Best Smart Thermostats 2022

Throughout the year you want your home to stay at a comfortable temperature. Whether this is nice and cool during the height of summer, or comfortably toasty during the long winter nights, a smart thermostat can help keep your home at the right temperature and save you money. Smart thermostats can not only allow you to adjust the temperature with your voice, but some can monitor and control the temperature independently in multiple rooms as well as track if you’re home or not.

With proper geofencing capabilities, a smart thermostat can determine that you’re not home, and not likely to be home in the near future, and save money by not adjusting the temperature of an empty home. Once you’re back in range, they can start heating or cooling to your preferred temperature, ready for when you walk in the door.

To help you find the best options out there, we’ve drawn up our list of the best smart thermostats in 2022.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium has only seen a few updates from the previous generation. The main one is the inclusion of an air quality sensor though the aesthetics of the exterior have also been improved. It comes with a smart sensor that you can place in a room to monitor the temperature, and if there is anyone present. Additional smart sensors can be purchased in pairs for just under $100.

Connectivity-wise, the Ecobee can be used as an Alexa smart speaker as this functionality is fully integrated. It also supports connection to Siri, IFTTT, SmartThings, and Google Home, making this the smart thermostat with the best connectivity. Some things to be aware of. The speaker is weak and tinny, so isn’t great for anything other than the basics. Despite this, the microphone for the smart speaker functionality is quite aggressive, sometimes taking priority over other smart speakers that are nearer to the speaker, even if they’re in another room. Also, while the air quality sensor can automatically turn on a central ventilation system, it can’t be used to trigger other automatic actions.

The Amazon Smart Thermostat is the best cheap smart thermostat, as long as you’re wanting to use Amazon’s Alexa for home automation. Being an Amazon smart product, it obviously supports Alexa, unfortunately, it doesn’t support anything else, even IFTTT. It has somewhat limited functionality compared to high-end devices, for example, it doesn’t support remote sensors or geofencing but there are still plenty of smarts and alternatives.

Alexa Hunches lets Alexa try to guess if you’re around or not based on your usage patterns, including from your other Alexa smart speakers. This lets the thermostat act on its own, though you can disable it if you’re not a fan, or configure notifications for when it detects you as being away. The newer generations of Alexa Dot speakers also include a temperature sensor that can be integrated. The design itself is basic with a simple digital-clock style interface.

The Nest Learning Thermostat v3 is, as you might expect, the third generation of Nest thermostat. Being a Google product, it supports Google Home, but it also supports Alexa, and IFTTT, though HomeKit support is lacking. The circular design, enables the use of the rotating bezel control. You can choose what sort of interface you prefer with options for digital and analog appearances.

To ensure you have the tools needed for installation, it comes with a screwdriver. It learns your preferences based on your usage, and can automatically program itself. it can also detect when you’ve left home and start saving some power by cutting the cooling/heating. It can even sense when you’re nearby and light up the screen so you can check the settings and time. Unlike the Ecobee, the Nest can only set one temperature zone, though you can get around this by having multiple thermostats, assuming you have the required wiring.

The Sensibo Sky is a fairly cheap smart thermostat, though not quite as cheap as the Amazon one listed above. It offers a unique method of control. Instead of connecting to the wires for a central HVAC system, it uses an IR transmitter to control devices that can be controlled with IR remotes. To set it up, simply plug it in, connect it you your Wi-Fi network, then follow the instructions and point the necessary remotes at it for it to recognise.

It can automatically recognise the remote from many brands and then issue the commands to the relevant cooler/heater. This means that this system can effortlessly control window and freestanding units, rather than just central HVAC. The downside of this is that it only works with systems that support IR control, and then only if it has line-of-sight. There are also some integration limitations, for example, you can’t just tell Alexa to lower the temperature, you have to tell her to turn the AC on first, then lower the temperature.

That was our roundup of the best smart thermostats in 2022. Have you recently bought a smart thermostat? What sold you on it and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.