5 ms·

As an owner of an ecobee, I’d say it falls into the category of “ok” overall. The remote sensors feature is neat, but the home IQ calculator is clearly meaningl

As an owner of an ecobee, I’d say it falls into the category of “ok” overall. The remote sensors feature is neat, but the home IQ calculator is clearly meaningless. They even managed to mess up weather forecasting. It’s functionally reliable, but definitely some disappointments. In short, it does not really benefit from internet access at all. In fact, I may just disconnect it and see if it still serves me well enough.

scrumper 7y ago
Same here, though I like the connectivity because it lets me do things like turn the heating or AC on remotely if I’m heading home at an unusual time. Otherwise, I get no real benefit from it being connected.
Johnny555 7y ago
I've been pretty happy with my ecobee - the HomeIQ stuff seems like a gimmick (and is geared toward making the Ecobee seem like it's saving you money), so I don't really care about it, but the thermostat does a good job of it's core function of warming my house to the setpoint at the right time. I used to set my old programmable thermostat to turn on the heat an hour before I wake up and sometimes the house was too cold, the Ecobee turns on the heat somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes before I wake up to get the temperature up at the right time. Not sure if it uses weather data or just looks at how cold the house is to make that decision, but it does a good job. The internet connectivity is useful for me since I'm away from home a lot, so I like the ability to get low temperature alerts as well as the ability to turn on vacation mode remotely or adjust the temperature (so if the forecast is going to be below 0F, I can turn up the heat from the normal 50 vacation temp to 60 to make frozen pipes in exterior walls less likely). If you don't care about that, then yeah, the internet access is not really necessary.
enraged_camel 7y ago
I'm super happy with my Ecobee. On multiple occasions I've gone on long trips and forgotten to put the A/C on vacation mode. It's real nice to be able to control it from my phone. Similarly, the City of Austin has an energy savings program in summer where on hot days they will (with your consent) remotely turn up all connected smart A/Cs by a few degrees, which drastically reduces strain on the electric grid. I think I got $75 when I joined. And it can be overridden, so overall it has been a great boon.
- isaacdl 7y ago
  I'd never heard about that Austin program. That's pretty cool! Link: https://savings.austinenergy.com/rebates/residential/offerings/cooling-and-heating/pp-thermostat/ https://savings.austinenergy.com/rebates/residential/offerin...

scrumper 7y ago

Same here, though I like the connectivity because it lets me do things like turn the heating or AC on remotely if I’m heading home at an unusual time. Otherwise, I get no real benefit from it being connected.

Johnny555 7y ago

I've been pretty happy with my ecobee - the HomeIQ stuff seems like a gimmick (and is geared toward making the Ecobee seem like it's saving you money), so I don't really care about it, but the thermostat does a good job of it's core function of warming my house to the setpoint at the right time. I used to set my old programmable thermostat to turn on the heat an hour before I wake up and sometimes the house was too cold, the Ecobee turns on the heat somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes before I wake up to get the temperature up at the right time. Not sure if it uses weather data or just looks at how cold the house is to make that decision, but it does a good job. The internet connectivity is useful for me since I'm away from home a lot, so I like the ability to get low temperature alerts as well as the ability to turn on vacation mode remotely or adjust the temperature (so if the forecast is going to be below 0F, I can turn up the heat from the normal 50 vacation temp to 60 to make frozen pipes in exterior walls less likely). If you don't care about that, then yeah, the internet access is not really necessary.

enraged_camel 7y ago

I'm super happy with my Ecobee. On multiple occasions I've gone on long trips and forgotten to put the A/C on vacation mode. It's real nice to be able to control it from my phone. Similarly, the City of Austin has an energy savings program in summer where on hot days they will (with your consent) remotely turn up all connected smart A/Cs by a few degrees, which drastically reduces strain on the electric grid. I think I got $75 when I joined. And it can be overridden, so overall it has been a great boon.

isaacdl 7y ago
I'd never heard about that Austin program. That's pretty cool! Link: https://savings.austinenergy.com/rebates/residential/offerings/cooling-and-heating/pp-thermostat/ https://savings.austinenergy.com/rebates/residential/offerin...