Q: What does a smart sensor do?

A: The Ecobee Smart sensor allows temperature measurement in a location other than the main unit which must be attached to the wires that attach to the HVAC unit. Many times the main thermostat is in a hallway but the temperature in the hallway is different from your living room or bedroom. Put a remote smart sensor in either or both of these rooms to monitor those temperatures and feedback to Ecobee to control the HVAC. Note: remote smart sensor must be within about 30 to 40 feet of the Ecobe unit in order to communicate with it. The remote smart sensor does not have any wires so can be placed anywhere within this distance.

Q: Will the ecobee work with more than two sensors?

A: Absolutely! Your ecobee smart thermostat can support up to 32 sensors including both our older ecobee Room Sensor and newer ecobee SmartSensor.

Q: Does the temperature sensed by the remote sensor override the temperature sensor in the wall unit? In winter I have hot spots in my house. Would like sensor to detect them and reduce the winter energy bill. Coolest air is located at thermostat.

A: Yes! There are three comfort settings. Home, away, sleep. You set the hours for each. You can choose for which comfort setting each sensor will be the primary thermostat. For example, I have one in ech room, so the ones in the bedrooms have the sleep comfort setting selected, and the other sensors/wall unit don’t. Meaning that during my sleep hours those sensors will be the ones to control the thermostat. Therefore, if I have the temp set at 75 those sensors will be at 75 even though my wall unit reads 73, 78. The smart thermostat listens to the sensors I chose. It’s confusing at first. I had to research how they worked and how to set them up but once I understood and set them and saw they worked I got more sensors for other rooms in my home. In the pic you can see I have sensors in 3 extra rooms. Those are the ones that have cold or hot spots. I placed the temp at 78, so you can see. I usually keep it at 76 during chilly nights. My sleep comfort is ON for bedroom/den and because those had a temp of 76 the heater turned on because I want those rooms at 78 and they’re the ones ruling right now. So the heater turned on even though the wall unit(ecobee) was already 78 but since my sleep comfort is going to rule the smart thermostat will get overridden. I hope I explained myself correctly!

Q: I installed an ecobee 4 w/Alexa. It came w/one sensor that works well for our bdrm. I'm going to buy more due to hot spots. The house we just bought has a brand new low-end single zone HVAC. What's the best control I can expect with a single zone system?

A: With the ecobee and more sensors, your house can be more "Balanced", but don't expect each room to be perfect. You can set it up to use any individual or group of sensors and will take some time to find the proper setting. Whatever you do, the area where the actual thermostat is located may be hotter or colder depending on the settings. Be patient and it'll work out. For instance, we have a thermostat IN a bedroom upstairs. That's where the builder put it. If that room's door is closed, the rest of the upstairs is hot, or cold depending on the season. We placed the sensors in each of the bedrooms and read what their temps were before tweaking. The bedroom where the thermostat is located can be ignored and the rest of the rooms sensored. In the summer, that room is COLD and the other rooms really warm or hot, so now we add that sensor into the mix and the ecobee finds a temp that averages all the sensors. So that room is cooler than the others, and the other rooms are comfortable, which is better than the 78 degrees. It took time to find the balance, but it's great now. No more sweaty or shivering nights.

Q: Which type of batteries do these use, and how long do they typically last?

A: ecobee SmartSensor uses a CR-2477 battery. Learn more: https://support.ecobee.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051204771-Replace-your-SmartSensor-battery

Q: How accurate is the temperature on these new smart sensors, and what makes these better than the previous generation sensors?

A: Seems to be accurate within one degree. So for they've been accurate and extremely useful. Only negative is the batteries are hard to source.

Q: Would these particular sensors work with ecobee4 ? Thanks

A: Yes! The SmartSensors are compatible with all ecobee SmartThermosats.

Q: Will the ecobee smart thermostat still work if the wifi goes down? Will it still control the home temperature if the wifi is down?

A: Yes! If your ecobee loses its Wi-Fi connectivity it will continue to follow its set schedule and can be adjusted manually.