recommend smart thermostat or smart home system best for iphone?

[chiefsilverback]

Then the keyed switches are unnecessary unless someone really needs the ability to power-cycle their bulbs without unscrewing them from their fixtures. Even in those cases you can always do it from the electrical panel.

Often lights and sockets are on a single breaker (depending when/how it was wired) so it might not be ideal to throw the breaker to reset a bulb, vs simply toggling a switch.

On a tangent the introduction of smart switches that require constant power certainly pushes the limits of what you can put in an electrical box, which is somewhat ironic given you’re likely using LED bulbs so the total wattage/current is massively lower than was common when the code rules about box capacities were established! Some of my boxes are a real spaghetti of wires and connectors!

 

[CHBailey]

Glad to hear that the Ecobee 3 is working for everyone. I installed mine just about a year ago and had issues last winter with the HomeKit geofence putting a "hold" on the Ecobee, so the settings didn't change as scheduled unless I manually removed the "hold."

Was able to figure out what was going on by downloading all of the Ecobee CSV data into a spreadsheet and, sure enough, "HKit" was putting a hold on the Ecobee whenever I arrived at the house (i.e. I've got a geofence set up for lights but not for the stats). So have been using the Ecobee app - might have to add them back if it's working again.

 

[mcvaughan]

I bought the Ecobee 3 lite and have been very happy thus far. The scheduling can be a bit wonky, but other than that I think it’s a great product!

 

[cynics]

I bought the Ecobee 3 lite and have been very happy thus far. The scheduling can be a bit wonky, but other than that I think it’s a great product!

Wonky is an understatement. For those thinking about getting one or confused about the scheduling this is how it works. Once you get it, it makes sense but it goes against the standard set way of programming and with HomeKit even geofencing different.

You want to first set your "comfort settings" for Home, Away and Sleep.
-Home is the temp you want it when you are home and awake.
-Away is the temp you want it when no one is home.
-Sleep is the temp you want it when you are a sleep.

Next you want to schedule (program) your Ecobee using those comfort settings. So instead of selecting a temp you want it to be at a certain time you use a "comfort setting". Ex 7:00am Away 5:00pm Home 11:00pm Sleep.

To use geofencing with HomeKit you need to use "Scenes". However you need to know these two things (unless you are born knowing this) that "Scenes" are shared across all apps with access to HomeKit. So even if you don't mess with anything but have lights come on with a "arrive home" scene the thermostat might be doing something if that scene is enabled. ALSO you can get unexpected operation if you ALLOW geofencing with the Ecobee app AND homekit. Disable geofence within the Ecobee app and just use homekit. They can work together however its unnecessary and if you change one and forget the other the conflict can cause unexpected operation.

Anyway, with geofencing you want to set up scenes, Leave Home, Good Morning, Arrive Home, etc etc. For example Arrive Home. So you select Arrive Home in the Ecobees homekit settings and you are presented with 3 options "resume schedule", "comfort setting" and "custom".
-Resume schedule will do just that, resume your schedule you did above.
-Comfort setting will go right to one of your 3 predetermined comfort settings you did above.
-Custom is obviously a custom temp.

While it might sound like you want to set it to the Comfort Setting and Home since you are arriving home with the scene Arrive Home, you do not. You want set it to Resume Schedule. Comfort Settings and Custom temps will HOLD that setting until you change it manually or your geofence changes it. (@CHBailey don't know but maybe thats what was happening to you?) This is an intentional and actually good design choice because if you your Leave Home scene uses Comfort Setting Away and you work 3 hours late it will hold that Away setting until your geofence changes it.

So mine is setup to run a normal schedule as if it didn't have geofencing. When I leave home it goes to Comfort Setting Away. When I arrive home it goes to "Resume Schedule". This way I can stop by in the middle of the day without the heat/AC coming on. However if I work late (which I often do) its in Hold on Away setting until I enter the Geofence. Its been working great and although I thought there was no way it would save me money since I had a wifi thermostat before my utility company has been sending me my usage compared to neighbors and I'm always using below average which wasn't as common before I bought it.

 

[Richard28]

I have Tado thermostat. It is very simple in operation and has very good geolocation, tracking multiple users and automatically adjusting the temperature of the house (or zones within it) to be at the desired temperature when you arrive home.

App is updated quite often and works very well, is also compatible with Alexa, Homekit and IFTTT.

Also has radiator thermostats allowing multiple heating zones to be set up around the home.

Is very configurable, so you can have simple, sleep, home and away settings, or customise different heat settings throughout the day.

Well worth a look.

 

[ericgtr12]

I've been using the Nest for years, after a recent move with two zones I replaced the one's they had in the house with them. Costco had them on sale for $169 and PGE gave a $50 rebate so in the end the price is great. Regardless of which on you get, remember to check with your power company for rebates.