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.

My home has tri-zone heating, so there is a thermostat on each floor which is great for controlling the temperature on floors not in use. On my main floor, I have an older Ecobee Smart thermostat that has the motion sensor built in and I have added Ecobee sensors that tells when a room is occupied and automatically adjusts the temperature based on occupancy. I have a preset range for both heating and cooling and with the geofence enabled so that when I leave the the temperature is set lower. In the winter, I typically keep it at 72 degrees and in the summer, it’s right around 73-74 degrees. This thermostat doesn’t quite have all of the same features, but it works great for my man cave. It does have the geofencing and I can add the sensors, but the thermostat itself doesn’t have the motion sensor built in. This is the essential model so it’s a lot less feature rich than my other unit, but it serves its purpose. I do like having the motion sensor built-in because it also acts a bit of a security system as well when integrated with HomeKit. HomeKit is my primary smart home setup, but I also use some Alexa and Google items as well. One of the reasons I ordered this is because of the integration. With the integration, I can change the temps using my iPhone or Apple Watch and I can turn it off or change from heat to A/C without having to leave my couch. I bought the trim kit that is optional and will eventually paint it to match the wall or some accent color possibly, but with it, I was able to hide the holes from the previous thermostat I had. It wasn’t expensive, but I had to order them online because it wasn’t available in-store. It’s not a necessity, but it does what I needed it to do. Installation is simple if you have ever installed one of these before and they have a compatibility checker to make sure it will work with your system. It helps you uninstall your existing thermostat and walks you through install, setup and operation of the your new Ecobee. I really liked that it prompted me to take pictures of the wires and where they were plugged into before I disconnected the old unit. I always do anyway, but it’s handy if you run into problems or if you discover it wont work with your system. All you have to do is reconnect the wires as the photo shows. After I installed it and got it up and running, I was able to connect to HomeKit right from the app with step by step instructions. I’ve installed many of these over the years, so it was pretty easy for me, but I think with the detailed guide in the app, most people with a little technical know how can do it. This thermostat is a keeper for me and I may end up adding a couple more sensors to help keep the temperature even throughout the entire basement.