All around us, technology is advancing at rapid rates. From AI to smart glasses and drones, it can feel at times like we’re living in the future—and those are just the developments that make the headlines. The truth is that technology has advanced in almost every sphere of our daily lives, including some of the most unexpected places, like thermostats.
Over the past few years, the advancements in thermostat technology has made it easier than ever before to not just control your home’s temperature, but to customize it according to your household’s specific needs. Here are just a few of the things thermostats today can do for your home.
Create Personalized Heating/Cooling Schedules
One of the greatest achievements in the latest thermostat technology is the ability for you to create personalized schedules for your home’s heating and cooling—and for your thermostat to create those schedules for you, too.
Pretty much all of the latest thermostats allow you to set different schedules based on your routines, like while you’re home during the day, while you’re away, while you’re sleeping, and more. Where the wow factor comes in is the fact that many of these thermostats will learn your heating and cooling preferences over time and will automatically adjust the temperature in your home to match your natural routines.
For example, Honeywell’s X8S Smart Thermostat and Ecobee’s Smart Thermostats will switch your furnace on or off at specific times to give a room enough time to heat up or cool down before you enter. Some thermostats will also suggest new heating and cooling schedules based on your routines and have built-in AI features to make recommendations even more tailor-made to your household.
In addition, many thermostats provide energy usage reports so you can see how efficiently your heating and cooling systems are working and how you might be able to save more energy and money. Rather than putting all the onus on you to keep your home properly heated and cooled, today’s technology allows your thermostat to take it off your plate.
Automatically Adjust the Temperature Based on Real-Life Factors
In addition to helping you customize your home’s heating and cooling schedule, today’s thermostats are also smart enough to adapt based on what’s going on in the world around them. Some thermostats will see what the weather conditions are in your area and will adjust the temperature in your home accordingly. So, if it’s an abnormally warm winter day, they’ll tone down the heat inside, since your home will naturally retain the heat better. Ecobee’s Smart Thermostats have sensors that monitor how humid or dry your home is and will automatically adjust your heating and cooling accordingly. Some even have movement sensors and will adjust the temperature based on whether they sense if someone is in the room or not.
So, regardless of what’s going on in your home on any given day, your thermostat will always be working to make sure that the air in each room is comfortable.
Use Your Phone or Voice to Control Your Thermostat
One big plus of today’s thermostat technology is that you can control the temperature in your home even when you’re not physically standing in front of the thermostat. Most have an app on your phone that you can access via Wi-Fi from pretty much anywhere. Forget to set your thermostat to “away” mode before you left on vacation? No problem—you can turn it on while you’re at the airport, or even when you reach your hotel. Some of these apps are even available on your tablet or smartwatch, so you can still access your thermostat even if your phone isn’t on hand.
In addition to having an easy-to-access app, many smart thermostats these days are also equipped with voice assistant technology, making it easy for you to change the temperature in your home with simple voice commands. While not all thermostats are set up to work with all voice assistants (e.g., Amazon’s Smart Thermostat is only equipped with Alexa), many are compatible with at least Alexa and Google Assistant. If you have other smart home devices, some smart thermostats out there, like Ecobee’s Smart Thermostats, will seamlessly integrate into the rest of your ecosystem through Google Home or Apple Home, letting you easily control your whole home through one app.
Look Good and Feel Good to Use
Finally, advancements in thermostat technology don’t just make it easy for you to control your home’s temperature, but make it look good, too. Gone are the days of bulky devices on your wall with difficult-to-read temperature gauges—thermostats these days have bigger screens, many of which are touch screens, as well as sleeker designs so that they’re both pleasant to look at and easier to use. Many smart thermostats feature minimal displays with large text, too, so that you can easily read the temperature information across the room, making them both a practical and stylish addition to your home.
Thermostats have evolved a lot in the last few years. Their ability to customize your heating and cooling schedules based on your preferences and real life factors, as well as their ease of use via smartphone apps and voice assistants make it easy and fun to control your home’s temperature. Want to learn more about smart thermostats, or want an expert opinion on which one to get for your home? Give our team a call and we’ll work with you to find the perfect fit!