'Ecobee3 Lite' HomeKit Thermostat Launching for $170 on October 31

[Le Big Mac]

I've heard a lot of positive things about the Ecobee. I wonder if they track, cache or otherwise mine user Data through their App? That would be a big negative.

Ecobee tracks your usage data on their servers in order to provide reports to you. There is clearly some sort of aggregation of user data because it provides comparisons to other homes of similar size and location.

But Ecobee AFAIK doesn't sell that data to anyone, and they don't have an affiliation like Nest. You can always have a look at their privacy policy on the ecobee website to see if you're comfortable with the information that they do collect. https://www.ecobee.com/legal/use/ My personal take, and YMMV, is that they don't collect more information than needed to provide the services the device offers.

 

[imola.zhp]

All of that data has been super helpful for me!

I live in a new construction house and noticed the upstairs HVAC unit can't always maintain the set temperature when it's hotter than the low 90s outside.

After listening to the HVAC contractor try to "guess" about this and that, I showed him the Ecobee run chart below, and that pretty much wrapped up the discussion.

That's great but yeah, if it cant keep the area cooled it is most likely incorrectly sized. Home builders like to use the smallest (and cheapest) units available. Within a few years when they loose a little capacity due to age then they cant keep the area cooled.

Now that you have that issue corrected, will you continue to look at all of this data? My guess is most likely not. With the nest I can just glance and see if my usage was high or low for the day and the pictogram of why (if applicable) lets me know. Also, at the time (might have changed) the information you show above would not display on an iPhone 6, not sure if would have on a 6+ but we had to look at the info on the iPad or the computer to even see it. Very annoying.

 

[aristobrat]

Now that you have that issue corrected, will you continue to look at all of this data? My guess is most likely not. With the nest I can just glance and see if my usage was high or low for the day and the pictogram of why (if applicable) lets me know.

I won't look at the detailed data on a regular basis, but I like knowing that it's available if I run into any future problems with the units.

Ecobee sends email alerts for operational issues (temp/humidity outside of ranges, HVAC units running with no effect on inside temperatures, etc), and gives an easy-to-ready monthly summary of run-time (and comparisons to other similarly sized houses), but it doesn't currently have a daily usage glance.

Sorry that you weren't able to get it to run the A/C during the day while you were home. I think that unless you edited the daily schedule to add the "Sleep" comfort setting during the hours you slept during the day, Smart Away would think nobody was home (since nobody's triggering motion in any of the sensors) and raise the temperature.

 

[Tyler23]

I own one Nest, but we're buying a house where two thermostats need to be replaced.

With that in mind, is there any benefit to switching over and buying two Ecobee's, rather than just buying one additional Nest?

Is there any thought or concern that Nest would drop support for Apple? I know Nest doesn't support HomeKit and likely never will, but I'd assume they could never drop iOS/Apple support, right?