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Instead of a single point of sensing which can be influenced based on its location, the ecobee3 also utilizes a satellite sensor. This satellite sensor provides another perspective on the house, and between the two will provide smarter heating and cooling. For example, if the main thermostat is located near a heat source (kitchen, full living room, etc) or cold source (near a door in winter) it can be influenced by temporary temperature fluctuations. The satellite sensor can help detect these temporary changes, and won't over-heat (or over-cool) the house when it isn't actually required. The range on this extra sensor is about 45 feet, which should be plenty for most houses. See More
In addition to HomeKit, the ecobee3 can hook up with IFTTT (IF This Then That - an automation tool based on custom recopies), Alexa (Amazon's voice activated personal assistant found in it's Echo line of products), Wink (a stand-alone ecosystem) as well as SmartThings (Samsung's smart home ecosystem). This allows integration with a wider variety of smart home products outside of the HomeKit ecosystem. See More
While other smart thermostats let you use the thermostat itself for virtually any adjustments, the Netatmo Thermostat only displays the setpoint temperature (in bold black) and the current temperature (outlined). The display is E-ink, which doesn't look as good as good as LCDs and can't display colours. Also, there is no backlight making it impossible to see with the lights off. See More
After a couple weeks of learning, you can switch to a PID (proportional integral derivative) control. This uses predictive and learned behavior to provide the best heating experience possible. PID control looks at weather conditions, and adjusts its cycling to compensate for it. For example, if a sudden cold front is expected, the system will turn on earlier than normal to ensure the temperature stays at a comfortable level. Also, PID takes into consideration your house's insulation properties, which let it perform better than merely waiting until the temperature reaches the upper/lower setpoint values. See More
The Lyric can turn on and off based on your location (or, more specifically, your phone's location). By default, this geo-fence is 7 miles, giving the thermostat enough time to get the back to a comfortable temperature. This can be changed, all the way down to 500 feet if you have a short commute. See More
The geo-fence feature can sometimes set the thermostat to 'away' while you're still in the house. Notifications also don't always make it through, as sometimes all you get are generic looking error messages. These bugs are likely to be fixed through future software updates, however currently they come as part of the product. See More
Because each Eve Thermo is assigned to a single room, it can accomplish a steadier temperature than a single central thermostat. You can assign each room to a different schedule, for example your bedroom heater can be turned off during the day while the rest of your house receives the heat instead. See More
The Eve Thermo is physically small, and plugs into your heaters which are usually hidden out of sight. This allows it to discreetly add smart heating to your house without creating an eye-sore on a prominent wall. If the device is in a location where it will be seen however, it looks very sleek with it's polished white colour and rounded square design. See More
The Eve Thermo only connects to a single heating element. That means that for your entire house to be heated this way, you'd need one Thermo for every room in your house - at which point it would be much more cost-effective to get a single smart thermostat. The Eve Thermo is better suited as a complementary device - one that is installed alongside your current (or future) thermostat. The Eve Thermo works very well when it comes to regulating temperature in a tricky room (where a normal thermostat leaves it either too warm or too cold), and that is where it excels. See More
The Eve Thermo only connects via Bluetooth, and has a short range (~4 meters). You won't be able to adjust the temperature from outside the room, unless you have an Apple TV 3rd gen (the Apple TV hooks up to the Thermo, and allows control through Wi-Fi which can be accessed and adjusted from anywhere in the world with an internet connection). See More
Because the screen is so small and pixelated, very little can be displayed on the screen at one time. This forces the menus to be longer, which requires more button presses to scroll down and then select the action, and then finally adjust it. It would also be helpful if text was used instead of just icons, as then you'd never have to guess what an icon represents. See More
As of right now (future updates could change this), the iDevices thermostat doesn't provide any compelling reason to choose it over any other HomeKit thermostat. It doesn't add any features of its own - instead it only has features provided by HomeKit itself which are present on many other thermostats. The screen is small and pixelated, and it still uses buttons instead of a touchscreen. It also looks more like a standard thermostat than the others. Overall, the iDevices thermostat may be the cheapest option, but it's very uninspiring. See More
While this thermostat is very feature-light at the moment, Bluetooth hardware is present which will allow for more features in the future. Geo-fencing and pattern recognition software are two features currently in development, however the other thermostats already offer these features and more. See More
Wiring the iDevices Thermostat requires a small precision screw driver (not included), and unlike many other smart thermostats it doesn't automatically detect which HVAC system you have (you will need to look that up, whether it's gas or electric fired, and potentially what kind of pumps and valves are used). The whole installation process is a lot more involved than other smart thermostats. See More