The possibilities for home automation today are virtually limitless. If you are new to smart home technology or are considering your first smart device, you should consider a smart thermostat. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about smart thermostats.
What is a Smart Thermostat?
Smart thermostats are digital, wifi connected thermostats that allow a homeowner to adjust and control their HVAC settings with the use of a smartphone or other smart devices. They are capable of everything a normal thermostat is capable of with the added benefit of controlling your home’s temperature remotely.
How Do They Work?
Smart thermostats function using three basic parts: the thermostat itself, a connection to your HVAC unit, and a smartphone app. As long as you are connected to wifi on your device, you have access to your smart thermostat no matter what your distance from home may be.
While these three basic components are what make smart thermostats work, more expensive models provide further capabilities such as smart learning, zoned temperature, additional sensors, and more.
Benefits
Smart thermostats offer an array of benefits to homeowners including:
- Increase in energy savings: Smart thermostats are designed to nudge you towards more energy-saving habits such as recommending you turn down your AC or heat. You can easily schedule your HVAC system to run less while you are gone during the day and kick back on just before returning therefore saving energy all day long.
- Convenience: Because you have access to your thermostat at your fingertips, you can easily adjust the temperature of your home when you are still at the office or even on vacation. This capability is a huge benefit for those with busy lifestyles needing one less thing to remember when you walk out the door.
- Monitor Energy Usage: One great feature most smart thermostats offer is the ability to keep track of how much energy you are actually using. You will be able to monitor your energy habits over time which in turn will allow you to adjust your habits even more to save you money.
Homemade Smart Home Recipe
Now that you know how smart thermostats function and a few of their many benefits, check out this “smart home recipe” to see how it can work wonders for your home.
First, you start by using an app called “If This Then That” (IFTTT) to combine multiple apps to act as a “recipe”. For example: inside of IFTTT you can combine the Life360 app with the Ecobee Smart Home Thermostat app to turn your air conditioner to its away settings when the lady family member leaves the house; ensuring that if someone is home that they are as snug as a bug.
The reason it works this way is that in Life360 you can create “groups”, such as your family, and the rest works on geofencing capabilities.
IFTTT then uses the geofenced area to set off a “trigger action” (the If This portion) to tell the Ecobee app to set the HVAC to away (the Then That portion.)
Contact Live Smart Construction
Installing a smart thermostat is certainly worth the investment and can make a big difference in the amount of energy you use. If you are interested in this smart technology, contact Live Smart Construction today. We are Kansas City’s highest-rated smart home integration company!