ecobee - ecobee3 Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Remote Sensor (1st Generation) - Black

Ecobee3 is the first smart thermostat to really attract my attention. So I went for it... and I'm glad I did. I love the schedule control it gives me (like a traditional programmable thermostat, unlike Nest) while still ebing able to have that schedule overridden when my plans change. Being able to set it up without a battery and without a "C" wire from my furnace was the cherry on top. Since my wiring didn't have a C wire, I thought I was stuck with using battery powered thermostats, and deal with that "low-battery" warning all the time. But the ecobee3's unique adapter makes it easy to install a powered connection even without the C wire!

had two Nest thermostats for about a year, they ran about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than actual temperature. After going back and forth with support, and replacing both under warranty, I pulled the two Nest thermostats out of my house and sold them on eBay. When the ecobee3 hit the market I gave it a try, with no regrets, I have no issue, the temperature averaging is a big hit, allot more comfortable when running heat, or ac, no more temperature swings. Super user friendly app and thermostat.

I replaced an old Honeywell thermostat with the Ecobee3. I had an extra wire not shown in the install manual, so Ecobee had me send in a photo of the old wiring. They sent back a chart showing me where to attach the wires to the Ecobee3. The installation took about 15 minutes. I was overwhelmed by my internal nerd and started playing with all the settings. Thankfully, the support guy was super helpful with getting everything back to working order. He explained what I had done, and why I shouldn't do it anymore. I can't heap enough praise on the support team. They were fast, courteous, and super knowledgeable. The remote sensor was the primary reason to go with Ecobee, and it has worked like a charm. My upstairs bedroom has immediately become more comfortable. I have already noticed that the heat pump actually turns off and on instead of running 24 hours a day like it used to. I can't wait to see the electric bill. The easy to use interface looks good too. The touch screen is very responsive and the settings are easy to manipulate; even with my big old fingers. There is a bit of a difference between the feature set of the web interface and the phone app. The phone app lets you do everything you can do in front of the Ecobee3, but doesn't show the charts. The web has the greatest charts, but doesn't allow all the settings to be changed. I don't really mind; it works for me. My inner nerd wants me to mention that being able to download the data is great for creating archival comparison charts. I can't compare this to anything else on the marked since I haven't tried anything else, but I am very happy about the well spent money. Have I mentioned how great the support was?

I purchased two of these to replace my Nest Thermostats. I loved the idea of placing a sensor in each of the rooms so the thermostat could "balance" the temperature throughout the house. Installation was a breeze. If you are comfortable with a screwdriver, you should have no problem installing this. Once, powered on, the setup was pretty straightforward. You may need to know a bit about your system, because it will ask you questions about it. In my case, I have a heat pump. It wanted to know if it was air to air or geothermal. Pairing the sensors is even easier. All you do is pull out the tab out of the back of the sensor to activate the battery, and your thermostat will instantly show a screen asking if you want to pair. You then have to assign a name for the sensor and place it in the room you want it to monitor. The thermostat looks great on the wall. Unlike the Nest, the display is always on and shows the current temperature inside and a weather icon for current outdoor conditions. When you approach the thermostat, it knows, and screen changes to give you menu options. Unfortunately, the mobile app was disappointing. The app seemed to not update as to current conditions inside and when I call for it to turn on, it took awhile for it to get to the thermostat. I did it while on my home wifi network, so I know it was not a network issue. Also, the app does not show the individual sensor readings. You will have to go to the thermostat for that. I think the Nest app is far superior, but Ecobee can always update their app! :) Also, I found that the temperature sensor in the thermostat to be much more sensitive than the Nest. I had to plug the hole behind the thermostat with some insulation because it would detect air coming through the walls while one of the A/C units was running. The temperature would drop 5 degrees in 3 minutes! Ultimately, I had to return the thermostats and go back to my Nest. The sensors were not holding their connection with the thermostat. I purchased 4 extra sensors, so I had 6 in total. The upstairs thermostat had 5 sensors paired to it and the downstairs only one. Two sensors on the upstairs had problems. One would drop connection intermittently and reconnect; the other would lose connection and would not reconnect unless I pulled the battery. This would happen even if I had the sensor right next to the thermostat. Each time you lose a sensor, you get notified on the thermostat and by email. My inbox had like 50 emails from ecobee in one day! I could not find a way to disable the email notices, so be prepared to get bombarded with emails if you have sensor problems. I am not sure if it was the sensors or the thermostat that was the problem. I read in other forums that some folks who added multiple sensors to one thermostat had the same problem. In the end, however, if the sensors are not reliable, then it defeats the purpose of having this type of system. That's why I chose to go back to my Nests.

We bought the Ecobee3 for our new house about 2 weeks before we moved in. I finally got to install it last weekend. Setup took about 30 minutes, which included a phone call to Ecobee. We have an outdoor thermometer that is used to help determine when our heat pump is supposed to run. The support person told me that I can just ignore those wires on my new Ecobee since it gets very accurate, real time information from Wifi. The thermostat itself was easy to set up and setting up the schedule was a breeze compared to my older thermostats. The remote sensor (which I ordered 2 more) was super easy to set up. I pulled a tab on the sensor and the main thermostat pulled up the screen almost immediately to set it up. I love that it is able to adjust the temperature depending on where I am in the house. Our downstairs living room is usually 3-5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. When we are sitting down here, the Ecobee will level put more emphasis on this room and it will keep this a more comfortable temperature while allowing other rooms upstairs to warm slightly. Even while doing this, having the fan circulate 10 mins/hr seems to keep the whole house at a reasonable temperature. It has also learned my AC system and will turn on at the right time before I get home to begin cooling the house to my desired temperature before I walk in the door. The app and web provide similar functionality as the thermostat itself, only remotely. The web provides a plethora of reports which are interesting to read and also help me know if my unit is running too long or too hard. Once I've been using the thermostat for a month, I'll get some optimization reports and more detailed information on energy usage compared to other users. I can't wait to get those! Overall, I can't compare this to the Nest (since I've never had one) but I definitely don't think I've made the wrong decision on this thermostat. Both my dad and a friend bought one after seeing my Ecobee in action. This is a great thermostat, the remote sensors are brilliant, and I'm confident that this will further optimize my already efficient heating and cooling system.

I got this to replace another major brand smart thermostat. It had some accuracy issues. Not so with the Ecobee3. The wireless sensor allow it to take an average of 2 or more locations (with extra sensors) to get a better picture of the true temperature of the house, not just the dark hallway where the thermostat is located. After about 6 weeks I've already seen a drop in my power bill. I have no doubt that within 2 years this thing will pay for itself. The smart home/away feature is nice. It uses the sensors to detect if you're home or not. If you're gone for a period of time, it automatically changes the comfort settings to your away setting. If it detects that you're home during a scheduled away period it changes the setting to your home setting. You can also elect to include or exclude individual sensors for each of your comfort settings. For example, you can set the sleep setting to only take take readings from the bedroom sensor. The Home IQ portal is amazing too. From there you can see exactly when and for how long your system is running. You can also see the readings from individual sensors and the reported outdoor temperatures. From there you can see the effect the outdoor temperature has on your home.

My girlfriend wanted a smart thermostat for her birthday. So one day while she was gone I installed it for her as a surprise. The initial installation was kind of length because I had to add a specialty piece to the furnace (which did come with the ecobee3). Once it was up and running the rest of the installation went smoothly and it's been smooth ever since. I like that there is a feature on there which keeps track of when we need to change the filter. That helps us know so we don't lose track of when we last replaced it. Also, accessing it from our phones has helped us turn the furnace off while we work outside and open the doors, but leave the screen doors open. That way we aren't going back inside when we remember to kick it off. And the separate sensor is great. It kicks on when we wake up in the morning if we wake up before the scheduled time. So many benefits. The only negative is it doesn't work with the Harmony remote, yet. But I'm not sure that's even a negative.

I looked at the offerings from Nest, ecobee and Honeywell and found this to be the best choice over the Nest. The main difference is the Nest is strong on learning while the Ecobee3 sets comfort settings of Home, Sleep and Away. Pick a setting, start time and end time. The thermostat will hold those settings and time points or you can enable a smart setting that will override based on occupancy. For instance if set to away on a work day and you come home early, it will sense you are home and switch to the Home setting, or Froday night and its set Fore Home and you go out to dinner, it will sense you are away and switch to Away mode. The app is great and if you log on with a computer there is more data than the average user could hope for. Great choice albeit pricey.