Tag: Smart Thermostat

TESTED: Ecobee4 Brings Amazon Echo Alexa Voice Assistant to Thermostat

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re already aware of the rising popularity of voice assistants in our daily lives.  Our smart phones provide this via “OK Google” or “Hey, Siri” for Apple.  Additionally, Amazon has been pushing their Echo devices with “Alexa” quite heavily.  Recently I upgraded my thermostat to a new device that adds the latter, baked right in.  Here are my testing results.

Continue reading TESTED: Ecobee4 Brings Amazon Echo Alexa Voice Assistant to Thermostat

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UPDATE: Wink Hub 2 upgrades my Smart Home, works with HomeKit (sort of!)

Wink, purveyor of smart home hardware, recently debuted their Wink Hub 2 device.  This blog entry digs deeper into the features and benefits of this new system.  I’ll also talk about how having a splintered system (in this case HomeKit, and Wink) can actually work just great, even with your Amazon Alexa voice assistant.  Let’s see how it all comes together!

Continue reading UPDATE: Wink Hub 2 upgrades my Smart Home, works with HomeKit (sort of!)

REVIEW: Nest Learning Thermostat -VERSUS- HomeKit-enabled Ecobee3 Smart Thermostat

Over fifteen years ago I purchased a cheap programmable 5+2 day thermostat at my local hardware store.  And for nearly a decade that unit provided me ample performance, until one day it stopped working and needed replaced.  At that time, a few years ago, there was only one option for tech geeks like myself who wanted a WiFi smart home thermostat.  But nowadays we have many options, which is why today I’m provided my review of the two of the top sellers in this segment:  the Nest Learning Thermostat and the ecobee3 Wi-Fi Thermostat with Remote Sensor (Apple HomeKit Enabled).

Continue reading REVIEW: Nest Learning Thermostat -VERSUS- HomeKit-enabled Ecobee3 Smart Thermostat