Sensi Smart Thermostat, 100 Years Of Expertise, Wi-Fi, Data Privacy, Programmable, Easy DIY Install, Works With Alexa, Energy Star Certified, Mobile App, ST55

Bought this thermostat because I wanted to more closely monitor my HVAC system's energy usage through an APP, had no idea that it would significantly cut my energy bill. Went from paying a minimum of $250/month on electricity and gas, down to $130 on the first month of owning it. I am projected to pay $95 this month, my lowest energy bill ever. The installation (with no C-wire) was seamless thanks to their app; currently only running on 2 AA batteries, and I have had no connection issues. I believe that it requires a 2.4 GHz WIFI connection (as opposed to 5 GHz); if you have both, use the former. The thermostat lets you set a range of temperatures below (and above) which heat (and AC) automatically turn on. Setting mine to a range of 67F to 72F made it so that my HVAC system rarely needed to turn-on since my house is typically in that range. You can also schedule temperature ranges for each day of the week and time-ranges within those days.Sensi really redeemed themselves. I had originally bought the Sensi Lite, which was junk (e.g., non-working icons etc.). This one worked seamlessly.

This was easy to install with one issue. I was under the impression that no C-wire was required, however it was as I only have a heater so I ordered a C-wire power supply and that worked. Make sure to follow the directions from the app as you may need to snip the red wire on the back of the thermostat - I needed to. Connection to my internet was almost painless. Seemed a few times in the setup the app said I wasn't connected when I was. The UI is top notch as I can adjust the temp from anywhere and programming days and times on/off was fairly easy. LADWP offers a rebate, so I sent the rebate in and hope to receive it soon. Doesn't look as modern as some of the other thermostats, however, I read the reviews on the others and maybe some issues with programming and user UI so I picked this one. This was a great purchase and I would buy it again for another home if needed.

Super easy to install. I installed a different smart thermostat 5 months ago. Yesterday afternoon, I switched it to cool and the A/C wouldn't come on and the thermostat would reboot. It requires constant power and I had to do a jumper wire in the A/C unit to get it working. Worked fine for heat, but not cooling.So...last night I ordered this thermostat that runs on batteries just like the original thermostat. Set up was super easy, the hardest part was finding the 8 digit pin, that’s not on a card as referenced in the app, but on the back of the little instruction book with a qr code.Sometime simple is better.

We own a vacation home, which doubles as an Airbnb when we are not there enjoying it ourselves. Wanted a way to be sure those short term guests were not abusing the air conditioning. Some guests tended to set the thermostat so low they caused the system to freeze up. By having this Wi-Fi enabled thermostat, we can set limits on how low users could go. It also allows us to make sure to turn up thermostats when no one is using the unit. Great cost savings and avoids maintenance issues.It was super easy to install. Directions on the app were very helpful, and there are a couple of excellent videos on YouTube. Took me about five minutes to replace the old thermostat.

I’m a technical person and a DIY guy. I have many IOT devices in my home that I have set up; including LED bulbs, web cams, and streaming devices. About 6 months ago I added a web-enabled thermostat to the mix, and I ended up trying 3 of the most widely used ones. So I removed the 15 yr old Honeywell programmable device to try something else.Sensi – This is a big older style device for people who think they need to have physical buttons, even though it is web enabled and you can do everything from your phone. I had this working for about a day and then I could not connect to it either in the house or away. But I may not have set this up right. Either way, I wanted something more modern and sleek looking, so I replaced it with the Ecobee.Nest – I had this working for about 6 months, and I never really liked the programming of this device. It is not intuitive and I never got it programmed the way I wanted. I do like the modern look of it, but, like many others have said, sliding your finger around the outside to get to the menu is glitchy and not a good experience. I had no problem connecting to this via wifi. But I replaced it with the Ecobee.Ecobee3 Lite – this one is the most expensive of the 3, probably because they include a device to add the common wire, which is needed to power web-enabled thermostats. Most modern homes (15-20 years?) have the 5 wire thermostat cable, and so you won’t use this, but you are paying for it. I will not be using it, since I have the common wire. This just gives 24v dc from your furnace to the device so it is always powered up and on the web.The Ecobee was just as easy to install as the others, and I think has the best set up process. It also has more configuration settings than the others. It is easy to configure from the face of the device, and doesn’t have the annoying slide menu on the side like the Nest. It has been working reliably with my phone, and the programming is more intuitive and flexible than the Nest. I have the same complaint as many others, and that is I had a hard time adjusting the offset to make it agree with the other thermometers in the house. I have several thermometers and they all agree on the temperature. I adjusted the offset at least a dozen times before I got it right. I’m glad it has this feature. The other main complaint reviewers had was you can’t disable the Ecobee+ feature that allows your electric provider to adjust your thermostat. You can disable this permanently and easily from the settings. Where I live we can select our electricity provider, and I have changed providers at least 3 times in the past 5 years, so that feature would be a pain, plus I want to control my heat/cool settings.The main thing to be aware of when setting these up is that they use 2.4 gig wifi, not 5 gig wifi. Most people have dual band routers and use the 5 gig channel for their phone and other devices. They recommend you connect your phone to the 2.4 gig channel when setting these up, and be sure to select the 2.4 gig channel and use the password for that channel for the thermostat. Then you can switch your phone back to 5 gig. Also be aware that you must turn off the power to your HVAC system before installing this. I did not do this when installing one of these devices and it blew a small plug-in fuse on the control panel inside the furnace. My AC company found this. I would not have been able to find this. The reason this happened was that in the electric panel, there is a separate breaker for the AC unit, and a separate breaker for the furnace. I was not aware of this before, and was only turning off the AC breaker (it is heating season now) and that is why I blew that fuse. You need to flip both breakers off when doing this. I think a lot of the negative reviews for these devices are due to improperly setting them up, or not knowing how to configure them. I’ll send an update for the Ecobee in a few months.