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8.6
Like
- Alexa voice integration
- Learns your behavior
- Great price
Don't like
- No touchscreen
- No HomeKit or Google Home
At its core, the purpose of a smart thermostat is to tell the HVAC system in your home to change the temperature. Everything it does beyond that is icing on the cake. Those extra features can cost you a nice chunk of change, and at some point, it may feel like they might not be worth it.
The good thing about the Amazon Smart Thermostat is that you get the bulk of those features without the added cost. It's the best of both worlds.
Of the smart thermostats I've tested, I've noticed two distinct tiers: There are those that are capable of learning your habits and are rich in extra features. These typically cost $150 or more. Then there are those that have significantly fewer "smart" features but come in at much more affordable prices -- generally $100 or less. The Amazon Smart Thermostat, our pick for the best overall, has the capabilities of some of those pricier models with the price tag of a more affordable one -- usually just $80.
Here's what I found in my testing of the Amazon Smart Thermostat.
Getting started: Installation and setup
The Amazon Smart Thermostat comes in a smaller box than most of its peers, because it doesn't come much beyond a thermostat. You won't find external room sensors here, nor will you find a C-wire adapter. Because the Amazon Smart Thermostat requires a C-wire, that means if your home doesn't have one installed, you'll have to shell out more money (about $21 for this model from Honeywell Home) or spend a total of about $101 for the combination of the Amazon Smart Thermostat and the adapter.
It doesn't come with a C-wire adapter, but it does come with its own screwdriver, a little angled one that looks like a hex key. That's not a big perk, but it might save you a trip to the toolbox. It also comes with an optional wall plate, which covers up more of the wall space around the thermostat.
Physical installation was no more complicated than other smart thermostats. First, you turn off your HVAC unit, then take a picture of the wiring and disconnect your old thermostat. You then connect the wires to the proper spots in the Amazon Smart Thermostat's backplate, mount it to the wall, connect the thermostat to the backplate and turn the power on.
Connecting it to your phone and network is extremely simple. It just uses the Alexa app on your phone. This connection process was more straightforward than with others I tested, taking no more than a minute or two.
Your first few settings include choosing whether it can automatically detect when people are around or keep the temperature within a certain range. You can set up a manual schedule, which is pretty simple, or you can let Alexa do its thing.
Let Alexa handle it
If you're already a big user of Amazon's Alexa, the thermostat will be plug and play. If you're not, don't expect a super steep learning curve.
Instead, expect Alexa to be doing the learning.
You can choose to have Alexa manage your temperature using its "hunches." This feature means Alexa makes guesses about things like whether you're home or not. Its hunches are pretty good. Some thermostats use geofencing that can have a pretty long radius, but Alexa accurately guessed whether I was home or not in this example, where first I was a mile and a half away and then at the grocery store just half a mile away.
Alexa figured out when I went grocery shopping, even though the grocery store is just half a mile away.
Screenshot by Jon Reed/CNETThe integration with the rest of your Alexa ecosystem means you can use voice commands easily. Those Echo Dots you may have lying around your home serve another purpose. Some models can be set up as extra temperature sensors, giving your thermostat a better idea of what the temperature is like throughout your home and allowing you more control over your comfort.
A thermostat that makes you smarter
One of my favorite features of this thermostat is that it offers helpful hints and other reminders. Some of them seem focused on getting you to buy things (a feature that automatically reorders air filters, a button that takes you to Amazon Shopping to buy LED light bulbs) while others are particularly useful. Consider this "Fun Fact" from the app's Energy Dashboard: "The higher the thermal resistance, or "R-value," of an insulating material, the greater the insulating effectiveness. Keep this in mind when you insulate your home. (US Dept of Energy)"
In the grand scheme of things, tips like this don't matter much to the functionality of a smart thermostat, but they do highlight the importance of your home energy system being a system. A smart thermostat isn't going to save you money unless your behavior changes with it, and it's far from the only thing that can save you money. Maybe better insulation is next on your list.
The app's Energy Dashboard offers you a historical look at how much energy your HVAC system has used, in addition to data on when clean energy is most available on the grid. This can help you avoid using as much power when fossil fuels are most prevalent.
The Alexa app offers other helpful features, many of which are found in more expensive competing thermostats, like a feature allowing you to search for available local energy programs. These include initiatives, often called virtual power plants, in which you can sign your thermostat up for energy credits in exchange for your utility changing it in the event of too much demand on the grid.
Amazon Smart Thermostat features
| Price | $80 |
|---|---|
| Geofencing | Yes |
| External sensors | Some Echo Dots can function as room sensors |
| Smart home compatibility | Alexa |
| Requires C-wire? | Yes |
The bottom line
The Amazon Smart Thermostat features a lot of the tools you'd find on a more expensive thermostat, like the Nest Learning Thermostat, at a much better price, but you are making a few sacrifices.
First, you're jumping into the pool of the Alexa smart home ecosystem. The thermostat is controlled by the Alexa app, and it doesn't play nicely with Google Home or Apple's HomeKit. So be ready to accept that.
Second, you're giving up a nifty, super-intuitive touchscreen interface like that of the Sensi Touch 2. Instead, you get what feels like if an old-school thermostat was out of a Kindle. Don't expect any fun visualizations.
Those sacrifices may be worth it. This thermostat regularly costs just $80 and is often on sale for less. It comes with features you'd normally pay $200 or more for. It can learn your habits, or perhaps it just… works on its own. Will that generate savings for you? If it does, it'll pay for itself a lot quicker than if you dropped $200 for something that does almost the same thing.
How we test smart thermostats
Most of the home energy products we test and evaluate here at CNET have a lot of numbers attached to them -- the efficiency of solar panels, the power output of batteries. Not so with smart thermostats. All of the smart thermostats we've tested can perform the basic functions of turning your heater on when it's cold and your AC on when it's hot. While some of our scoring is based on tangible, mathematical data, it's mostly about the myriad ways you can interact with the thermostat to get the comfort level and energy savings you want.
We've experimented, tested and handled each of the thermostats mentioned on this list, including installing them on a testing rig that simulates a standard HVAC system, programming them and trying their various features.
We used this rig, built by our CNET Labs engineers, to hook up a variety of thermostats to test their interfaces and apps.
Adam Breeden/CNETThe 10-point scores we give smart thermostats are based on these metrics:
- 20% is based on the available smart home connectivity and other features, including geofencing and external room sensors.
- 20% is the price, with a formula that rewards less expensive products.
- 60% is completely subjective, based on our assessment of what the device offers, how easy it is to install, how easy the app or interface is to use and what features it has that might be non-standard for thermostats but helpful or useful for consumers.
Choosing a thermostat is an incredibly subjective and personal choice, and our goal in scoring is to highlight those products that do the most and do them well. Your buying decision should focus on your priorities, which might not align exactly with ours, so be sure to look at more than just a score when choosing a device you will probably interact with almost every day.