Ecobee is poised is launch eco+, a new features that uses a variety of criteria to lower you HVAC energy consumption and associated utility bill.
Your energy use varies based on your schedule, humidity, and electricity rates. eco+ uses that information to automatically adjust your thermostat at the right time, so you stay comfortable. See that eco+ badge on your thermostat or ecobee app? That means eco+ is at work.
From the FAQ, terms of service, and this LinkedIn profile, a key component of eco+ is utility company awareness to “optimize energy usage around peak electrical rates” — possibly including ecobee logging into your electric or gas company account. And one method of tweaking system runtime is by taking humidity into account with a new “Feels Like” temperature readout: “When it’s dry, Feels Like will adjust your temperature set point slightly to keep you comfortable while saving energy.” Smart Home/Away presence detection will be updated with predictive abilities as well.
Honestly, I doubt we’ll use eco+ (nor an ecobee filter replacement service) as my wife and I are very particular about indoor temperature… although not always in agreement. Having said that, we’re definitely ready for multi-user household accounts and wish resources could be diverted to what seems like a relatively simple task, something Nest solved years ago.
(Thanks super duper tipster!)
Dave, which model thermostat do you use? We have two original Nest thermostats, and one of them seems to be giving up the ghost. I love some of their features, but the ‘smarts’ of the temperature settings mostly seem to make my wife mad because she wants what she wants. I just ordered an ecobee3 Lite plus 2 sensors from Costco for $140 while its still on sale. My folks have an ecobee (obtained through their utility company), and they love the sensor functionality. I’m hoping that helps a little with our setup as well. I’m going to replace the problem Nest, then decide on replacing the second thermostat. The Alexa built in seems like overkill, when we have multiple Echos and Dots through the house, so I might just add a second 3 Lite once they’re on sale again.
Wonder what’s up with your Nest. Not sure I’ve ever heard of these kinds of things failing.
I have two ecobee4 in the house. One was “free” from the HVAC company when we replaced our furnace. The other we paid full price. Alexa on the wall is unnecessary. ecobee3 Lite *with* bundled sensors is the way to go.
At our prior home, we had a Nest 2 and ecobee3. Both purchased in retail.
I had an issue with one of my Nest 2 units a few years ago, where it was a physical issue…. after being installed for a couple of years, it suddenly fell off the wall one day, and while I could reconnect it, it would fall off again. I finally realized that it was not sitting in the mount correctly, but I was able to simply call Nest and they sent me out a replacement unit at no cost. While installing that unit, I realized that the issue was the wires in the back that was preventing it from staying in the mount, which is odd since it had been installed since 2013 (2 years prior to it falling the first time). I had never touched it prior to it falling, other than to adjust the temperature. It was an oddity, but was the only issue I have ever had with Nest.
This Nest was installed over 7 years ago, and has never had any issues. The thought from support is that while the power to the device seems to be ok, somehow the battery can’t hold a charge. It’s not my WiFi, my eero gateway unit is about 10 feet away, and nothing has changed in my home setup in a couple of years. 7 plus years seems like a good run, and if I was starting from scratch, I’d prefer the ecobee mostly because of its HomeKit integration. So I’ll install the new unit I bought from Costco once it arrives, and be able to compare it to the Nest that I won’t be replacing that covers our bedrooms.
Interesting (and inconvenient!), hadn’t thought of the trickle charge batteries. I guess similar must be happening to original Ring video doorbells.
The “feels like” temperature is very useful in areas with high humidity, I’ve been wanting that functionality, but not if it is tied into the utility company control. I don’t trust them enough to open that door.
Making me even more sad the new sensors don’t have humidity. Although given their bulbous shape, I’m hoping it’s buried in there somewhere but just not yet active.
I like the “feels like” idea — would be even better of the sensors (and thermostat itself) had humidity readings and could adjust based on that or if I could use the feels like without anything else.
I also don’t want the utility company to adjust — I had that before through whatever program Nest (and I think ecobee) used in the summer and I would always override the setting because it got way too hot — plus, we recently installed solar panels and are way ahead of usage with on our generation so don’t need to run the meter back even more.
We are an Alexa household and rely on her to give us our time, weather AND to control our Sonos sound system.
So putting Alexa in my thermostat seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, her ability to listen well in the thermostat is not near as good as when she is listening from an echo dot. Just not enough microphones and technology. She is OK if you speak loud and clear enough.
The wife does not the little pucks all over the place so I look for ways to hide the functionality in other systems.
I find the ecobee4 with Alexa annoying. She doesn’t hear well at all due to being tight against a reflective surface. Standing right in front of the ecobee4 is a waste of time and an Echo Dot from the other side f the room will always answer instead of the stat.
My sons use Nest stats as they got purchase incentives. Ecobee is far ahead in technology as all the Nest features end up turned off. The automatic setting is a bunch of crap as your stat will end up with a chart of setpoints containing every time you manually adjusted your stat, repeated ad nauseum. This will be hundreds of setpoints each day. Very dumb idea.
These Nest batteries go dead all the time in severe climates like Canada. This is due to people not having a fifth wire (common) and the stat calling HVAC too long at a time. There is no leakage power to “steal” and the stat dies. duh!!