home without sacrificing comfort or having to learn a complex system, the Nest thermostat may be just what you are looking for and it is easily available from many major retailers.
Honeywell’s Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat
Out of all of Nest’s competitors, Honeywell’s Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat can be considered its closest rival with its cost being identical to the Nest. Honeywell’s thermostat offers a larger screen and interface that shows more information than the Nest provides on the actual unit itself. In addition to showing the temperature as Nest does, the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat also displays the date, time, outside temperature, equipment status and the home’s humidity level.
What Honeywell lacks with its Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is the ease of installation and the intuitiveness of Nest’s self-programming or learning feature. Users need to manually enter information into the Honeywell device in order to program it for their needs. However, you can always override its programming from any of your Internet-connected devices or through voice commands.
Unlike the Nest, the display of the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is that you can customize the display to match your home’s décor. One caveat to be of aware of with the Honeywell; however, is that its support for installation pales in comparison to that of the Nest and can be considered no-frills.
Ecobee Smart
Coming in at a close third place to Nest’s second place challenger is the Ecobee Smart. Priced at the same level as both Honeywell’s entry and the Nest, this thermostat also lacks the intuitiveness of the Nest’s learning and self-programming features. However, do not count out this competitor as it is extremely user-friendly interface and makes up for its lack of intuitiveness through other features.
The Ecobee Smart’s DataRhythm feature utilizes information specific to your heating and cooling system in conjunction with current weather, predicted weather changes, historical use and run times to automatically adjust your system. Another advantage with the Ecobee Smart is that it can support up to four stages of heating, whereas the Nest can only support three stages and only two for the Honeywell. As with the previous thermostats, the Ecobee Smart is accessible from almost any device connected to the Internet, but like the Honeywell, its interface can also be customized to fit the décor of your home.
As you can see, there is very little, if any price difference among the three top competitors in the smart Wi-Fi thermostat market. All will help you save energy while heating or cooling your home more efficiently. What differentiates Nest above the rest is definitely its ability to program itself, which its competitors do not currently offer.
Charlie Teschner started MESA Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling in 1982. Charlie has a journeyman and master plumber’s license. He was raised with a strong work ethic and he now applies those values to heating repair in Boulder.
Marty Huggins
