I was planning to buy a WiFi thermostat for a while and after reading many reviews and checking the websites of the manufacturer’s, I decided that the Ecobee3 was the best one.
This thermostat is packed with usefull features, it efficiency controlled temperature in multiple locations of the house, and has a built-in local weather forecast when it is connected to WiFi. Not having to turn on a tv to check the weather is a big time saver.
Improved heating and cooling efficiency
The Ecobee3 has some great features that make your furnace and air conditioner more efficient, like the ability to set the fan to run for extra time after the heat is turned off. Running the fan longer is a good way to cool the heat exchanger in a natural gas or propane furnace, this gets the heat into the house that would have escaped out the chimney. Cooling the heat exchanger will also increase the lifespan of it.
The Ecobee3 will also sense if the house is occupied or not. When we have left the house the thermostat goes into smart away mode and changes to our preset away temperatures, this reduces the heating and cooling usage when we are not home.
This thermostat can also be set up to geo-fence. Geo-fenceing allows the thermostat to go into away mode when you travel a certain distance from your home, and return to home mode once you get back within that distance. This is great as the Ecobee3 will have your house back to the proper temperature before you walk in the door.
Improved comfort
When we are home the Ecobee3 will sense what room we are in and adjust the temperature of the house so that the occupied room is the most comfortable.
This thermostat has an option to run a ventilation fan or an hrv to control the humidity in the house in winter. It can also be set to over cool the house to dehumidifier in summer. It also considers the weather outside when making decisions to increase comfort and efficiency.
Easy to install
This thermostat was supper easy to install and did not require any special tools. They thought of everything possible to make installation painless. There are videos on the manufacturer’s website, the Ecobee3 app will walk you through an install step by step, with videos if you get stuck. And the wireing is well thought out, I didn’t have a spare wire in my wall to use to power this thermostat (my old thermostat used batteries), it wasn’t a problem. The Ecobee came with a power extender kit that eliminates the need for an extra wire, plus all the wires are clearly marked ( see below). The mounting plate even has a built in bubble level for ease of installation.
The Ecobee3 is an all around great smart WiFi equipped thermostat. With what it saves in heating costs it will probably pay for itself in the first two years.