EcoBee’s latest smart thermostat goes ‘lite’ on your wallet

The price of smart thermostats is gradually creeping down, and at just $169 the new Ecobee3 Lite is one of the most affordable yet.

Fortunately, it doesn’t cut corners elsewhere, and boasts the same 3.5-inch color touchscreen display and third-party smart home compatibility as its pricier big brother.

“The Ecobee3 Lite makes the many features of a premium smart thermostat — beautiful design, quality components, and intuitive customer experience — available at $80 less than leading competitors,” Ecobee’s president and CEO, Stuart Lombard, told Digital Trends. “Similar to our flagship product, Ecobee3, the Ecobee3 Lite’s many smart features help customers lower their heating and cooling costs, paying for itself in about a year. It can also be controlled on the go with an easy-to-use mobile app and integrates with Amazon Echo, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, Wink and IFTTT.”

Customers wanting to get their hands on the Ecobee3 Lite can do so from October 31, when it will be available to pick up in-store for $169 in the U.S. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a Home Depot close to you, however, as it is also available online through Amazon, BestBuy, and ecobee.com. In Canada, meanwhile, the device will be available exclusively on Ecobee.com for $219 Canadian dollars.

As a fairly low priced smart thermostat (reminiscent in some ways of the $160 Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat), the Ecobee3 Lite doesn’t carry all the smart abilities or advanced features of higher-end models.

But if you’re skeptical about shelling out for a Nest device, for example, and want something that will serve as a bridge between regular “dumb” thermostats and fully functional models that represent the smart home of the future, this is certainly worth checking out in more detail.

Especially with winter on the way!

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2efjf81
Luke Dormehl