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

[MacRumors]

Smart thermostat company Ecobee today announced the launch of a cheaper "Ecobee3 Lite" device that will deliver Ecobee's expected "superior comfort, control and energy savings" at $80 less than similar products from competitors, according to the company.

Similar to the flagship Ecobee 3 model, the Ecobee3 Lite has the same touchscreen controls and black aesthetic, and can be controlled from a smartphone through a connected Ecobee app. The cheaper model will also continue to support Apple's HomeKit platform, as well as Amazon Echo, Samsung SmartThings, Wink and IFTTT.

"The new ecobee3 lite delivers the many features of a premium smart thermostat - beautiful design, superior comfort and an intuitive customer experience - but it's kinder to our customers' wallets than leading competitors," said Stuart Lombard, President and CEO of ecobee. "ecobee3 lite upholds our continued promise to make customer's lives simpler and better."

To offset the entry-level cost, the Ecobee3 Lite loses a few features included with its $250 counterpart. Namely, the Lite isn't compatible with the company's room sensors, which Ecobee says help the system become smarter with additional sensors placed in multiple rooms so that the thermostat can accumulate a total view of a home's temperature level. Ecobee3 Lite also lacks smart occupancy detection, and doesn't support accessories like humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and ventilators.

In the United States, users will be able to purchase the Ecobee3 Lite beginning on October 31 for $169. The smart thermostat will be available at retail exclusively at Home Depot locations, and online at Amazon.com, HomeDepot.com, BestBuy.com and Ecobee.com. Canadian users will be able to buy the device for $219 (CAD) on Ecobee's website. To make sure your system is compatible with Ecobee, the company has created a compatibility checker.

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

 

[RosOne]

Hmm, so it doesn't support their accessories, but since it's HomeKit you can still use thermometers from other companies. Like "increase the temperature if the temperature in any room drops below X"

 

[bpcookson]

Only mildly on topic, but... are these smart thermostats worth buying if you have heat but no central AC?

We're buying our "last house" now and I plan to go deep on smart home automation where possible. Central AC will be added eventually but can't afford it right now.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I'm a big fan of my Ecobee Home Kit capable devices, nice to see them become even more accessible (price-wise).

 

[noah82]

I bought an Ecobee3 earlier this year and returned it a week later. I bought it for the concept of the remote sensors all over the house, but every sensor was at least 6 degrees off compared to my infrared thermometer.

Since the thermostat couldn't do something as fundamentally basic as report the correct temperature, I returned it and bought a Nest 3rd gen. Was bummed that I lost Homekit compatibility, but I discovered Homebridge and got it back.

 

[JKColo22]

I bought an Ecobee3 earlier this year and returned it a week later. I bought it for the concept of the remote sensors all over the house, but every sensor was at least 6 degrees off compared to my infrared thermometer.

Since the thermostat couldn't do something as fundamentally basic as report the correct temperature, I returned it and bought a Nest 3rd gen. Was bummed that I lost Homekit compatibility, but I discovered Homebridge and got it back.

I love my EcoBee. Temperatures seem to be dead on. I'm skeptical how you were measuring ambient air temperatures with an IR thermometer, which are designed for measuring surface temperatures. The walls and floors of a room are not going to give you an accurate reflection of the air inside the room.

 

[bdavis89]

This is great! I've had my eye on this and the Nest. This option provides me a cheaper way to add some smart home features and not have to mess around with the extraneous sensors.

 

[shiseiryu1]

I still think the Nest is the best looking thermostat I've ever seen. Rest look like cheap toys.

 

[Alexlfm]

I bought an Ecobee3 earlier this year and returned it a week later. I bought it for the concept of the remote sensors all over the house, but every sensor was at least 6 degrees off compared to my infrared thermometer.

Since the thermostat couldn't do something as fundamentally basic as report the correct temperature, I returned it and bought a Nest 3rd gen. Was bummed that I lost Homekit compatibility, but I discovered Homebridge and got it back.

I flat out don't believe this. Either you did something massively wrong (apart from using an IR thermometer to measure ambient temps), you used a defective thermometer, your ecobee unit was faulty, and/or you wanted the ecobee to fail from the start. All of my sensors are within .5 - 1 degrees F when compared to a known calibrated thermometer (compared both to higher end HVAC equipment and my fluke IR that I use for my racing car). I don't know what you were measuring with your IR thermometer but unless you measured objects like tables, chairs, etc. it is doubtful you got an accurate reading. Outside walls obviously often leak and inside walls/floors often have poorly sealed HVAC lines which leak causing temp. variations. Compared to my higher end, multi sensor carrier system I had before the ecobee is actually more accurate by around 1 degree F.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Only mildly on topic, but... are these smart thermostats worth buying if you have heat but no central AC?

We're buying our "last house" now and I plan to go deep on smart home automation where possible. Central AC will be added eventually but can't afford it right now.

Yes. You still get the benefits with respect to heat during the winter. Set back at night; warm up during the day; all controllable in the same way as with A/C. Obviously not much benefit during AC season, but that's for the future!

 

[PhoenixDown]

Only mildly on topic, but... are these smart thermostats worth buying if you have heat but no central AC?

I have a NEST in an older home with steam heating system (natural gas furnace). I really like the option to log in through the APP and bump up or down the temperature but because my house takes so long to heat up, I found I don't change the temps much. Yes I may have it higher in the morning and lower in the evening but not much outside that.

edit: On the NEST I like the monthly report showing how I am doing on usage against other NEST customers in the area. I also like the web view option for setting tempatures and times - supports a 7 day schedule iirc. It's a huge step up from my old as sin "pin and dial" honeywell unit.

 

[whyamihere]

Switched from 3rd gen Nest to Ecobee 3 about 4 months ago. Happy with the change in every regard.

 

[gabriel garay]

I love my EcoBee. Temperatures seem to be dead on. I'm skeptical how you were measuring ambient air temperatures with an IR thermometer, which are designed for measuring surface temperatures. The walls and floors of a room are not going to give you an accurate reflection of the air inside the room.

What is home bridge?

 

[Applebot1]

I have nest Protect smoke Alarms and been nothing but impressed with them. Most probably get the Nest 3rd G Thermostat. I have invested heavily in Hue and good to use via Home Kit but Siri you can't rely on and decided Home Kit is a bonus not essential.

 

[ziggie216]

Anyone with the current system? How does the smart occupancy detection feature work?

 

[whyamihere]

Anyone with the current system? How does the smart occupancy detection feature work?

You set a Home and Away profile (ie the temps you want when home vs away). The sensors help determine when you are home vs away. It can be handy if you remain located in one room for a long period of time with a sensor as opposed to having to walk by the thermostat unit itself for it to know you are still home. More details here:
https://www.ecobee.com/faq/i-do-not-understand-how-smart-homeaway-and-follow-me-work/

 

[Return Zero]

I've had my HomeKit-enabled ecobee for over a year now. I love it. It has so many settings, you can really fine-tune everything to your exact needs. The remote sensor is nice, but for whatever reason mine seems to chew through those button-cell batteries pretty quickly (about once every three months) so I just stopped using it altogether. My house is fairly small anyway. Other than that complaint, I've been very happy. My energy bill during fall/spring is absolutely slashed... I'm talking up to 50% lower in some months. During summer and winter it doesn't make as much of a difference but still helps a bit. Also, I do love being able to tell Siri what temperature setting I want.
[doublepost=1476725644][/doublepost]

Anyone with the current system? How does the smart occupancy detection feature work?

Yeah it's nothing fancy, just a simple built-in occupancy sensor similar to a light switch or other smart thermostat. The big thing with ecobee is that the remote sensors pick up occupancy as well. After a while of no detected movement, it will ease up on the heating/cooling. It won't override your schedule, though, so no worries about waking up to bad temps as long as you set your normal sleeping hours in the schedule.

 

[rccoleman]

I bought an Ecobee3 earlier this year and returned it a week later. I bought it for the concept of the remote sensors all over the house, but every sensor was at least 6 degrees off compared to my infrared thermometer.

Since the thermostat couldn't do something as fundamentally basic as report the correct temperature, I returned it and bought a Nest 3rd gen. Was bummed that I lost Homekit compatibility, but I discovered Homebridge and got it back.

I've found that the temperature in the central unit itself is regularly off by several degrees in an almost unpredictable fashion, but I just excluded it from all of the comfort settings and only use the remote sensors. The remote sensors appear to be quite accurate when compared to standalone digital thermometers. It's really the remote sensors that make the Ecobee so great.

Rob

 

[noah82]

I pointed my IR thermometer directly at the Ecobee itself, as well as some of the surrounding surfaces. The only reason why I did this is because the Ecobee was cycling my AC in much shorter cycles than my previous thermostat did. The house did not ever seem to cool off since the Ecobee thought that the house was already 72 degrees.

I did not want the product to fail. I certainly understood that the Ecobee takes an average of the temperatures across the sensors, but it flat out didn't work for me.
[doublepost=1476726493][/doublepost]I should add that I installed the Nest right after taking the Ecobee down and it immediately reported the correct room temperature with little to no calibration.
[doublepost=1476726912][/doublepost]

What is home bridge?

Homebridge is a software app that runs on a Mac or Docker container that allows you to "bridge" your devices to Homekit. It works with Smartthings, Nest, Logitech Harmony, and many others. It allows you to control those devices that don't have native Homekit and Siri support.

https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Just bought a regular Ecobee3 on eBay for $180. I never knew a boring thermostat could give me such joy. If I had not found the one I bought for cheap I would have bought this new "lite" version. It seems perfect for small homes and condos.

 

[Fiestaman]

I love my EcoBee. Temperatures seem to be dead on. I'm skeptical how you were measuring ambient air temperatures with an IR thermometer, which are designed for measuring surface temperatures. The walls and floors of a room are not going to give you an accurate reflection of the air inside the room.

I also have the same experience as you. I have two Ecobee3 thermostats and 4 Ecobee remote sensors. All are extremely accurate and I have noticed a drop in electricity usage. I also have mine tied into my SmartThings set up and am using a custom device handler that allows me to use the other motion and open/close sensors in my house to report temperatures to the Ecobee3 and adjusts it accordingly. So, I actually have 14 sensors total all used with the "Follow Me" function. Personally, I think eliminating the ability to use remote sensors negates almost all of the benefit of the Ecobee over the Nest and other thermostats. Plus, the remote sensor that comes with the standard Ecobee3 would cost $35-40 itself, so you really aren't saving that much by getting the Lite. I also have custom smartapps that collects the data from the thermostats daily, weekly, and monthly and makes suggestions to me accordingly like the Nest. Then again, my smart home setup would make most people's head explode.

 

[macs4nw]

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.

 

[JKColo22]

I also have the same experience as you. I have two Ecobee3 thermostats and 4 Ecobee remote sensors. All are extremely accurate and I have noticed a drop in electricity usage. I also have mine tied into my SmartThings set up and am using a custom device handler that allows me to use the other motion and open/close sensors in my house to report temperatures to the Ecobee3 and adjusts it accordingly. So, I actually have 14 sensors total all used with the "Follow Me" function. Personally, I think eliminating the ability to use remote sensors negates almost all of the benefit of the Ecobee over the Nest and other thermostats. Plus, the remote sensor that comes with the standard Ecobee3 would cost $35-40 itself, so you really aren't saving that much by getting the Lite. I also have custom smartapps that collects the data from the thermostats daily, weekly, and monthly and makes suggestions to me accordingly like the Nest. Then again, my smart home setup would make most people's head explode.

I agree. A big benefit for me is the remote sensors. I have a fairly large house with two above-ground floors and a basement. It's on a single zone duct system with the thermostat on the ground floor (...stupid...). My upstairs used to get unbearably hot, despite the fact that the main floor was comfortable. The ecobee has been a great solution to our problems (and saved us money too!)

 

[imola.zhp]

Great to see these start coming down in price.

We received a Nest2 about 3 years ago for Christmas, when the Nest3 came out I dumped the Nest2 before it was completely worth $0 and bought a lightly used E3 with additional sensors on Amazon.com for a pretty great price. Like some others, I thought the additional sensors would be amazing, they really were not. I had hoped they would keep the AC on while I was home sleeping during the day when I work overnights, they did not. We tried our best to like it but ultimately missed the Nest platform, we are creatures of habit. Also the E3 data capture was just to much, inside temps, outside temps, inside humidity, outside humidity, it was information overload; I personally prefer Nest's simpler data information, "your system ran for this many hours today" a leaf if you did good and a simple pictogram for anything special (home a lot that day, away a lot that day, etc.). We ended up getting a Nest3 and selling the E3 setup. I think we about broke even in the end. Live an learn. Looking into that homebridge someone else mentioned, I had not yet heard of that. I'll have to see if any nerd friends would be interested in setting that up for us. Hopefully it works with some of our other home automation products too (Liftmaster, Rachio, Ring, etc.).

 

[aristobrat]

Also the E3 data capture was just to much, inside temps, outside temps, inside humidity, outside humidity, it was information overload

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.