ecobee4: make your home smart

Happy new year guys! I am entering the new year with a new home device: ecobee4, a smart thermostat. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound all that fun, but when you hear everything it can do you with it, you’ll think otherwise!  For those of you who don’t own a home yet, take notes for the future- adulting can be fun!

ecobee is a Canadian company that has created a thermostat for every type of homeowner. Whether you stay in a lot, travel a bunch, or work like a crazy person, everyone loves to save money on their energy bill (I hope!). With ecobee4, I can set my desired temperature when I’m home, away from home, and sleeping using Siri from my iPhone, or by directly asking Alexa because she’s directly built-in to the thermostat. Yup, I can control my temperature with my voice. If you’re an Android user, don’t worry there’s an app for you, too.

My favorite is the Smart Home/Away option. Enabling this will automatically let your thermostat know if you are home or away and adjust the temperature accordingly. Imagine if your temperature is set to Home, and you quickly have to run out to pick up your favorite bag of chips (very realistic scenario). My ecobee4 will sense I am away and adjust to my Away settings. Umm…hellooo, now that how you save energy!

ecobee4’s wireless room sensors make sure my favorite places in my home are heated or cooled to my comfort level. Pretty sweet right? I love the Geofence option- a setting that alerts my ecobee4 when I am close to home and adjusts my Away temperature (slightly cooler) to my Home temperature. So when I walk in the door from the Canadian tundra, my house is cozy warm!

Okay let’s get to the fun stuff already. Amazon Alexa is built into my ecobee which lets me play music with a simple command. “Alexa, play music!” will get the ball rolling. Choose from your favorite artists or radio stations and BAM- music to my ears! I can also play trivia games like Jeopardy or have Alexa tell me jokes all day long. As if this isn’t great enough, Alexa can read me the news, tell me the weather, add items to my grocery list, set a timer, and more!

I’ve been loving my new smart thermostat with all the energy saving and entertaining capabilities. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that the design is sleek and modern looking- just my style. In 2018, I am out with the the old and in with the new!

Get started with your ecobee4 here for full product details, compatibility, and installation tips!