You’ve heard of smartphones, smart light bulbs, and even smart air conditioners, but what about a smart thermostat?
It’s hard not to blast the cold air in the summer or heat in the winter, but with fuel costs rising it is paramount to find ways to manage your energy output. That’s where having a smart or Wi-Fi thermostat can come in handy.
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While all smart thermostats are Wi-Fi thermostats, not all Wi-Fi thermostats are smart! Both smart and Wi-Fi thermostats connect to the internet to perform their functions.
Smart thermostats, however, are a step above a just Wi-Fi enabled thermostats because they can 'learn' your behavioral habits and adjust temperature settings accordingly without you having to constantly check or manually adjust it. Whereas, a Wi-Fi thermostat that isn’t "smart" will only adjust based on your prompts or settings.
A common struggle is forgetting to turn off your heating or cooling system when leaving for work or travel. No one likes returning to a freezing or scalding hot home only to realize that they've been flushing their money down the drain. With a smart thermostat, these scenarios are issues of the past because it recognizes when you or your family are home and automatically adjusts the temperature for cooling or heating is optimal for energy savings. Additionally, because it is so "smart" it will preheat or pre-cool your home in anticipation of your arrival, so you don't risk having frozen pipes or a "sauna" upon your return.
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Recently I got a question sent online at CyberGuy.com:
"I’d like to see an article about Wi-Fi thermostats. We are having issues with the furnace system we had installed a year and a half ago and we’ve had the dealer in four times in the last week. I’ve been trying to do research and we are at wits end and wonder can hackers cause issues through a Wi-Fi thermostat. I read hackers broke into a casino’s system through their thermostat. - Sharon F."
As with any device that connects to the internet, there is an inherent risk of being vulnerable to hackers. At most, however, the hackers will likely only be able to access what the thermostat is "privy" to, which would be temperature preferences and the behavioral patterns (arrivals and departures) of those living where the thermostat is operating.
For a thief looking to rob your home, the general whereabouts of its owners might prove useful. But to hackers looking to exploit data, the likelihood of accessing private information is highly unlikely. It does bear repeating that practicing good security hygiene is still worth it.
Making sure to use strong passwords to secure your thermostat and the network it is on will help reduce your risk of falling prey to opportunist hackers looking for a loophole into your home.
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As technology has become fine-tuned and more sophisticated, there are many options in the market. To narrow it down as well as give you some options to compare, below are my top smart thermostats as well as one Wi-Fi thermostat.
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Unlike the other thermostats listed in this article, this is a Wi-Fi thermostat, not a smart thermostat. While you can add parameters such as temperature lows and highs that cue the thermostat to turn on or off, it does not learn the behavioral habits of its user to adjust intuitively. You have to manually adjust settings in order to gain energy cost benefits.
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With energy costs fluctuating and the winter months taking full effect, will you invest in a smart or Wi-Fi thermostat? Already have one? Share any positive or negative experiences you've had as well as any cost-savings you gleaned!
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