Connected heating and cooling is easier than ever with the smart home
If there’s one smart upgrade that every homeowner should install, it’s a smart thermostat or smart heating system.
Not only do they make your home’s heating easier to control but they can genuinely save you money, too. Given the state of energy prices, who doesn’t want that?
There are two types of systems. Smart thermostats are as they sound: a replacement to your existing dumb thermostat. They give you better control over schedules, more advanced features and you can remote control them from your phone or using your voice.
Smart heating systems are wider systems that give you room-by-room control. Typically, these systems work with wet radiators, using a smart valve to control water flow and, thus, heat to each room.
These are more expensive to install, but the level of individual control that you get means that you’ll save more money on your heating bill, as you’re only heating the rooms that you need.
Read on for our list of the best smart thermostats and smart heating platforms available, followed by a detailed brief of everything you need to know about choosing your perfect system.
Best smart thermostat: Ecobee SmartThermostat
Buy now: Amazon, ecobee.com | $249
Nest may be the biggest name in smart thermostats, but with its latest offering Ecobee proves it thoroughly deserves to share the spotlight. In fact, with its latest SmartThermostat, we think Ecobee has finally become the new reigning champion.
The Ecobee SmartThermostat is the company’s flagship thermostat. It launched with the option to run Alexa built-in, making it a combined thermostat and smart speaker. As of now, a free software update is rolling out making the device Siri compatible, so you can use Apple’s voice assistant, too.
Compatibility is excellent: the Ecobee SmartThermostat is compatible with all the major platforms: HomeKit, SmartThings, Google Assistant, IFTTT and Alexa. If you’re building a smart home, rest assured this will fit right in.
The Ecobee comes with a bunch of smart scheduling features, including some that make use of the external sensors and your smartphone to tell when someone’s arriving home, where in the house they are, and adjust accordingly.
It can manage the temperature of a home in such a way that it’ll concentrate its efforts in rooms that are occupied, and leave rooms that aren’t. There’s one room sensor packaged with the thermostat, but you can purchase more separately for other rooms.
Ecobee is compatible with most residential heating and cooling systems in North America, but not high-voltage systems. Setup is easy if you already have a C-wire installed – it took us about 15 minutes – otherwise you can make use of the bundled power extender kit, but this is more complicated and best installed by a professional.
The all new Ecobee smart security platform also means that an Ecobee can now play its part in your overall smart home setup too.
What we love
- Excellent smart home integrations
- Fantastic room sensors
- Built-in Alexa improved
- Responsive touchscreen
What we don’t love
- No native geofencing with iOS
- App and UI are overly complex
- Home/Away not responsive enough
- Expensive
Read our full Ecobee SmartThermostat review.
Runner-up: Nest Learning Thermostat
Buy now: Amazon, store.google.com | £219
The third-generation Nest Thermostat’s biggest boast is that it learns your behaviors to create a schedule for you, while at the same time encouraging you to stay within certain temperature zones for optimal heating; it will save you money and help you reduce wasted energy.
When you manually use the Nest, rather than relying on a schedule, it can start to form a pattern based on when you like certain temperatures – for both when you’re at home and away. Of course, you can also choose your own schedules, and there’s a neat True Radiant mode that learns how long your home takes to hit a certain temperature so adjusts its start times based on that.
Unlike Tado, Nest had no zone options or individual radiator control – although it is possible to use third-party smart radiator valves alongside Nest, with the thermostat simply acting as a maximum temperature controller (as a dumb thermostat would, with connected valves).
There’s also the US-only $39 Nest Temperature Sensor. You can place it on a shelf or wall and it’ll track the temperature in a certain room, which is important because not all rooms and hallways in your home are the same temperature. This basically allows you to properly heat or cool certain rooms, and prioritize some over others.
Nest’s Home / Away mode is particularly strong, especially if you use other Nest products that can detect your whereabouts, such as Nest Protect or any Nest Cams.
Since Nest moved to require a Google account to log in rather than a Nest one, some features have disappeared and there’s no longer any IFTTT support. Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support remain, but HomeKit is not supported.
There is actually a newer Nest Thermostat now – a cheaper and more cheerful option (thanks to some slick new colors) than its predecessors.
However, it’s not a replacement for the flagship Learning model, rather the model to replace the Thermostat E. The new 2020 Nest Thermostat comes in at $129.
What we love
- Learning – so less manual input
- Good smart home integrations
- Hot water & cooling options too
What we don’t love
- No zone support
- Quite expensive
- No HomeKit option
Great UK option: Hive Active Heating
Buy now: Amazon | $179.99/ £249 (with Hub) in UK, £199 (no Hub)
The Hive thermostat itself is best suited to less technical users in smaller homes. First off, it’s battery powered, so you don’t need to wire it in. That’s a biggie – and the controller will last around six months on a set of four AAs.
Key features include the ability to remotely turn heating on and off and set up schedules based on room temperature, which is more than most boilers offer. There’s also holiday mode, which stops heating your home until you return, but stops short of automating based on your smartphone’s location like Nest.
The app is pretty easy to use, well-suited to those who have reservations about teching-up their heating. Neat additions include the one-hour heat boost mode, which is designed to mimic the button found on older boiler systems.
But Hive is still missing features such as localized radiator controls, which means it’s not as powerful as rival platforms from Honeywell or Tado. It does boast multi-zone heating, but that means installing more thermostats. Again, that’s okay for an upstairs/downstairs setup, but not so good for four individual bedrooms, plus the east and west wing of your mansion beach house.
Of course, the need to keep your smart home within the Hive family is negated by platforms like Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Home. Alexa support is a big part of Hive and works well, but support is yet to roll out for anything else. Hive does have its Home Hub 360 to control the whole system.
But it’s the kind of system that’s perfect for non-techie users, doesn’t pull punches when it comes to the ecosystem, and best of all, you get a trustworthy engineer to come and fit it.
What we love
- Set up by an engineer
- Simple app
- One hour heating boost
- Decent wider ecosystem
What we don’t love
- Fine tuning less easy
- No radiator valves
- Fewer AI features
- Alexa only
Best for individual room control: Tado Smart Thermostat
Buy now: Amazon, tado.com | £199.99,
A lesser known system out of Germany, Tado treads the line between a system aimed at those who want the maximum features from their smart thermostat, and something fairly stylish that won’t look out of place in your home.
The diminutive white box acts as the thermostat, but the main work is done on your smartphone. The app enables you to set the temperature remotely and set up schedules for your home. But things quickly take a techier edge.
While geo-location is available on Nest and Hive, it’s put front and centre on Tado. As you head home, Tado will start to warm your house, upping that level the closer you get to home. It’s not a foolproof system; it works well in general, but falls down if you intend to spend the entire day local to your home, as you’ll have to manually intervene. You can use a sliding scale to manage the aggressiveness of the geo-location, or just turn it off.
Unlike Nest and Hive, Tado offers individual radiator thermostats, which will enable you to quickly add zones to your home. It’s a cheap and quick way to make your heating system a lot more powerful – but again will add a level of complexity you have to be willing to manage.
You will also have to deal with a setup that’s a lot more labour intensive than the Hive. A bunch of pre-registering was required before an engineer could be summoned and we had to deal with Tado support to verify our brand new boiler was compatible, which took a week. The engineer who came to install the system wasn’t able to explain the app or how it worked – and inexplicably couldn’t or wouldn’t fit our radiator valves. Again, not an issue for confident users, but we wouldn’t advise it for anyone who’s not especially smart home savvy.
But the pay-off is a wealth of smart compatibility. Try Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit control for size – only Ecobee offers the same level of ubiquity across systems, which essentially future-proofs control of your setup.
What we love
- Use any voice assistant
- Clean, easy app
- Radiator valves for easy zones
What we don’t love
- Geo-location a bit fiddly
- Set-up far from simple
- Basic design
Read our comprehensive Tado verdict
Best for complicated homes: Honeywell Home Evohome
Buy now: Amazon, honeywellhome.com, From £200,
Rather than controlling all of your heating in one go, Honeywell Home Evohome is built to give you room-by-room control. The main way that you do this is with the individual radiator valves that replace the dumb ones you already have with smart ones. These control the flow of water into your radiator, letting the system control the temperature of each room. They are a little noisy, and can take a while to get used to.
The system goes beyond this, and there are dedicated controls for underfloor heating, including a smart manifold, and you can control individual zone valves, too. In short, the range of support is excellent, giving you the level of control you need for the kit that you have installed.
Rather than being app-based only, the system has a main controller with a bright LCD screen. This can be sat in a dock or mounted on a wall, giving you room-by-room control over your entire heating system. Alternatively, you can use the app for remote control, even if it is quite dated and hasn’t had much love in the last few years.
On top of physical control, there’s there are Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant Skills for voice control.
As this is a multi-room system, controls are a little more complicated, as you have to set schedules for each room. It can take a few weeks to really nail things down. There’s no learning option, so you really do have to take it manually.
When you want to operate outside of schedules, you can turn the temperature up temporarily in a room using voice, the app or just twiddling the dial on top of one of the radiator valves.
Advanced features include weather compensation, where the system will adjust the set temperature based on the predicted weather, making it hotter or colder.
There are also special modes you can turn on manually, including Away mode, which turns the heating off while you’re not there, and Economy mode, which reduces the temperature of each room by a few degrees.
It would be nice if you could more easily trigger these rules automatically from the app; instead, you’ll need to use IFTTT and build your own automated rules, such as for geolocation.
Evohome lacks a bit of polish, and the app could do with an overhaul. That said, for the level of control and heating support you get, it’s hard to complain and this is an ideal system for larger homes.
What we love
- Multi-zone heating
- Easy to use controls
- Great digital assistant integration
- Saves money in long term
What we don’t love
- Expensive upfront cost
- No learning features
- Noisy TRVs
- No geolocation features
- Read our full Honeywell Evohome review
Take a look at our full Honeywell Evohome review.
One to consider: Amazon Smart Thermostat
We haven’t actually tested Amazon’s new smart heating device – it’s not even on sale yet – but we felt it was necessary to make sure that you’re at least aware of its existence if you’re in the market for a new thermostat.
Amazon used its September 2021 launch event to take the covers off of its first foray into smart heating and, at just $59.99, it’s a super cheap option from a reliable brand; doubly so in fact as Amazon hasn’t just baked up a new thermostat out of thin air.
Amazon worked with Resideo, who make Honeywell Home thermostats, to create the new budget HVAC controller.
As you’d expect, it is all powered by Alexa – although the digital assistant isn’t built in; you’ll need an Alexa smart speaker to listen to your heating commands.
Or, using the Alexa app you can simply program the Amazon Smart Thermostat to react to certain situations using Alexa Routines and you can also make use of the new Alexa Hunches feature to automate the heating and cooling your home.
Amazon says it will work with most existing 24V HVAC systems.
What does a smart thermostat do?
The key feature of any smart thermostat is giving you remote control of your heating, anywhere in the world, via your smartphone. But there’s a bit more on offer than that.
Many traditional heating systems require an ugly, plastic thermostat in your house, and some don’t have any thermostatic control whatsoever, meaning users put on the heating when they’re cold, make the house too hot, and turn it off again. It’s a huge waste. You can set up timer control, and inevitably forget to turn it off when you’re away, and heat the house unnecessarily.
This is where smart thermostats prove their worth.
First, they work thermostatically, letting you set an optimum temperature for your home, which should save you a wedge of cash. You can then create proper schedules, remotely turn the heating on and off, and ensure it’s shut off properly when you go away on holiday.
Some also come with optional sensors that can be placed around the home to target the temperature in specific rooms – but you can still reap many benefits if you don’t have the external sensors.
While tech companies like Nest really kickstarted this trend, established HVAC systems have now caught up, afraid of being left behind; you can now find smart thermostats from the likes of Honeywell and Bosch.
What to consider when buying a smart thermostat
The smart home is a quickly evolving place and thermostats are just one piece of the puzzle. You may want to control lighting, heating, security, and a host of devices within your home. So a key consideration is how you can ensure your stuff will work together.
Before you do anything, you need to understand how your current system is wired. The good news is that most smart thermostats are compatible with at least two-stage heating and cooling systems, but pay more attention to the specifics is your system is larger than that.
Get up to speed: Smart home ecosystems explained
The bad news is that not all will work with all of your other equipment such as heat pumps and ventilation systems. So consider what you have in your home and whether a smart thermostat is going to really benefit you.
It’s also worth considering the control afforded by your setup. A simpler system will offer whole home control, while others will let you get as granular as controlling the temperature in every individual room (if you buy the relevant sensors and controllers). Some are more hands-on and some learn your weekly habits or use geofencing to try to make the whole experience as hands-off as possible.
Apple users will want to look at HomeKit integrations, while others will want to ensure that you can control your thermostat via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. If you have to control your lights via your smartphone but your heating and cooling using a different app – well, that’s going to get irritating.