like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, th-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
This has to be on of the best review videos I have seen. Simple, straight forward and to the point. Thanks for the time you put into this. Subscribing!
I agree! Awesome review! Considered getting this for my parents for Christmas, looked up reviews on google and found yours! I'm sold! Getting this now! Did that update ever roll our with the sensor issue or whatever you said they planned on fixing in their software update or not yet I am curious.
+Holden Theriault thanks! The update that allows the use of HomeKit even when in auto mode did roll out. Also, Apple allows an iPad at home to be your HomeKit hub with iOS 10 so you don't need an Apple TV anymore to use HomeKit outside of the house.
So I came here for the review but I'm leaving a comment because I really enjoyed your style of delivery. Very professional, very unbias, straight to the point but I think your slight accent made it personable. Great stuff. Hope to see more.
I've been researching all of the smart thermostats to replace the current thermostat that came with my home. It looks like I don't have a C-Wire on my current set-up so I will need to install the power extender kit. Checking to see if you have a installation video. I'm sold on the ecobee3 after your presentation. Thanks for all of the great info.
+John McPherson no, I decided not to cover the installation. It's pretty straight forward though. I didn't have to use the power extender kit since I had a c wire. I've read where many people say it's very easy though and nice that it's included with every thermostat. Also, I called their support and they were very helpful. If you run into any issues connecting the PEK I'm sure they'd be able to walk you through it. Glad the video was helpful and I hope you enjoy your ecobee3!
+Jason Ritchie each comfort profile has to have at least one sensor. Either remote or the ecobee itself. So if you wanted one room to be 72° then you would only put the sensor that's in that room in a comfort profile by itself. The ecobee would only be concerned about the temperature in that room. Then other times of the day you could have it include other sensors if you'd like. It only averages them if there's more than one sensor being included in a comfort profile.
Hey there I just received the ecobee3 Lite but since I have a boiler system without AC I don't have a "C" wire so I have to wait till tomorrow for the transformer to be delivered so that I can set it up! But tonight I am reading/watching all that I can to be able to set this baby up tomorrow! I can't wait to see how great it is and start enjoying the first step in having a "smart home". 😁 Thanks for the video it was encouraging though I won't have most of the "features" that you described since I just have the Lite but either way 👍🏼👍🏼
+Loren Decker congrats! I too read all that I can ahead of time when I get something like this. That's really how this channel came to be. It'll still be neat to monitor your temperature from anywhere and use HomeKit! Enjoy!
JJCoolStuff thanks! I received the plugin 24V transformer in the mail at about noon today and within an hour I had it installed and working great, connected to apple HomeKit and responding to Siri commands! I wasn't sure if/how it would work only having 2 wires and adding the transformer wires - but it worked like a charm! :)
At 7:04 you mention something about the Ecobee3 sensors not using motion to detect if you are still asleep or woke up early. Was there ever a software update for that?
+Steve Allen not yet. They haven't promised one either. I was just making the point that it could be software corrected if enough people requested it. Currently you set a time for when you want it to change to your sleep comfort setting and when it gets to that time it changes, regardless of if you're awake or not.
Thanks for video. Does this t-stat requires 3 wires for proper setup (as Nest does) ? I have an old house and boiler only has 2 wires coming to existing tstat. Thanks
+RaceCarsOnly You're welcome! you will need three wires. Ecobee has a great support article that explains your options here --> ecobee.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/227874667
You just change the battery in the sensor when it gets low. They last over a year though for sure. There is no battery in the thermostat itself. It draws its power from your hvac.
+Mihary Andrianavalona no, it sounds like you have air handlers for each room and the ecobee doesn't work that way. The sensors are to better inform the thermostat of what's happening throughout the house so it can make a more informed decision about what temperature to keep everything. It's not to control the temperature differently in each room.
You’d need two stats. I have the ecobee3 on one zone and the ecobee4 on the other. And with HomeKit I can set them both to home or away with a single scene command. It’s very handy.
Rod Kjerstad It won't let me reply to your comment. Probably a privacy setting that needs to be enabled. However, the sensors work exactly how you'd expect them to. You're required to have at least one sensor per comfort setting, but it doesn't have to be the thermostat. Also, the screen of the thermostat will display the average of the sensors that are participating in that comfort setting. If you only have one remote sensor participating then it will show that temperature on the thermostat.
Do I need to check the compatibility of the thermostat with my AC unit and furnace? Or is this something I can buy and wire up? My house is about 13 years old and our thermostat took a shit and Id like to get a smart thermostat
ecobee works with almost all systems. To be sure though you can use their compatibility checker on their website at www.ecobee.com/compatibility/. If you're still unsure you can call their support. They're very knowledgable about which systems it will work with.
Yes, you pick how many minutes you’d like it to run out of an hour. I have mine set to run five minutes every hour to stir the air even if it’s not cooling or heating.
+Ryan Shuler the room sensors only communicate with the thermostat. However, you can pull up each of the sensors in the app to see the current temperature and occupancy status. You can also see the temperature and humidity from each sensor for the past fifteen months in the online portal.
+Sy Lee thanks! I took some footage of the installation and then decided not to use it. The installation is going to vary depending on your system. But for the most part it's just matching up wires to terminals. Also ecobee's support is fantastic and they will walk you through the installation should you run into any problems.
I have one HVAC system with 3 zones installed. There's a piece of equipment that regulates the major ducts (3 main ducts coming off my HVAC UNIT). The 3 thermostats "talk" to that equipment and it opens and Shuts the appropriate ducts managing the air flow. Great system. Zones are: upstairs, downstairs, and the room over our garage. Would I need multiple ecobees (currently I have 3 thermostats)? Does it work with the duct zone equipment I have?
+JD Calkin that does sound like a nice system. From what I can tell you will still need three thermostats, but it will work. Check out this article on their site www.ecobee.com/2010/07/ecobee-and-zone-control/ and definitely call their customer service if you have more questions. They're very knowledgeable and helpful from my experience with them.
I don't understand how it can control multiple rooms if you don't have multiple zones. If I have a bed room that has a sensor in it and its 5 deg colder than another bedroom or family room, is the Ecobee going to try to raise that room temp up 5 deg? If so, than the other rooms will be 5 deg too hot. Won't these sensors just be fighting each other? I like some features but the sensors seem to offer any real practical purpose.
+Paul R Good question. It is a little tricky to understand. You can specify which sensors participate in which comfort settings. A good example would be to only consider the sensor from the home office during the day when you're at your desk. The other rooms with sensors may be a little warmer or cooler but you're not concerned about those. Then in the evening you switch to a comfort profile that is only concerned about the kitchen while you're cooking dinner and eating. Now the kitchen is the perfect temperature. Lastly, when you go to sleep it will only be concerned with the sensor in your bedroom. The other rooms may be slightly warm or cool but your bedroom will be perfect for you. Lastly, if you let multiple sensors participate in a comfort profile then it will take an average of them all and manage your home temperature based on that average. The idea is you put sensors in the rooms you care about. You're correct that it doesn't even out the temperature across your house, but rather it makes sure the rooms you care about are comfortable at given times.
+Paul R definitely. I don't own a Nest but have friends who have them and have researched them over the years. I would certainly recommend ecobee over Nest for multiple reasons that I mentioned in the review.
Excellent review, I just have one question. Does the thermostat display stay on continuously, or does it turn off after a period of no activity? I currently have a Nest and it drives me crazy that the display turns off and I can't just look over at it to see the temperature (I have to wave my arms in front of it like an idiot).
+Jason Tyree great question. The display stays on all the time. Because the ecobee doesn't have a battery and draws power from the c wire it can have an always on display. When inactive the display shows the current average sensor temperature as a large number and the local weather as a smaller number at the bottom. When you wave like an idiot ;-) or walk near it then it will switch to a display with set points and menu options. I definitely prefer the always on display as well. It's a great point and I'm glad you brought it up.
I'm looking at purchasing an ecobee3. I have 2 zones in my house using two thermostats. Would I need to replace both thermostats with ecobee3, or can one unit control both zones? Thanks
First let me start by saying I'm not an HVAC professional by no means. It's my understanding that if you have one unit and an air handler that distributes air to two zones then an ecobee3 can handle that. If you have two units with two thermostats then you're going to need two ecobee3's. The advantage is that you can group the ecobee3's together in the web portal and easily make changes to both. I talked to their support during my install and they're very knowledgable about different HVAC systems. I suggest you give them a call and describe your system. They'll be able to tell you exactly what you need. 1.877.932.6233
So if you don't have an AppleTV, you can't control this from say the office or away from your home WiFi? I didn't understand the AppleTV part, why is it needed?
+Chris McCord sorry for the confusion. The Apple TV is only needed to control your ecobee using HomeKit away from home. So if you'd like to control it using Siri or using HomeKit's geofencing then you'll need an Apple TV. You can use the ecobee iOS app to control the thermostat from anywhere with an Internet connection though. You can change your schedule, change the temperature, change your comfort setting, etc. Hopefully that helps to clarify the difference. Thanks for the question.
+Chris McCord looks like you'll need to disable sleep mode according to this website www.howtogeek.com/234180/how-to-enable-remote-access-to-your-homekit-smart-home-via-apple-tv/
+Marc I didn't use the PEK with mine. It looks straight forward and their tech support is great. However, you do have to open the panel on your HVAC and install it there. If you feel comfortable taking the panel off of your HVAC then I say go for it!
Hi, I have a dual fuel Heat pump that switches to LP furnace when it gets below 36 outside. My outdoor T-Stat is having issues and the HP is not automaticall switching like it shoudl. I "heard" that the Ecobee will let you sett a temp to switch to auxillary heat based on the tmp it receives over the Wifi. Do you know if this is true?
If I understand your question correctly I believe the ecobee can do what you need. It has a setting called “compressor min outdoor temperature” that determines how cold it can get before the unit will stop using the heat pump and only use aux heat. It also has a setting to determine how far you can get from your desired temperature before it will engage the aux. I have that set to auto and it’s usually pretty good about not using aux unless it has to which I really appreciate since my aux is electric and not LP. The ecobee knows the outdoor temp based on the weather that it pulls from the location you specify when installing it.
I have the Honeywell Prestige 2.0. While it has a prettier interface, I like the advanced setting on the ecobee3. For example you can lock the compressor from coming on when it is below a certain outside temperature. The Honeywell will turn the compressor on when it is 10 degrees outside and turn the heat on when it is 90 if it goes to that setpoint. This will happen if a temporary override expires and the temporary override was below/above the heating/cooling setpoint. Does the ecobee3 have a lockout for heat based on the outside temperature or just for cooling? If it has it for both I may switch now because this is really my only complaint with the Prestige. I put a walk-in cooling thermostat on my outside unit so it will not run on really cold days my mistake, but nothing for the heat due to the location.
+billybassman21 the temperature thresholds are nice but in my opinion need to be adjusted out of the box. The low temp for the compressor was in the 30s. I don't want to go to aux heat only at that high of a temperature. I lowered mine down a little. It does also has a high temp for aux heat. It's set to 50° by default. There are lots of other thresholds and preferences you can tweak on the ecobee as well.
JJ - Thanks for the review. I have an odd question, I have tried 3 different programmable thermostats and the issue that I have is that I have to get up for work at 1am and leave at 2am. Each of these programmable thermostats thought that 1am was still the day before and would not turn on the thermostat. To solve this I have to program the thermostat to come on Sunday at 1am if I want it to turn on Monday at 1am. Can you test the EcoBee to see if it recognizes 1am correctly? Thanks!!!
+Rob Allen it does! When I look at the schedule for a specific day the time starts at 12:00am. I could easily schedule the ecobee to use the home comfort profile at 1am. Should work great for you!
Thanks - Mine thinks it is turning on at 1am but seems to get confused on the day and turns on at 1am the prior day. I have more hope for the EcoBee. Thanks!
How long did you have the thermostat before you checked your power bill in the video? Also, if you have had it more then a year, how much have you saved?
+middle name I had owned it for two months at the time of the video. It's hard to do a year over year comparison because there are so many other factors at play. But in the last 12 months my power bill has been $90 less than the previous 12 months. It's definitely saving us money!
+middle name no need to apologize. Just wanted to make sure I answered the question if it was a different person. Sorry it took a little while to get back to you. I hadn't actually done the numbers recently and had to pull up my bill online and add it up.
Can anyone confirm the system can be set to use a remote sensor temperature exclusively. In other words to use the remote sensor as the only temp input to the system. If you set it up this way, what temp read out is displayed on the thermostat, the temp in its location or the remote temp?
Great video, my only concern with the sensors is that it will actually raise my bill. For example, my mother lives with me and her room is above the garage, in the winter it is the coldest room in the house, so if I had a sensor in her room, wouldnt my heat be kicked on until her room is at the desired temperature, while potentially overheating the rest of the house? So let's say the rest of the house has reached a desired temp of 70 degrees, while her room may still be 67 degrees. I suppose it will continue to heat her room until it reaches 70? But does that then mean the other rooms will hike up to 72 or something like that?
+inHislove22 that's a great question and you're partially right. Currently your thermostat doesn't run as long at the expense of your mother's room which is always cold. If you put a sensor in her room then it would average the temperature between the thermostat and the bedroom. So it'd be 68° in her room and 72° at the thermostat for example. Of course you don't have to put a sensor in her room. Also, if you enable follow me, then it will only consider her room if there's motion in there. If she stays in the main living areas most of the day then it will only matter during the night. Lastly, the ecobee will make up for the extra runtime to keep your mother's room comfy by all the times it turns off when you're not at home. It's so flexible and accommodating that it can compliment almost any schedule and situation.
+Zina J it works just as well. I have a good friend that has ecobee and uses Android. In fact, the Android app has geofencing built in where it requires HomeKit and an Apple TV or an iPad at home to do the same with iOS. ecobee is very open and works with a lot of different systems.
Yes, I’m still really happy with it. The ecobee3 has been discontinued though and replaced by the ecobee4 with built in Alexa. I have the ecobee4 downstairs now and have moved the ecobee3 upstairs. It’s really nice to be able to launch HomeKit scenes and make changes to both thermostats simultaneously rather than making the change on each one.
+Javid Akbar according to ecobee "The wireless remote sensors communicate with ecobee3 using 915Mhz radio technology. The range is approximately 14 meters (45 feet)." This is dependent on a number of factors. In my testing I wasn't able to position my sensor that far away. However, 900Mhz is really good at penetrating walls.
+Marc it does require a C wire. However, if you don't have a C wire they include a power extender kit that can be installed at your unit to supply power over the wires you do have. It's nice that you don't have to worry about changing/charging batteries and that the display can stay on at all times.
+Tim Siwula you have to start small. Just review things you have already that people would be interested in. Then as your reviews pick up steam people will be willing to send you stuff based on the quality and view count of your other reviews.
+Our Adventures You're welcome! I still haven't used it with Apple TV, but with iOS 10 Apple is going to allow you to use an iPad that you leave at home as your home hub. Then almost anyone would be able to use HomeKit away from home since many more people have an iPad that they leave at home.
I recently bought ecobee 3 with 3 room sensor .I have ranch with 3 room and unfurnished basement.I bought it simply for energy efficiency. My family mostly stays home and i have Honeywell digital thermostat.If i set 3 additional sensor in my three rooms and set master bedroom sensor as primary at night. would it consider only my master bed room for heat and cold and shutoff thermostat once it reach desire temp irrespective of whether my living room reached that desire level or not ? I wanted make sure Ecobee3 should consider only my room not living room for desire temp.I am looking for saving my energy bill.Can you tell me how much energy efficiency i will get in ecobee3 considering i have programmed my digital thermostat well .
That’s correct. The ecobee only considers the sensors that you’ve chosen for a given comfort setting. So for the sleep comfort setting if you tell it to only use the bedroom sensor then it will turn off when your bedroom reaches the desired temp regardless of what temp the other rooms are. Energy savings are hard to gauge. It really depends on how often you’re away from home and can turn the temperature down or up as a result. In my case the ecobee paid for itself in one year.
i still think a learning thermo state is the way to go. I've had the Nest thermo state and only did the initial setup and never had to program it since. the Nest learned my habit.
+Kevin Chen I get it, but I just don't think learning your schedule is solving some big problem. It's not as if we don't know our schedule and we need Nest to figure it out. With all the other features that ecobee offers I think it's a much better thermostat once you get your initial schedule put in (which is super easy to do by the way).
Hello, great review. I subbed and gave you a thumbs up. Question: Can this thermostat be programmed to just run the furnace fan to circulate air at certain periods?
+Journeyman thanks for the subscription and the thumbs up! Absolutely it can do that. You just tell it the minimum amount of time you'd like the fan to run per hour and it'll take care of the rest. You choose from 0-55 mins in increments of 5 mins.
Appreciate your quick answer. You definitely have me thinking on this, I just moved into a 20 year old ranch and it needs a little bit of HVAC love. My thermostat is one of those old plastic rectangular shaped units hung in the main hallway in the house, after seeing your video on this it sold me on the Ecobee3. I want to circulate the air a little more in this home before and after the heat or air cycle has completed, it seems like a more logical way to manage the atmosphere inside this home plus more air run through the air filters makes me feel that the air quality will benefit somewhat too. Thanks for posting the excellent review on this product!
+Journeyman the ecobee also has fan dissipation built in so that after the AC turns off it continues to run the fan a few minutes while the coil is still cold. I'm glad the review was helpful.
Those sensors, they are placed in different areas to monitor temperature level. How does the thermostat use that information to provide benefits? For example, say I have room A, B, C & D. D being a vacant room. Assuming all rooms have sensors, how can the thermostat isolate any air/heat flow going into room D? Vents are dumb and are all connected... elaborate if you can please. I was thinking about getting a nest yesterday but found out the consequence is too high for the reward (thermostat stop working after firmware update leading to frozen and/or burst pipes, long list of repair cost etc). This Ecobee definitely seem like my next best option....
+Don RuggedA. To follow up on my comment, if room A is just right and room B is a bit cold. By running the heat a little longer, what if room A then become too hot while room B get just right? Hope that makes sense :-)
Thanks for the comment. You bring up some really great points. The Nest firmware issues concern me as well. Since the ecobee uses the C wife for power, instead of batteries, you don't have to worry about your thermostat dying and having to be revived with a USB cable. You're correct that the ecobee is not able to determine which rooms to send air to since the vents are dumb. There are systems that have smart wifi vents that can open and shut automatically. ecobee isn't one of those. If your rooms are well balanced and your house maintains a constant temperature throughout then it's a mute point. If you have a room that tends to be colder or warmer though it's very helpful. In your example let's say that rooms A-C are pretty similar in temperature and D is a room that tends to be a little extreme. If no one is in D then ecobee won't care about it and all the other rooms will feel great. If someone starts to occupy D then ecobee will now consider this room. Let's assume your AC is set to 72 and rooms A-C are all 72 degrees. If room D is 76 then that averages to 73 (which is the temperature that the ecobee will display) and the AC will turn on. Yes, rooms A-C will be a bit cooler, but your average temperature throughout your house is kept closer to 72 and you don't end up with rooms that swing wildly because they are so far from the thermostat. If you prefer the system not do this you can disable the temperature reading of the sensors and only use them for motion sensing. Everything is very customizable. Hopefully this helps.
It definitely makes sense and you're right that room A will become warmer, but not too hot. ecobee will average the rooms and room A will be a little warm and room B will be a little cool. But that's better than room A being just right and room B being very cold. It's totally your preference and which rooms matter to you. If you don't care if room B is cold then don't put a sensor in there. If room A is where your thermostat is and you don't want the temperature to be read from there you can disable that in the settings and only read the temperature from the remote sensors. The end goal is tons of flexibility and making sure the rooms that matter the most are kept the right temperature.
Thanks man! I am still debating about this and the nest. I live in ATL so its not as cold here as the East so I am not sure if that issue with nest failing after the upgrade would really cause any damages assuming it were to happen again. I really like the nest design and self learning feature.
I like the metal/glass, colorful look of the Nest but prefer the large familiar touchscreen interface of the ecobee. It's much more intuitive and easy to use. Also, I've heard stories of the self learning going bad. For instance you by chance happen to wake up in the middle of the night at the same time two weeks in a row. The third week your Nest turns the heat on during the middle of the night because it's trying to anticipate your schedule. Because the interface on the ecobee is so simple for creating a schedule I feel like it's the way to go. If you deviate from the schedule it senses that and makes an exception. If you realize the schedule needs to change its super simple to change it from your phone. It also immediately starts saving you money and doesn't take two weeks of manually setting the thermostat to learn your schedule. My two cents for what it's worth.
Hey - based on your review, the Ecobee doesn't use motion sensor to detect if you're at home? I thought the whole appeal is that it's smart and knows when you're home. Is it only that the remote sensors use motion detection? Can you please clarify?
+Ed I the ecobee itself and the remote sensors all detect motion which is used to know if you're home or away to set the appropriate comfort setting. The point I was trying to make in the review is once the ecobee is in sleep mode (which is set by a schedule) it no longer uses the motion sensors to change the comfort setting. It would be nice if you had the option to not go to sleep mode if it still detects motion.
+JJCoolStuff thanks for the explanation. Curious on how you'd expect motion to work in that scenario? Say, for example, it's night... and it senses motion.... isn't it still night?
+edzzik1 I would expect it to handle it the same way it handles motion if the thermostat is scheduled for away mode. If you have your thermostat scheduled for away mode and it still senses motion 30 mins after away mode started it will switch back to the home comfort setting. Let's say I have it scheduled to switch to my sleep comfort setting at 10pm. If at 10:30 it's still sensing motion then it should switch back to the home comfort setting. Then if it doesn't see motion for an hour or so, then it could switch back to the sleep comfort setting. It's not a big deal, but it does happen from time to time. I'm not suggesting that if you get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water that it should switch comfort settings, but rather if it sees consistent motion for a prolonged period of time then it should know you're not asleep yet.
+edzzik1 most everything in the ecobee is optional. It's very flexible and so some people could enable the feature and others could leave it turned off. That's the point I was trying to make about needing to see motion for 30 mins. If you get up to just go to the bathroom it wouldn't switch because it would only see motion for a minute or two. If you have a sensor in your bedroom, then you would need to just not point it toward your bed.
We are home all the time, our system is (2 zones but I'm focusing on the larger 'main' zone) hydronic/in-floor and On/Off (2-wire- 24 VAC). I'm definitely interested in the 15 month 'tracking' featureof the Ecobee mainly as I am a control freak for economy. I understand that the (25-yr-old) system that's in the floor has to heat to approx. 1 metre below grade too. Will I appreciate any savings with these thermostats or am I just throwing money away? Thanks. Oh.. and I'm a Mustang man too (but we can't cure that!)
+Bill Hamilton I'm not familiar with hydronic/in-floor systems, but in general you will save money anytime you do actually leave the house. Also, when you go to sleep you can dial it back and save some money as well. Lastly, the thermostats take humidity into consideration so it would be more efficient at keeping you comfortable. Other than that I can't think of any other savings. As for the Mustang man, my dad has been training that in me since I was a little kid. It goes deep! ;-)
Yes, older in-floor hydronics, although wonderful under-foot, are weird in that it takes so long for the heat to transfer out of the floor (via plastic tubing, lite-crete, in combination with wooden flooring or marble tile) and then to the air to finally let the thermostat know the boiler has been running for hours just to reach that point. I call that the 'stupid' part of the 'smart' mix, if you get my drift.... Lots of homes set up this way though ..our area
The only thing they need is a static pressure gauge and remote controlled registers to make it so you can really have control over the temperature in various rooms.
+John Cena you can pair it with various smart vents. There's a lot of concern about closing vents though, which I guess is why you brought up the pressure gauge. That would certainly be a more advanced system with better control over the temperature in each room, but the remote sensors are a great start.
JJCoolStuff If there was a layout design in which you could plot corresponding rooms, the registers in adjacent rooms could open slightly to lower the static pressure while slightly delivering more targeted temperature control to designated zones. That's as opposed to opening all the registers slightly and having that extra airflow distribute heat / cold to the entire house, which would be less efficient.
+Josh Devine absolutely! It's been over a year now and I love it. I bought two for work and look forward to buying another one for a second unit at home. I still highly recommend it.
Thanks for the quick reply. I am building a new home and was planning on buying the Nest. However, with your video I believe I will go with the Ecobee3. Thanks for the review!
It would wait two hours before it altered the temperature, and then it would only dial it back a small amount since it was smart away enabled and not manual.
I think it's better to find a comfortable temp and keep it at auto. Turning it off if you are gone for just a few hours while you are gone makes the ac work harder to reach the temp you want. Leaving for a cpl days is a diff story. I like the idea of setting it a few degrees down by voice at night
+dossen2620 you're right to an extent. You obviously wouldn't turn it down five degrees if you're gone for just an hour. But if you're gone for 2-3 hours and can turn it down 2-3 degrees it will save you money. You won't negate your savings by the money spent to bring things back up 2-3 degrees. And 2-3 days is perfect because you can set a vacation and it'll start warming things back up (or cooling off) automatically whenever it needs to to have things comfortable when you return.
You’re correct. At the time of the review that didn’t exist, but that’s how I control my ecobee4 away from home now with HomeKit. That review should be coming soon!
+Janizary - not at all. They make an Android app as well that I believe has all the same functionality. The HomeKit features are Apple only, but you can use other home automation platforms that play nice with Android.
One complaint I'd read about the Nest thermo, was that the display remained off, or, didn't activate well when you were near it. My AC system stops cycling and stays on nonstop when we're in the mid-90's, and although it's set to 72° (what temp I want optimally, especially at night), it never gets below 74-76° during the hottest hours in the day -- and at a glance I'd like to see where my system is at, regardless of it laboring away. So what does the Ecobee do as far as displaying activity go? If it shows the temp briefly, how long is it active? Since I'm disabled and home bound 95% of the time, I plan on saving up for a new AC, but I'm not expecting big cost savings seeing I'm home so much, so my biggest thing is comfort and a great user interface where at a glance I can see my thermostat actually working. I do have an AppleTV, iPhone and iPad too, but I don't want to have to pull a gadget out of my pocket just to see what the thermostat's doing!
+WayCoolBeans when idle the ecobee's display is still active and it shows the current temperature in big numbers that's easy to see. Below that it shows the current temperature outside with a weather icon. If you go near the thermostat and activate the motion sensor it will switch to showing the current temperature, the humidity (in really small numbers above the temp), your thermostat set point or points, and menu buttons at the bottom. You can always see the current temperature in big numbers. Since the ecobee is hard wired to power and doesn't run on a battery they don't have to be as concerned with keeping the display on.
+JJCoolStuff Thanks JJ, that was one rub (of many) I had about the Nest unit. This Ecobee sure seems like a perfect fit for me, now it all comes down to whether or not it'll work with my system, and when I can afford the huge cost outlay.
+Ryan Helms that’s a fantastic question. I’ve received my review unit from ecobee of the ecobee4 and have been using it for a couple of weeks. Alexa being built in to the 4 is the obvious difference, but there are some other minor differences as well. Full review of the 4, along with a comparison, will be coming soon.
+Gorilla Jones Nest looks great and definitely was the first to make this segment popular. The flexibility of the ecobee and additional features and options make it a much nicer solution in my opinion. Also, it seems that Google has abandoned Nest. They aren’t pushing innovation like ecobee is. Thanks for the comment!
+Scott Hildenbrand while I've never used it, ecobee does say it will work with zone control. You still need a separate thermostat per zone, but then if you were only in one part of the house it could close off the zone in the other part to save some money. www.ecobee.com/2010/07/ecobee-and-zone-control/
+thihal123 you're correct, and now so can the new HomePod. I had added that as an annotation in the past but then youtube recommended everyone go away from annotations so I removed it. I guess I could add it to the description. Thanks for your input!
![Ecobee3 Smart HomeKit Thermostat w/Remote Sensors for Smart Homes - [Review]](/img/n.gif)
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, th-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
This has to be on of the best review videos I have seen. Simple, straight forward and to the point.
Thanks for the time you put into this. Subscribing!
+Joshua Spivak You're welcome! Thanks for the encouragement and feedback!
I agree! Awesome review! Considered getting this for my parents for Christmas, looked up reviews on google and found yours! I'm sold! Getting this now! Did that update ever roll our with the sensor issue or whatever you said they planned on fixing in their software update or not yet I am curious.
+Holden Theriault thanks! The update that allows the use of HomeKit even when in auto mode did roll out. Also, Apple allows an iPad at home to be your HomeKit hub with iOS 10 so you don't need an Apple TV anymore to use HomeKit outside of the house.
So I came here for the review but I'm leaving a comment because I really enjoyed your style of delivery.
Very professional, very unbias, straight to the point but I think your slight accent made it personable. Great stuff. Hope to see more.
+tyler thanks for the fantastic feedback and encouragement! I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment.
I've been researching all of the smart thermostats to replace the current thermostat that came with my home. It looks like I don't have a C-Wire on my current set-up so I will need to install the power extender kit. Checking to see if you have a installation video. I'm sold on the ecobee3 after your presentation. Thanks for all of the great info.
+John McPherson no, I decided not to cover the installation. It's pretty straight forward though. I didn't have to use the power extender kit since I had a c wire. I've read where many people say it's very easy though and nice that it's included with every thermostat. Also, I called their support and they were very helpful. If you run into any issues connecting the PEK I'm sure they'd be able to walk you through it. Glad the video was helpful and I hope you enjoy your ecobee3!
With the passcode in place can you access it from the app while not in the house?
Does the ecobee HAVE to average the external remote sensors? Or can I easily make it keep a certain room at 72 degrees until 8:00?
+Jason Ritchie each comfort profile has to have at least one sensor. Either remote or the ecobee itself. So if you wanted one room to be 72° then you would only put the sensor that's in that room in a comfort profile by itself. The ecobee would only be concerned about the temperature in that room. Then other times of the day you could have it include other sensors if you'd like. It only averages them if there's more than one sensor being included in a comfort profile.
Hey there I just received the ecobee3 Lite but since I have a boiler system without AC I don't have a "C" wire so I have to wait till tomorrow for the transformer to be delivered so that I can set it up! But tonight I am reading/watching all that I can to be able to set this baby up tomorrow! I can't wait to see how great it is and start enjoying the first step in having a "smart home". 😁
Thanks for the video it was encouraging though I won't have most of the "features" that you described since I just have the Lite but either way 👍🏼👍🏼
+Loren Decker congrats! I too read all that I can ahead of time when I get something like this. That's really how this channel came to be. It'll still be neat to monitor your temperature from anywhere and use HomeKit! Enjoy!
JJCoolStuff thanks! I received the plugin 24V transformer in the mail at about noon today and within an hour I had it installed and working great, connected to apple HomeKit and responding to Siri commands! I wasn't sure if/how it would work only having 2 wires and adding the transformer wires - but it worked like a charm! :)
At 7:04 you mention something about the Ecobee3 sensors not using motion to detect if you are still asleep or woke up early. Was there ever a software update for that?
+Steve Allen not yet. They haven't promised one either. I was just making the point that it could be software corrected if enough people requested it. Currently you set a time for when you want it to change to your sleep comfort setting and when it gets to that time it changes, regardless of if you're awake or not.
Thanks for video. Does this t-stat requires 3 wires for proper setup (as Nest does) ? I have an old house and boiler only has 2 wires coming to existing tstat. Thanks
+RaceCarsOnly You're welcome! you will need three wires. Ecobee has a great support article that explains your options here --> ecobee.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/227874667
Do you just change battery on the ecobee sensor or wall thermostat
You just change the battery in the sensor when it gets low. They last over a year though for sure. There is no battery in the thermostat itself. It draws its power from your hvac.
Are sensors replacing individual heat control? My place has one thermostat and independant heat control for each room.
+Mihary Andrianavalona no, it sounds like you have air handlers for each room and the ecobee doesn't work that way. The sensors are to better inform the thermostat of what's happening throughout the house so it can make a more informed decision about what temperature to keep everything. It's not to control the temperature differently in each room.
Can this be set up for two zone or would I need two stats?
You’d need two stats. I have the ecobee3 on one zone and the ecobee4 on the other. And with HomeKit I can set them both to home or away with a single scene command. It’s very handy.
Rod Kjerstad It won't let me reply to your comment. Probably a privacy setting that needs to be enabled. However, the sensors work exactly how you'd expect them to. You're required to have at least one sensor per comfort setting, but it doesn't have to be the thermostat. Also, the screen of the thermostat will display the average of the sensors that are participating in that comfort setting. If you only have one remote sensor participating then it will show that temperature on the thermostat.
Do I need to check the compatibility of the thermostat with my AC unit and furnace? Or is this something I can buy and wire up? My house is about 13 years old and our thermostat took a shit and Id like to get a smart thermostat
ecobee works with almost all systems. To be sure though you can use their compatibility checker on their website at www.ecobee.com/compatibility/. If you're still unsure you can call their support. They're very knowledgable about which systems it will work with.
JJCoolStuff thanks!
Can you set that state to blow intermitantly?
Yes, you pick how many minutes you’d like it to run out of an hour. I have mine set to run five minutes every hour to stir the air even if it’s not cooling or heating.
Is there a way to add the room sensors to the app or HomeKit so you know the temp in each room?
+Ryan Shuler the room sensors only communicate with the thermostat. However, you can pull up each of the sensors in the app to see the current temperature and occupancy status. You can also see the temperature and humidity from each sensor for the past fifteen months in the online portal.
Do you have an installation video? Great review. Thank you
+Sy Lee thanks! I took some footage of the installation and then decided not to use it. The installation is going to vary depending on your system. But for the most part it's just matching up wires to terminals. Also ecobee's support is fantastic and they will walk you through the installation should you run into any problems.
I have one HVAC system with 3 zones installed. There's a piece of equipment that regulates the major ducts (3 main ducts coming off my HVAC UNIT). The 3 thermostats "talk" to that equipment and it opens and Shuts the appropriate ducts managing the air flow. Great system. Zones are: upstairs, downstairs, and the room over our garage. Would I need multiple ecobees (currently I have 3 thermostats)? Does it work with the duct zone equipment I have?
+JD Calkin that does sound like a nice system. From what I can tell you will still need three thermostats, but it will work. Check out this article on their site www.ecobee.com/2010/07/ecobee-and-zone-control/ and definitely call their customer service if you have more questions. They're very knowledgeable and helpful from my experience with them.
Proud to say that my son developed and designed this product!
Wow, that’s great! Definitely something to be proud of.
He must be a millionaire by now hehe..that's awesome
I don't understand how it can control multiple rooms if you don't have multiple zones. If I have a bed room that has a sensor in it and its 5 deg colder than another bedroom or family room, is the Ecobee going to try to raise that room temp up 5 deg? If so, than the other rooms will be 5 deg too hot. Won't these sensors just be fighting each other? I like some features but the sensors seem to offer any real practical purpose.
+Paul R Good question. It is a little tricky to understand. You can specify which sensors participate in which comfort settings. A good example would be to only consider the sensor from the home office during the day when you're at your desk. The other rooms with sensors may be a little warmer or cooler but you're not concerned about those. Then in the evening you switch to a comfort profile that is only concerned about the kitchen while you're cooking dinner and eating. Now the kitchen is the perfect temperature. Lastly, when you go to sleep it will only be concerned with the sensor in your bedroom. The other rooms may be slightly warm or cool but your bedroom will be perfect for you. Lastly, if you let multiple sensors participate in a comfort profile then it will take an average of them all and manage your home temperature based on that average. The idea is you put sensors in the rooms you care about. You're correct that it doesn't even out the temperature across your house, but rather it makes sure the rooms you care about are comfortable at given times.
+JJCoolStuff ahhh, totally makes sense. So overall, would you recommend this over the Nest 3.0? Thank you!
+Paul R definitely. I don't own a Nest but have friends who have them and have researched them over the years. I would certainly recommend ecobee over Nest for multiple reasons that I mentioned in the review.
+JJCoolStuff Thanks for your help! Keep up the good work!
+Paul R You're welcome!
Excellent review, I just have one question. Does the thermostat display stay on continuously, or does it turn off after a period of no activity? I currently have a Nest and it drives me crazy that the display turns off and I can't just look over at it to see the temperature (I have to wave my arms in front of it like an idiot).
+Jason Tyree great question. The display stays on all the time. Because the ecobee doesn't have a battery and draws power from the c wire it can have an always on display. When inactive the display shows the current average sensor temperature as a large number and the local weather as a smaller number at the bottom. When you wave like an idiot ;-) or walk near it then it will switch to a display with set points and menu options. I definitely prefer the always on display as well. It's a great point and I'm glad you brought it up.
I'm looking at purchasing an ecobee3. I have 2 zones in my house using two thermostats. Would I need to replace both thermostats with ecobee3, or can one unit control both zones? Thanks
First let me start by saying I'm not an HVAC professional by no means. It's my understanding that if you have one unit and an air handler that distributes air to two zones then an ecobee3 can handle that. If you have two units with two thermostats then you're going to need two ecobee3's. The advantage is that you can group the ecobee3's together in the web portal and easily make changes to both. I talked to their support during my install and they're very knowledgable about different HVAC systems. I suggest you give them a call and describe your system. They'll be able to tell you exactly what you need.
1.877.932.6233
So if you don't have an AppleTV, you can't control this from say the office or away from your home WiFi?
I didn't understand the AppleTV part, why is it needed?
+Chris McCord sorry for the confusion.
The Apple TV is only needed to control your ecobee using HomeKit away from home. So if you'd like to control it using Siri or using HomeKit's geofencing then you'll need an Apple TV. You can use the ecobee iOS app to control the thermostat from anywhere with an Internet connection though. You can change your schedule, change the temperature, change your comfort setting, etc. Hopefully that helps to clarify the difference. Thanks for the question.
+JJCoolStuff yes that helps! Thanks. So if my AppleTVs are installed but they go to sleep after like an hour or so will that still work?
+Chris McCord looks like you'll need to disable sleep mode according to this website www.howtogeek.com/234180/how-to-enable-remote-access-to-your-homekit-smart-home-via-apple-tv/
+JJCoolStuff ok great thank you!
Is the Ecobee relatively simple enough to install with the PEK?
+Marc I didn't use the PEK with mine. It looks straight forward and their tech support is great. However, you do have to open the panel on your HVAC and install it there. If you feel comfortable taking the panel off of your HVAC then I say go for it!
Some great information on the ecobee. I just installed one and this video informed me of all the things it will do.
+Sedric Drew that's great! I'm glad it was helpful. Enjoy your ecobee!
Hi, I have a dual fuel Heat pump that switches to LP furnace when it gets below 36 outside. My outdoor T-Stat is having issues and the HP is not automaticall switching like it shoudl. I "heard" that the Ecobee will let you sett a temp to switch to auxillary heat based on the tmp it receives over the Wifi. Do you know if this is true?
If I understand your question correctly I believe the ecobee can do what you need. It has a setting called “compressor min outdoor temperature” that determines how cold it can get before the unit will stop using the heat pump and only use aux heat. It also has a setting to determine how far you can get from your desired temperature before it will engage the aux. I have that set to auto and it’s usually pretty good about not using aux unless it has to which I really appreciate since my aux is electric and not LP. The ecobee knows the outdoor temp based on the weather that it pulls from the location you specify when installing it.
Awesome, you understood me perfectly!.. I will be getting one of these.. Subscribed!.. I like your low key video.. no hype just quality information
+ Thank You
You’re welcome and thanks for the sub! The ecobee4 review should be coming very soon!
Can it control a hot water heater too?
+Unitedflyier I don't believe so. I found this online ecobee.zendesk.com/entries/20421047-Hot-Water-Heater
Thanks
hi was wondering, can the Ecobee3 be synced to an android phone as well as iphone?
+Jose Diaz yes, it works with both.
www.ecobee.com/faq/how-do-i-get-the-mobile-app-for-ecobee-thermostats/
ok tks for response
I have the Honeywell Prestige 2.0. While it has a prettier interface, I like the advanced setting on the ecobee3. For example you can lock the compressor from coming on when it is below a certain outside temperature. The Honeywell will turn the compressor on when it is 10 degrees outside and turn the heat on when it is 90 if it goes to that setpoint. This will happen if a temporary override expires and the temporary override was below/above the heating/cooling setpoint.
Does the ecobee3 have a lockout for heat based on the outside temperature or just for cooling? If it has it for both I may switch now because this is really my only complaint with the Prestige. I put a walk-in cooling thermostat on my outside unit so it will not run on really cold days my mistake, but nothing for the heat due to the location.
+billybassman21 the temperature thresholds are nice but in my opinion need to be adjusted out of the box. The low temp for the compressor was in the 30s. I don't want to go to aux heat only at that high of a temperature. I lowered mine down a little. It does also has a high temp for aux heat. It's set to 50° by default. There are lots of other thresholds and preferences you can tweak on the ecobee as well.
Great, thanks for the reply.
JJ - Thanks for the review. I have an odd question, I have tried 3 different programmable thermostats and the issue that I have is that I have to get up for work at 1am and leave at 2am. Each of these programmable thermostats thought that 1am was still the day before and would not turn on the thermostat. To solve this I have to program the thermostat to come on Sunday at 1am if I want it to turn on Monday at 1am.
Can you test the EcoBee to see if it recognizes 1am correctly?
Thanks!!!
+Rob Allen it does! When I look at the schedule for a specific day the time starts at 12:00am. I could easily schedule the ecobee to use the home comfort profile at 1am. Should work great for you!
Thanks - Mine thinks it is turning on at 1am but seems to get confused on the day and turns on at 1am the prior day. I have more hope for the EcoBee.
Thanks!
How long did you have the thermostat before you checked your power bill in the video? Also, if you have had it more then a year, how much have you saved?
+middle name I had owned it for two months at the time of the video. It's hard to do a year over year comparison because there are so many other factors at play. But in the last 12 months my power bill has been $90 less than the previous 12 months. It's definitely saving us money!
Okay, cool! Thank you!!
+middle name You're welcome! Were you the one who emailed me as well asking the same question?
Yes! Sorry, I was really curious.
+middle name no need to apologize. Just wanted to make sure I answered the question if it was a different person. Sorry it took a little while to get back to you. I hadn't actually done the numbers recently and had to pull up my bill online and add it up.
Can anyone confirm the system can be set to use a remote sensor temperature exclusively. In other words to use the remote sensor as the only temp input to the system. If you set it up this way, what temp read out is displayed on the thermostat, the temp in its location or the remote temp?
Anyone know if this is coming to the U.K.? Seems the coolest HomeKit thermostat out ATM
Good review - your presentations are getting better each time!
(and I am first to like & comment!)
Thanks, and thanks for your support!
Ok
Great video, my only concern with the sensors is that it will actually raise my bill. For example, my mother lives with me and her room is above the garage, in the winter it is the coldest room in the house, so if I had a sensor in her room, wouldnt my heat be kicked on until her room is at the desired temperature, while potentially overheating the rest of the house? So let's say the rest of the house has reached a desired temp of 70 degrees, while her room may still be 67 degrees. I suppose it will continue to heat her room until it reaches 70? But does that then mean the other rooms will hike up to 72 or something like that?
+inHislove22 that's a great question and you're partially right. Currently your thermostat doesn't run as long at the expense of your mother's room which is always cold. If you put a sensor in her room then it would average the temperature between the thermostat and the bedroom. So it'd be 68° in her room and 72° at the thermostat for example. Of course you don't have to put a sensor in her room. Also, if you enable follow me, then it will only consider her room if there's motion in there. If she stays in the main living areas most of the day then it will only matter during the night. Lastly, the ecobee will make up for the extra runtime to keep your mother's room comfy by all the times it turns off when you're not at home. It's so flexible and accommodating that it can compliment almost any schedule and situation.
How well does ecobee work with those of us who don't use Apple stuff? I'm an Android/Microsoft user.
+Zina J it works just as well. I have a good friend that has ecobee and uses Android. In fact, the Android app has geofencing built in where it requires HomeKit and an Apple TV or an iPad at home to do the same with iOS. ecobee is very open and works with a lot of different systems.
Now that you've had it for 2 years, are you still happy with it? Does it perform well over time?
Yes, I’m still really happy with it. The ecobee3 has been discontinued though and replaced by the ecobee4 with built in Alexa. I have the ecobee4 downstairs now and have moved the ecobee3 upstairs. It’s really nice to be able to launch HomeKit scenes and make changes to both thermostats simultaneously rather than making the change on each one.
What is the range for each remote sensor
+Javid Akbar according to ecobee "The wireless remote sensors communicate with ecobee3 using 915Mhz radio technology. The range is approximately 14 meters (45 feet)." This is dependent on a number of factors. In my testing I wasn't able to position my sensor that far away. However, 900Mhz is really good at penetrating walls.
Does this require a C wire to install?
+Marc it does require a C wire. However, if you don't have a C wire they include a power extender kit that can be installed at your unit to supply power over the wires you do have. It's nice that you don't have to worry about changing/charging batteries and that the display can stay on at all times.
Great review thanks! How did you get them to give you one in exchange for a review?
+Tim Siwula you have to start small. Just review things you have already that people would be interested in. Then as your reviews pick up steam people will be willing to send you stuff based on the quality and view count of your other reviews.
Just wondering if anyone has used HomeKit through Apple TV. Defiantly think this thermostat is going to be my new thermostat! Great video thanks
+Our Adventures You're welcome! I still haven't used it with Apple TV, but with iOS 10 Apple is going to allow you to use an iPad that you leave at home as your home hub. Then almost anyone would be able to use HomeKit away from home since many more people have an iPad that they leave at home.
This is an awesome review. Clear and to the point. Subscribed. Thanks!!!
+Susanne Carlisle thanks for the kind words and for subscribing!
You still using the Ecobee?
+Susanne Carlisle definitely. I'd like to get a second one for my other unit eventually as well.
I recently bought ecobee 3 with 3 room sensor .I have ranch with 3 room and unfurnished basement.I bought it simply for energy efficiency. My family mostly stays home and i have Honeywell digital thermostat.If i set 3 additional sensor in my three rooms and set master bedroom sensor as primary at night. would it consider only my master bed room for heat and cold and shutoff thermostat once it reach desire temp irrespective of whether my living room reached that desire level or not ? I wanted make sure Ecobee3 should consider only my room not living room for desire temp.I am looking for saving my energy bill.Can you tell me how much energy efficiency i will get in ecobee3 considering i have programmed my digital thermostat well .
That’s correct. The ecobee only considers the sensors that you’ve chosen for a given comfort setting. So for the sleep comfort setting if you tell it to only use the bedroom sensor then it will turn off when your bedroom reaches the desired temp regardless of what temp the other rooms are. Energy savings are hard to gauge. It really depends on how often you’re away from home and can turn the temperature down or up as a result. In my case the ecobee paid for itself in one year.
i still think a learning thermo state is the way to go. I've had the Nest thermo state and only did the initial setup and never had to program it since. the Nest learned my habit.
+Kevin Chen I get it, but I just don't think learning your schedule is solving some big problem. It's not as if we don't know our schedule and we need Nest to figure it out. With all the other features that ecobee offers I think it's a much better thermostat once you get your initial schedule put in (which is super easy to do by the way).
Hello, great review. I subbed and gave you a thumbs up. Question: Can this thermostat be programmed to just run the furnace fan to circulate air at certain periods?
+Journeyman thanks for the subscription and the thumbs up! Absolutely it can do that. You just tell it the minimum amount of time you'd like the fan to run per hour and it'll take care of the rest. You choose from 0-55 mins in increments of 5 mins.
Appreciate your quick answer. You definitely have me thinking on this, I just moved into a 20 year old ranch and it needs a little bit of HVAC love. My thermostat is one of those old plastic rectangular shaped units hung in the main hallway in the house, after seeing your video on this it sold me on the Ecobee3. I want to circulate the air a little more in this home before and after the heat or air cycle has completed, it seems like a more logical way to manage the atmosphere inside this home plus more air run through the air filters makes me feel that the air quality will benefit somewhat too. Thanks for posting the excellent review on this product!
+Journeyman the ecobee also has fan dissipation built in so that after the AC turns off it continues to run the fan a few minutes while the coil is still cold. I'm glad the review was helpful.
Those sensors, they are placed in different areas to monitor temperature level. How does the thermostat use that information to provide benefits? For example, say I have room A, B, C & D. D being a vacant room. Assuming all rooms have sensors, how can the thermostat isolate any air/heat flow going into room D? Vents are dumb and are all connected... elaborate if you can please. I was thinking about getting a nest yesterday but found out the consequence is too high for the reward (thermostat stop working after firmware update leading to frozen and/or burst pipes, long list of repair cost etc). This Ecobee definitely seem like my next best option....
+Don RuggedA. To follow up on my comment, if room A is just right and room B is a bit cold. By running the heat a little longer, what if room A then become too hot while room B get just right? Hope that makes sense :-)
Thanks for the comment. You bring up some really great points.
The Nest firmware issues concern me as well. Since the ecobee uses the C wife for power, instead of batteries, you don't have to worry about your thermostat dying and having to be revived with a USB cable.
You're correct that the ecobee is not able to determine which rooms to send air to since the vents are dumb. There are systems that have smart wifi vents that can open and shut automatically. ecobee isn't one of those. If your rooms are well balanced and your house maintains a constant temperature throughout then it's a mute point. If you have a room that tends to be colder or warmer though it's very helpful. In your example let's say that rooms A-C are pretty similar in temperature and D is a room that tends to be a little extreme. If no one is in D then ecobee won't care about it and all the other rooms will feel great. If someone starts to occupy D then ecobee will now consider this room. Let's assume your AC is set to 72 and rooms A-C are all 72 degrees. If room D is 76 then that averages to 73 (which is the temperature that the ecobee will display) and the AC will turn on. Yes, rooms A-C will be a bit cooler, but your average temperature throughout your house is kept closer to 72 and you don't end up with rooms that swing wildly because they are so far from the thermostat. If you prefer the system not do this you can disable the temperature reading of the sensors and only use them for motion sensing. Everything is very customizable. Hopefully this helps.
It definitely makes sense and you're right that room A will become warmer, but not too hot. ecobee will average the rooms and room A will be a little warm and room B will be a little cool. But that's better than room A being just right and room B being very cold. It's totally your preference and which rooms matter to you. If you don't care if room B is cold then don't put a sensor in there. If room A is where your thermostat is and you don't want the temperature to be read from there you can disable that in the settings and only read the temperature from the remote sensors. The end goal is tons of flexibility and making sure the rooms that matter the most are kept the right temperature.
Thanks man! I am still debating about this and the nest. I live in ATL so its not as cold here as the East so I am not sure if that issue with nest failing after the upgrade would really cause any damages assuming it were to happen again. I really like the nest design and self learning feature.
I like the metal/glass, colorful look of the Nest but prefer the large familiar touchscreen interface of the ecobee. It's much more intuitive and easy to use. Also, I've heard stories of the self learning going bad. For instance you by chance happen to wake up in the middle of the night at the same time two weeks in a row. The third week your Nest turns the heat on during the middle of the night because it's trying to anticipate your schedule. Because the interface on the ecobee is so simple for creating a schedule I feel like it's the way to go. If you deviate from the schedule it senses that and makes an exception. If you realize the schedule needs to change its super simple to change it from your phone. It also immediately starts saving you money and doesn't take two weeks of manually setting the thermostat to learn your schedule. My two cents for what it's worth.
Hey - based on your review, the Ecobee doesn't use motion sensor to detect if you're at home? I thought the whole appeal is that it's smart and knows when you're home. Is it only that the remote sensors use motion detection? Can you please clarify?
+Ed I the ecobee itself and the remote sensors all detect motion which is used to know if you're home or away to set the appropriate comfort setting. The point I was trying to make in the review is once the ecobee is in sleep mode (which is set by a schedule) it no longer uses the motion sensors to change the comfort setting. It would be nice if you had the option to not go to sleep mode if it still detects motion.
+JJCoolStuff thanks for the explanation. Curious on how you'd expect motion to work in that scenario? Say, for example, it's night... and it senses motion.... isn't it still night?
+edzzik1 I would expect it to handle it the same way it handles motion if the thermostat is scheduled for away mode. If you have your thermostat scheduled for away mode and it still senses motion 30 mins after away mode started it will switch back to the home comfort setting. Let's say I have it scheduled to switch to my sleep comfort setting at 10pm. If at 10:30 it's still sensing motion then it should switch back to the home comfort setting. Then if it doesn't see motion for an hour or so, then it could switch back to the sleep comfort setting. It's not a big deal, but it does happen from time to time. I'm not suggesting that if you get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water that it should switch comfort settings, but rather if it sees consistent motion for a prolonged period of time then it should know you're not asleep yet.
+JJCoolStuff interesting. I'm thinking I wouldn't want it to do that. what if it senses motion of you in bed? or if you get up to the bathroom?
+edzzik1 most everything in the ecobee is optional. It's very flexible and so some people could enable the feature and others could leave it turned off. That's the point I was trying to make about needing to see motion for 30 mins. If you get up to just go to the bathroom it wouldn't switch because it would only see motion for a minute or two. If you have a sensor in your bedroom, then you would need to just not point it toward your bed.
thanks. i'm sold. i'm upgrading all my nests.
Great. Let me know what you think once they're installed.
Well, I'm convinced. Your hat helped a bit, too.
+Cub Games ha! I'm glad my hat and I could help.
We are home all the time, our system is (2 zones but I'm focusing on the larger 'main' zone) hydronic/in-floor and On/Off (2-wire- 24 VAC). I'm definitely interested in the 15 month 'tracking' featureof the Ecobee mainly as I am a control freak for economy. I understand that the (25-yr-old) system that's in the floor has to heat to approx. 1 metre below grade too. Will I appreciate any savings with these thermostats or am I just throwing money away? Thanks. Oh.. and I'm a Mustang man too (but we can't cure that!)
+Bill Hamilton I'm not familiar with hydronic/in-floor systems, but in general you will save money anytime you do actually leave the house. Also, when you go to sleep you can dial it back and save some money as well. Lastly, the thermostats take humidity into consideration so it would be more efficient at keeping you comfortable. Other than that I can't think of any other savings.
As for the Mustang man, my dad has been training that in me since I was a little kid. It goes deep! ;-)
Yes, older in-floor hydronics, although wonderful under-foot, are weird in that it takes so long for the heat to transfer out of the floor (via plastic tubing, lite-crete, in combination with wooden flooring or marble tile) and then to the air to finally let the thermostat know the boiler has been running for hours just to reach that point. I call that the 'stupid' part of the 'smart' mix, if you get my drift.... Lots of homes set up this way though ..our area
The only thing they need is a static pressure gauge and remote controlled registers to make it so you can really have control over the temperature in various rooms.
+John Cena you can pair it with various smart vents. There's a lot of concern about closing vents though, which I guess is why you brought up the pressure gauge. That would certainly be a more advanced system with better control over the temperature in each room, but the remote sensors are a great start.
JJCoolStuff If there was a layout design in which you could plot corresponding rooms, the registers in adjacent rooms could open slightly to lower the static pressure while slightly delivering more targeted temperature control to designated zones. That's as opposed to opening all the registers slightly and having that extra airflow distribute heat / cold to the entire house, which would be less efficient.
+John Cena agreed. A system that robust and intelligent would be much better.
Very professional video .. definitely considering the Ecobee3 :)
+djrichoe1 thanks! I'm still really happy with mine.
Do you still have your Ecobee3? If so, are you still happy with it?
+Josh Devine absolutely! It's been over a year now and I love it. I bought two for work and look forward to buying another one for a second unit at home. I still highly recommend it.
Thanks for the quick reply. I am building a new home and was planning on buying the Nest. However, with your video I believe I will go with the Ecobee3. Thanks for the review!
+Josh Devine great, you're welcome! I'm glad it was helpful.
What if you fall down and no motion is sensed?
It would wait two hours before it altered the temperature, and then it would only dial it back a small amount since it was smart away enabled and not manual.
I think it's better to find a comfortable temp and keep it at auto. Turning it off if you are gone for just a few hours while you are gone makes the ac work harder to reach the temp you want. Leaving for a cpl days is a diff story. I like the idea of setting it a few degrees down by voice at night
+dossen2620 you're right to an extent. You obviously wouldn't turn it down five degrees if you're gone for just an hour. But if you're gone for 2-3 hours and can turn it down 2-3 degrees it will save you money. You won't negate your savings by the money spent to bring things back up 2-3 degrees. And 2-3 days is perfect because you can set a vacation and it'll start warming things back up (or cooling off) automatically whenever it needs to to have things comfortable when you return.
Hey JJ,
Were releasing a new smart thermostat, interested in reviewing it?
Thanks for reaching out! Send me some information on it and I’ll take a look. Contact information is in the about section of my TH-cam channel.
Fantastic review dude!
+thereason1010 thanks! I really appreciate that.
Great review, I was debating on getting one. I think i'll get this instead of nest
+Barrady thanks. Good idea. I think you'll be a lot happier with ecobee.
You can also use a newer IPad as a hub like using newer Apple TV
You’re correct. At the time of the review that didn’t exist, but that’s how I control my ecobee4 away from home now with HomeKit. That review should be coming soon!
It works with apple products only and hostile to android devices, am I right?
+Janizary - not at all. They make an Android app as well that I believe has all the same functionality. The HomeKit features are Apple only, but you can use other home automation platforms that play nice with Android.
Very well thought out and informative video. Thank you
+Leo Grana You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the review! Very helpful.
+Jay Robinson You're welcome! I'm glad it was helpful.
You can use your iPad with IOS 10 to create a hub if you don't have Apple TV
+Marc you're absolutely right! When I did this review iOS 10 hadn't been announced yet. I'm so glad Apple did that though.
What is the best way to contact you? I am also a youtube creator.
+Fall River checkout the about section on my TH-cam channel. There's a link in there to email me.
Outstanding review.
+Michael Scott thanks!
BOUGHT IT ITS AWSOME!
+face of just ice agreed. Glad you like it.
Great review. Thank you.
+Greg Smith thanks and you're welcome!
Great video.. Thanks for the tips too☺❤
+Amber Schlegel You're welcome
Nice review
+Charles Baltezore thanks!
Great Video! I love it!
+Chantal De'Anne thanks!
One complaint I'd read about the Nest thermo, was that the display remained off, or, didn't activate well when you were near it. My AC system stops cycling and stays on nonstop when we're in the mid-90's, and although it's set to 72° (what temp I want optimally, especially at night), it never gets below 74-76° during the hottest hours in the day -- and at a glance I'd like to see where my system is at, regardless of it laboring away. So what does the Ecobee do as far as displaying activity go? If it shows the temp briefly, how long is it active? Since I'm disabled and home bound 95% of the time, I plan on saving up for a new AC, but I'm not expecting big cost savings seeing I'm home so much, so my biggest thing is comfort and a great user interface where at a glance I can see my thermostat actually working. I do have an AppleTV, iPhone and iPad too, but I don't want to have to pull a gadget out of my pocket just to see what the thermostat's doing!
+WayCoolBeans when idle the ecobee's display is still active and it shows the current temperature in big numbers that's easy to see. Below that it shows the current temperature outside with a weather icon. If you go near the thermostat and activate the motion sensor it will switch to showing the current temperature, the humidity (in really small numbers above the temp), your thermostat set point or points, and menu buttons at the bottom. You can always see the current temperature in big numbers. Since the ecobee is hard wired to power and doesn't run on a battery they don't have to be as concerned with keeping the display on.
+JJCoolStuff
Thanks JJ, that was one rub (of many) I had about the Nest unit. This Ecobee sure seems like a perfect fit for me, now it all comes down to whether or not it'll work with my system, and when I can afford the huge cost outlay.
+WayCoolBeans you're welcome. you can check the compatibility of your unit by going to www.ecobee.com/compatibility/.
So now ecobee 3 vs ecobee 4? What are your thoughts?
+Ryan Helms that’s a fantastic question. I’ve received my review unit from ecobee of the ecobee4 and have been using it for a couple of weeks. Alexa being built in to the 4 is the obvious difference, but there are some other minor differences as well. Full review of the 4, along with a comparison, will be coming soon.
Great size
Nest is best. Nice review.
+Gorilla Jones Nest looks great and definitely was the first to make this segment popular. The flexibility of the ecobee and additional features and options make it a much nicer solution in my opinion. Also, it seems that Google has abandoned Nest. They aren’t pushing innovation like ecobee is. Thanks for the comment!
I never leave the house. What I need is smart zone damper control.
+Scott Hildenbrand while I've never used it, ecobee does say it will work with zone control. You still need a separate thermostat per zone, but then if you were only in one part of the house it could close off the zone in the other part to save some money.
www.ecobee.com/2010/07/ecobee-and-zone-control/
Very helpful.
+Mary Robbins thanks, I'm glad it was helpful.
Update: any iPad running iOS 10 can be used as a HomeHub.
+thihal123 you're correct, and now so can the new HomePod. I had added that as an annotation in the past but then youtube recommended everyone go away from annotations so I removed it. I guess I could add it to the description. Thanks for your input!
Great
Thanks!
“ Alexa set home to 65” easy to do with nest
Hey Alexa set the upstairs to 70....Ecobee set t o 70..
Lame.
Nice review
+Dean Gaveau thanks!