Households are changing at an advanced pace – whether it’s watching your children grow right before your eyes (my teenage son’s stretch marks are astounding) or introducing new technology into every room of the house in the form of kitchen appliances, sleeping environments, innovative toothbrushes and more. A smart thermostat should no doubt be a part of every modern household but like any appliance, they vary in compatibility, ease of use and well, how smart they actually are. There are smart home thermostats, and then there’s the ecobee. Here is what has impressed me in the past month that we’ve had the ecobee4 smart thermostat (sent to us for review from ecobee) in our household:
Room Sensor
Most thermostats are in a hallway somewhere on the main floor of the household. I’m sure you, like me, have been in another area of the house that’s also commonly occupied and noticed how different the temperature is. In the summer, for example, our second floor is always warmer than the main floor, but the air conditioner doesn’t turn on because the temp on the main floor is perfectly fine and doesn’t need cooling.
The ecobee4 comes with a room sensor that you can place in another area, that will help manage hot and cold spots. For us, it’s definitely on our second floor main bedroom.
Smart Home/Away
I can’t imagine how different our home energy bills would be if we didn’t have a programmable thermostat, the ecobee4’s most basic function. All smart thermostats have this very basic feature but where the ecobee4 takes it up a notch is with its Smart Home/Away settings. If you have a regular work schedule, you would set the home and away times on your ecobee4 with specific temperatures to maintain during that time. But, let’s say that you’re home for the day with a child sick at home. The ecobee4 Smart Home/Away capability detects when you’re home during an away time for example, and adjusts the temperature to the Home setting. Amazing right? This, of course, can help save your household money too when you’re Away during a normal Home time, by lowering the temperature accordingly when it doesn’t sense any movement. I love this!
Oh Hi Alexa!
A fun, and useful, feature of the ecobee4 smart thermostat is that it’s Alexa enabled. The whole family has been enjoying this feature, with my youngest (7) asking Alexa to tell her a joke every day, or my older kids asking Alexa to play a particular song or artist. We’ve had a few fun conversations at the table, checking to see if Alexa will play Metallica, for example, or asking Alexa to tell us about the news highlights that day. A quick weather check with Alexa while I’m grabbing backpacks and heading out the door is awesome too. Oh, and you can also add to a shopping list (I haven’t done this yet, which is probably a good thing!)
Comfort On The Go
And, of course, the ecobee4 can be accessed via an App right on your phone so you can easily check in on the household temp and change it as needed (I love this feature in the summer, for example, when coming home from a family holiday and setting the AC to turn on a few hours ahead of our arrival.) I also use it in the mornings if we’re up earlier than my scheduled time, to turn up the heat before we head downstairs. It’s the little things, people. š
The ecobee4 can be purchased directly from ecobee.com for $329, with free shipping and a 30-day money back guarantee (which you won’t need because you’ll fall in love with it in 3 days). It also has a 3 year warranty should any issues come up along the way. You can also find ecobee products in stores like Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowes!
I’ve partnered with ecobee to give readers the opportunity to win an ecobee4 smart thermostat! To enter to win, simply fill in your name and email address in the form below and click BEGIN. Then leave a comment on this post sharing why you’d love to win! Don’t forget there are bonus entries available for things like following ecobee on Twitter and Facebook!
It would be great to be able to control the thermostat from my phone to change the temperature when needed. It would be interesting to see our usage and to have the home/away feature too.
I would love to win this thermostat so that I could program it for when we are away at work and school. I love that you can control it from your phone as well.
I think this would be a great way to update our thermostat. Thanks!!
This would be so awesome to have in our home! It would help a lot with saving energy and I have wanted on since I first saw them! They look so cool!
Could use this as it would put us one step closer to a smart home, our thermostat could use a n upgrade
This would be wonderful for we we need to be away travelling for work
It would be a great way to update our thermostat with some excellent features.
I would love to win the ecobee4 smart thermostat so I could control the temperature when I am away from home.
I would love to win as I like that this can be controlled via app – it gives a lot more freedom when you are away for the day!
I like that it will adjust the home temperature and alert me to a corner that of the house that needs an adjustment. I also like that it is Alexa enabled.
I’d love to be able to control the thermostat from my phone!
Such a cool gizmo, it would be such a money saver on energy bills!
I would like to have the ecobee4 smart thermostat because I would like to lower my hydro bills.
I would love to try the ecobee 4 so I caould control the heat/AC from my phone and I love that it has a room sensor. My hllway always seems warmer than the living room so the furnace doesn’t turn on often enough
I would so love to listen to anything I desire and to just have answers, right away. My husband really wants one too.
It would be great to be able to program it to warm the house up before I got home from work.
I would love to have this in my home as part of my extensive renovation!!
I would love to win this because it would help our hydro bill and the environment!!!
I would love to win the ecobee4 Smart Thermostat because I could program it to lower temperature when we are not home and at night.
I like the room sensor to determine different temperatures in different rooms.
I would love this to replace my very ancient thermometer this one would be so great to control and love that it can be controlled through my phone
I would love to win this. Our is sooooo old we have been in this house for 19 years and our thermostat was here before we moved in. Its time to up date it
We just bought a house and move in a few weeks. This would be great to help with our renovations!
This would be great for conserving energy
This would be great for energy saving
I have an older thermostat in my house. It would be nice to get an upgrade.
I’d love to be able to temperature balance our home as the temperature upstairs and downstairs are never the same. And of course, I’d love to save on our heating or cooling costs!
I love to try this out, it’s nice to be able to control from your smart phone so it’s a nice temp when getting home
It would be so handy to get alerts when I am away from home!
It would save us so much energy as we could turn the heat down when we go out and turn it back up when we are on our way home
It would great to program it for times of day where I need it to be cooler–particularly overnight for sleep!
I would like to use my phone to control the temperature in our home.
I’d love to be able to control my thermostat fromy phone.
this would be a great prize for our household as we could use it at the lake to monitor the temp in the cabin while we are not there and turn up the temperature so the cabin was nice and cozy when we arrived.
it would be nice to be able to warm t he house up before we get home
I’d love to win this for my husband, because we’ve been talking about getting a smart thermostat for ages, and he’d be thrilled with this!
I’d love to win this because I have electric baseboard heat, and live in N Ontario. Say no more :0 I’d love to really get control over my energy usage this winter.
This is really cool with Alexa built in. One-step closer to an automated home!
I would love to win this thermostat so my girls room could be programmed to warm up for bedtime (after work) and remain cooler during the day!
I would love to win this Smart Thermostat to help me save money and reduce our power use in the home!
I would love to win this because we are a busy household and it is very convenient to be able to control our house from the our mobile devices and keep our budget in control by saving on our energy bill.
my hubby would be all about this! our house is almost 20 years old and our thermostat is original to the house. old and doesn’t work very well! would love to upgrade
I would like to upgrade my thermostat
I would love a modern thermostat and be able to adjust my home’s temperature wherever I am.
We’d love to make the place more technologic, this would be awesome! Thanks!
i would love to win this for our family because we travel a lot and i would love to keep an eye on the temperature for our pets!
This would be great to help save on hydro , I could turn down the heat after everyone was gone in the morning.
My home do need some updates and this would be a start.
I love that you can control it through an app!
I would love to win this to save money! I’d love to be able to program my thermostat to lower the temp when no one is home.
Like many families, we are going in all directions at all different times. It would be nice to be able to make changes remotely when we forget at home!
I would love to be able to control the thermostat wherever I am with my phone. I can’t tell you how many times I have climbed the stairs to bed and then realized I forgot to turn down the heat for the night.
We have a thermostat that is 30 years old and we really need an update. It would be great to have the room sensor in another area as ours is located in hallway and I find it always cooler in some areas and warmer in others.
I would love to win this because it would help me to save money by being able to adjust my heat when I’m away from home.
I never seen this before I think I need to update mine
conserving energy and money saver on energy bills
I would love to be able to control the temperature n my house to lower hydro bills and also make the house comfortable when we’re there.
It would be fun to have a ecobee4 Smart Thermostat. You could adjust the temp from any room.
I’d love to use this for the room sensor to get an accurate reading of temperatures in my home.
I would love to be able to control the temperature in the house from my phone! How convenient. I like that it can help save on electricity bills!
The thermostat I currently have, my son broke the gauge on it so I just “guesstimate” every day a temperature based on feel. So I’m constantly adjusting it & never know an actual temperature reading. It’s super annoying in the middle of the night if I’ve turned it up too high & the heat disturbs my sleep.. then I have to go all the way downstairs to adjust it.
I would LOVE to win this for my household because Smart Devices are amazing for disabled people. I just brought this up with my mom the other day. When I’m home alone, it would be nice to have control over the temperature of the house.
It would be an awesome update to our existing thermostat
I would love to win this because it would really make our home more efficient! I love that it can be controlled from a phone too – would be great when away, especially en route home to get the house the right temperature for when we arrive back home.
It would be great to be able to control our home’s temperature when we are away.
I have never tried a smart thermostat before, but it might help with energy costs and consumption, thanks
I would love to win this as I would like to be able to turn the heat up in the winter before coming home.
Love the capabilities through my phone! That’s such cool technology!
I’d love to have the ecobee thermostat. We’d really save on energy by programming it when we are away.
I would love it so then I could control it from my phone.
I would love to win one for my home because we are buying our first home this month and it would be a sweet little house warming gift to ourselves! The furnace and Ac unit will be one of the very first things we replace once we get the keys so an upgrade to the thermostat would be perfect!
I would love to win this for our home.. Probably really good at regulating the temperature .. Our is not.
I’m a full time working mum and always forgetting things. Not having to remember to adjust the thermostat before I leave or anything is just one thing that I can take off my plate! I love that I can do it remotely using my phone. All the little things add up š
My body temp is so different from my son’s and husband’s!
I would love to win this because it would help me to save energy
So environmentally friendly! Great update for the thermostat
I love i can’t turn the temp out or down with out being home ! Canadian weather is so unpredictable , it would really help save money begin able to turn it up or down as needed even if your not there !
I have so many of the issues listed & it would be great to have better control of heating & cooling without having to run up stairs. Great to help teduce energy costs.
I would like to win the ecobee4 smart thermostat so I could control the temperature when I’m not home.
We’d love to save money on out gas bill!
I love this gadget! It’s so convenient! It will help to save energy cost in our home
I would love to win this for my household so I can control the temperature when I am away from home.
I would like to win this for our house because it has a sensor that can be placed in another room to help manage cold/hot spots.
I’m currently getting quotes for an upgraded furnace ie) one that works.
An ecobee would step up my fancy like 10 notches!
Living in Manitoba an comfortable house along with saving money is very important; I really think that an ecobee will improve the temperature of my house without wasting any unnecessary energy.
This would be wonderful so i would mot need to leave the kids to go adust the temperature
Ohhh I’d love to have more control over our heating costs!
I would like to be able to have the room sensor help me with cool spots in my house, as our lower level is always a bit chillier than upstairs where the thermostat is, and i would really like to be able to ask Alexa quick questions instead of reaching for my phone.
Iād love to have this for my home to be able to control the temperature while Iām away.
I love that I can control it from work with my phone. My son who is home most days turns the heat to 25 – 30 degrees and my bill gets out of control so this would be amazing!
I would love to win this! To be able to save on the cost of utilities by being able to set the thermostat while we are at home or away would be awesome!