ecobee - Smart Thermostat Essential - Programmable Wi-Fi Thermostat - Works with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant - White

A simpler version of Ecobee, still fully functional. The screen is a bit smaller and it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but we needed a second thermostat that was to be installed in a low traffic area, so we paired this with the smart sensors in the higher traffic areas of that floor and it works wonderfully.

Excellent easy to install thermostat if you are using eco mode it will really save you money

I like how easy it is to use, and I love being able to control the Ace from my phone.

The EcoBee Essential is an easy to use thermostat with a nice app, great features, and power saving options! Design I think the EcoBee Essential has a sleek, minimalistic, look that I like. It's white around the sides and has a clean, black, front face. The screen isn't the entire size of the front face, but the the size is very functional, display all that's needed very well. It's a color touch screen. There's a sheet of stickers that's included to label the wires, if needed. Ease of use I found it to be very easy to use, with a simple interface and excellent touch response - like what I expect on a smart phone. Of course you can also set schedules, mode (heat, cool, auto, and off), fan on, or amount of time the fan should run per hour (5 minute increments up to 55 minutes), and more. There are also great settings to save power. One setting, for instance, will heat and cool a bit differently than set based on the humidity, because humidity effects how hot or cold we feel. It also lets you see some of the history of the heating and cooling. Oh, another feature I love is that it can heat or cool (does by default) to get up to down to the set temperature by the time designated on a schedule when the schedule changes. Besides changing settings you can also see the current weather or the 3 day forecast. EcoBee App The app makes it easy to change the settings that exist on the thermostat and some other ones too. One thing I was glad to find was that this supports adding sensors around your house (sold separately). I think that's one of the best features of the EcoBee and I was excited to see that this model supports them without making you buy one up-front with the main unit. I'm pretty sure the app has all the settings that are on the thermostat as well as some additional ones. I was very glad to see it has the option to add sensors, for one. The main unit does offer adjustments to the display brightness. Anyway, there are lots of settings in both the main unit and the app with all the primary controls available on both. The app can also show you what equipment is actively running. The app has nice reports showing the history of how it has been running. Installation I replaced a pre-existing thermostat. The process was easy. Step one is always turn off the breaker. Once that was done I just disconnected my old thermostat and connected this one, connecting the wires the way they were in my old one and matching up colors. Thankfully my wires were color coded correctly and I could match them up with how they were connected on my old thermostat to make sure. Once installed on the wall, I flipped the breaker back on and soon was greeted with a "hi" in the middle of the screen. The back plate even has a tiny level built in which made it easy to get level on the wall. Connecting the wires is easy using levers to press down and then you just put in the wire. So it's held in by tension and you don't need to use a screw driver, other than the back plate wall mount. One issue I ran into at first was I couldn't press the front part onto the wall plate, it wouldn't stay. It took me a minute to figure out that the wires were rigid enough to push it off and I had them sticking out too far. I just pressed the wires back in towards the wall a little more and then had no issue. So really, it was a very easy and successful installation and now it's controlling my house temp with no issues! Setup Once powered on, it walked me through the setup process. You do need to install the app on your phone and create an EcoBee account - actually, that may not be required but I think it is. It asks some questions related to the wiring, does a test and displays which wires it detected and asks if that's correct. I had it right the first time and everything worked. I used a screw that was holding my previous thermostat on the top because the hole was a little bigger and I wanted/needed to use that hole for this one. I used one of the two included screws for the bottom hole (did not need the anchor). Summary The EcoBee Essential is a great thermostat that's easy to use with a very nice interface and all the features I wanted to control the temperature plus more features for convivence, like the. The smart power saving features seem great too. Please see my pictures for an idea of how the install looks and what some of the screens look like.

Where to begin? There’s a lot to like about an Ecobee Thermostat and that’s coming from someone who had one for many years going way back to when it was “Ecobee 2”. Then I moved and I had a….we’ll call it a competitor thermostat that a bird would call home. I thought I would like that other brand even more and maybe even find it is better, but in the end, I came back to Ecobee and it’s so nice to be back. I think any issues I used to have with my much older Ecobee are all gone now. Honestly, I don’t remember what all used to annoy me, but I can definitely list the things I missed and am glad to have back; Vacation mode, room sensors, and a web interface are just a few. Probably the most annoying thing on my old, non ecobee, smart thermostat was the limits on “hold” times and NO vacation mode options. We would leave the house for days and I couldn’t simply have the thermostat hold at X temp while I’m gone and resume my schedule right before I get home. Yeah sure, they all have “smart” options that can sort of do this, if you allow them to track, log and use your presence tracking, (even ecobee does it, and I’m sure it’s great for a lot of people) but I like having more control over what settings are at what time. If you’d rather not think about it, eco+ has a lot of great automatic settings that will save you money. I also like being able to bump the temp up 2 degrees for 2 hours and have it actually go back to my schedule after those 2 hours. The aforementioned non ecobee thermostat I had prior would never end the hold on time properly which ended up costing me tons more in energy bills because my “short bump up” became a 12 hour hike up. I had had enough at that point and knew we were going back to ecobee. Room sensors. Note the Essential model does not come with room sensors, but I bought a two pack at my local hardware store and they work great. At this price point, I wouldn’t expect the thermostat to come with a sensor, but I am really glad to see ecobee didn’t remove that optional upgrade. It’s what made ecobee so unique in the beginning, and when I used to have a multistory house, the sensors were amazing. So I knew I would want them again. It is just myself and my wife in our home, so at night, I love that I can have the heat focus on our room temperature and not worry about the other rooms. This helps keep costs down in the cold winters. And when it’s time to get up and go around the rest of the house, the ecobee has already adjusted to my daytime temps and warmed the rest of the house. Room sensors help keep the house more evenly heated and can be used as presence sensors in automated modes as well. I also am so glad to be back on Ecobee and using their web interface. This is for all of those nerds like me who love the numbers and graphs as well as adding your own custom comfort settings to really dial in your schedule day by day. It is also just easier to navigate and work on your thermostat. Not that the app is bad, but the web interface gives you even more options for those days you want to get into the weeds a little. The great thing is though, if you don’t care, you don’t have to ever use it. It’s just there for those who want it, and I will always choose a company that gives you that choice. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT: The new “Essential” model is the entry level thermostat, priced lower and with a few less options. But like I’ve hinted at above, all the basic things that make an Ecobee Thermostat so great are still included. Sensors, schedules, eco+, web interface, etc are all still there. Things like the Alexa built in, speaker, motion sensor, and extra wire ports in the back for more complicated systems are not included. This means if you have a very basic, standard HVAC, boiler, etc, the essential will probably work. If you have a ton of wires back there and a complicated heating and cooling system, maybe check before you buy this model. We have a very basic system with just a boiler for heat and no cooling, so I love the cheaper option but still all the fun. The Essential still connects to the smart home hubs, like google and homekit and it even has some sort of connection to my generac generator. I don’t know what that is YET, I plan to look into it more, or figure out why they would need to be connected, but my generator app said “add ecobee” which I thought was interesting. OVERALL I am really happy to be back in the Ecobee eco system and as we plan to upgrade our heating and cooling with zones and in floor heating and AC, I know I will be buying more ecobee’s for each room and will never wonder off again. The ability to schedule, set vacation holds, see the weather, set hold times, use room sensors and see stats online and so much more is worth every penny. Other smart thermostats have a lot of the same features, and I used to think they’re all basically the same so just get one, but now that I’ve used others, I know there’s a difference, and for me, I prefer Ecobee. The company is great, they care about their products and the environment, they put out good products and they listen to their customers. I’d gladly recommend Ecobee to anyone looking for a budget friendly smart thermostat so simple it’s easy to use, but loaded with extras if you feel the need to dive in more.