Are you considering purchasing a smart thermostat? Well you have come to the right place! The two major players right now in the smart thermostat world are the Nest Thermostat and the Ecobee Thermostat. The Nest Thermostat is owned by Google and the Ecobee thermostat is owned by Amazon. Read on to find out which is best: Ecobee vs Nest.
WINNER: ECOBEE
2nd Place: Nest
Nest
The Nest we will be comparing is the Nest (T3007m 1) Learning Thermostat, Easy Temperature Control for Every Room in Your House, Stainless Steel (Third Generation), Works with Alexa. This Nest thermostat is the 3rd generation Nest and it was released September 1, 2015.
Nest Features:
- Comes in 4 colors: copper, stainless steel,
black, white. - Has Farsight to brighten up when you are looking
at the thermostat from across the room. - Works with other nest devices such as smart
light bulbs - Saves energy
- Auto schedule learns your schedule and programs
itself. - Connect to wifi so you can change temperature
with your phone, tablet, or laptop. - Home Away assist – turns off when no one is home
to save energy. - Energy Star rated
- Collects Energy history data that you can view
in the Nest App - Leaf icon to indicate temperatures that save
energy. - Screen changes colors – blue for cooling and
orange for heating.
What people say about the Nest:
“thermostat app lets me change temperature on my phone” “21st century thermostat” “a work of art” “beautiful design” “installation problems”
Ecobee
The Ecobee we will be using for this comparison is the newest Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control, Black. This Ecobee is the 5th generation and was released in May 2019.
Ecobee features:
- Touch display, dual-band wifi
- Far-field voice
- Smart sensors keep important rooms comfortable
- Save up to 23% on heating and cooling costs
- Built in Alexa
- Mobile app
- DIY installation
- Integrations: integrates with google assistant,
apple home kit, alexa, Samsung Smart Things, and IFTTT
What people say about Ecobee:
“Plays music with good speakers” “seems to work better than nest” “installation was simple” “best smart thermostat on the market”
Comparison of Ecobee vs Nest
Nest vs Ecobee – AI Learning Winner: Nest
AI learning is where the software in the thermostat can
analyze your patterns and then use that learning technique to program itself
for your benefit on your behalf. This is great for people who don’t want to
mess around with programming a thermostat! For some reason thermostats are
confusing to program. My mom has always had trouble programming her thermostat.
She has asked me to do it a few times and even for me, a techy person, it was
confusing! I don’t even think I set it right. She came back later telling me
her house was too hot. Thus the Nest thermostat will solve those problems!
The Nest will learn your habits and program itself to match your habits, such as when you are away and your preferred temperatures. So no more having to program your thermostat! And no more screwing up the temperature settings in your house. However if you have several household members with different schedules, it might not work very well. It also relies on your phone’s location (geofencing) to determine if you are home or away. The Nest App needs to be on every house hold member’s phone to work properly.
The Ecobee doesn’t learn you patters, but it has sensors to determine when you are home and away. So unlike the Nest, it doesn’t rely on your phone’s location to determine where you are. In that case it may work better than the nest at determining whether you are home or not. Also, on the Ecobee, you can choose several settings when you initially set up the thermostat such as when you are home and sleeping.
Software Integrations: Ecobee
It seems like nowadays all home appliances have smart
technology. A lot of people use smart appliances and smart home devices to
control all kinds of devices in their homes, from lights, to alarms, to garage
door openers. The Ecobee and the Nest can integrate with your smart home
devices and controllers.
Ecobee can integrate with various home softwares such as:
Alexa, HomeKit, Google, SmartThings, Wink, Harmony, IFTT, and Vera.
Nest can integrate with: Alexa, Whirlpool washers and
dryers, Rheem EcoNet, Heatworks, LG HomeChat, Philips Hue lights, and various
other home appliances. However Google is phasing out and future integrations to
where everything will function through Google Assistant.
Ecobee wins this challenge because it appears to integrate
with more smart home devices and is not being limited by Google.
Nest vs Ecobee – Energy Efficiecy Winner: Ecobee
One of the main reasons to buy a smart thermostat is to
reduce your energy consumption. Reducing your energy consumption is not only
good for your wallet, it helps save the planet from pollution and global
warming. Most of the electricity that is consumed is produced by powerplants
that burn fossil fuels to create energy. The burning of fossil fuels depletes
non-renewable resources and also emits CO2 gasses into the atmosphere. The
increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is causing global warming and climate change.
Plant and animal habitats are being destroyed. We as humans need to take
control of our energy consumption and reduce it as much as possible before it is
too late and the effects of climate change cannot be reversed.
With that being said, Ecobee appears to save you more energy
than the Nest thermostat.
Ecobee claims that the device can save you up to 23 % on your bill, while Nest claims to save you 10% to 12% on heating and 15% on cooling. That’s a pretty big difference! Now I don’t know whether Ecobee’s claim is true or not because I haven’t tested it myself. But an extra 10% of savings on your electric bill is HUGE. Over time, that can add up to thousands of dollars in savings.
Nest vs Ecobee – Style Winner: Nest
If you want to impress your friends and family with a slick
looking thermostat on the wall, either one of these thermostats will do!
However, the Nest thermostat wins the style showdown between these two
thermostats.
The nest overall just looks better. Its round and has the
temperature displayed large on the screen. It also comes in 4 different colors.
The physical structure of the nest seems better too. It has a glass cover and
the outer edges are made of metal. The ecobee also has a glass screen, but it
doesn’t look as fancy as the Nest thermostat. The Nest has a big madisplay that
can be seen across the room. It has farsight technology that lights up brighter
when you are across the room so you can see it better. Just being a round dial makes
it look more like a thermostat and makes you think about a temperature dial.
Also the Nest is a more recognizable brand name. If you care about brand names
you might prefer the Nest over the Ecobee.
The Ecobee on the other and is square shaped with beveled
edges. It kind of looks like a small TV screen. It does have a touch screen
though, unlike the Nest. On the Nest, you have to use the outer dial of the
nest to adjust the temperature.
Nest vs Ecobee – Price winner: Ecobee
The Nest and the Ecobee cost about the same, but the Ecobee is slightly cheaper. There are cheaper versions of the Ecobee and the nest that have less features than the standard versions of the thermostat. If you are looking for something more economical, the nest has the Nest E available, which is pretty much the same as the Nest, but it comes with a frosted plastic cover that is not as bright. The Nest E also doesn’t work with multi-stage HVAC systems. The cheaper version of the Ecobee is the Ecobee 3 Lite. The Ecobee 3 lite has a plastic screen and doesn’t include occupancy sensors or room sensors.
There are also rebates for smart thermostats that are available from your utility company or other government entity. I would however be wary of rebates issued by retail electric providers who are asking you to sign up for a new energy contract to get the rebate. In most cases, they are increasing your monthly electricity rate to cover the cost of the rebate, so in the long run you really aren’t saving money with their “rebate”.
Nest vs Ecobee – Longevity winner: Ecobee
The ecobee appears to be more reliable than the nest. Some
nest users have reported that the device will fail after a year or two. These
may be rare instances, but it is still something to keep in mind. The Ecobee
also has a 3 year warrany as opposed to the Nest’s 2 year warranty. So if you
have any problems within the first 3 years, you can get a replacement or get it
serviced.
Nest vs Ecobee – Customer service winner: Tie
If you are going to buy a smart thermostat, you are going to
want to go with a company that has great customer service. The thermostat is
going to be controlling your temperature after-all and if you live in a very
hot or very cold climate, sometimes that can mean life or death! Or prevention
of damaged pipes at least.
The Nest and the Ecobee both have has complaints regarding
the responsiveness and understanding of their staff. However they both have
many reviewers that praise the helpfulness of the customer service personell.
One Ecobee user had to call customer service twice during installation and had
his problems solved quickly both times.
Nest vs Ecobee – Reviews winner: Tie
Both the nest and the ecobee have a majority of excellent 5
star reviews on Amazon. The reviews change every day, but at this time, most
reviews are positive, with a handful of 1* reviews. The 1 star reviews for Nest
claim that their Nest product stopped working or broke after a year or two.
There are many people citing the same issue with the Nest, which is concerning.
The Ecobee on the other-hand had several users reporting that the WIFI
connectivity was spotty and did not work consistently. They continually had
trouble connecting the Ecobee to their wifi and they were not able to find a
solution through customer service.
With both companies, there are a majority of 5 star reviews.
The 1 star reviews are a fraction of that.
Nest vs Ecobee – Away Feature Winner: Ecobee
Both the Nest and the Ecobee have a feature that turns off or lowers the AC while you are away from home. The Nest uses geofencing, which uses the proximity of your phone to determine whether or not you are inside the house. Ecobee uses sensors to determine whether or not you are in the house, so technically the Ecobee is more accurate.
If you have kids who don’t have cell phones the Nest isn’t going to be able to tell who is in the house. For example, I have 2 toddlers and I have a sitter that comes to my house to babysit every day. If I leave the house with my phone, the Nest is going to think no one is in the house because I will be gone with my phone and it won’t be able to sense it. That’s not going to be very helpful because the Nest is going to think I am gone and turn off the air. One option would be to have every adult who comes to your house to download the Nest app, but that’s not really convenient now is it?
The Ecobee on the other hand will know that there are still people in the house becuase it doesn’t rely on the location of your cell phone to determine where you are. It has motion sensors to determine who is home. What if you have animals though???!! Well supposedly the sensors do not sense small animals. Or you can set them up to where they don’t pick up the animals. Problem solved!
Nest vs Ecobee – Phone App winner: Ecobee
I like the Ecobee App better. It seems like it has more features than the nest app. The Nest app also makes you sign in through google which may or may not be an issue with some people. It also asked me if I wanted to receive google shopping emails, which I said NO! I don’t need any more sales emails thank you very much.
Nest vs Ecobee – Stats Data winner: Ecobee
Ecobee. The ecobee stats data is much more detailed than Nest stats. The ecobee has detailed run times for stages, fan, heat, cool, aux, etc. It also has humidity, sensor, and weather impact. The Ecobee also keeps your data for longer and has more detailed data overall than the Nest.
Nest vs Ecobee – Warranty winner: Ecobee
The ecobee comes with a 3 year warranty while the nest only has a 2 year warranty. This one is a no brainer.
Nest vs Ecobee – Installation Difficulty Winner: Nest
Some older thermostats are missing the 5th wire,
which is the “c” wire. The Ecobee comes with a Power Extender kit which is an
adapter for those thermostats that are missing the 5th wire. The
Nest doesn’t require the C wire because it is battery powered and doesn’t need
a power wire.
Overall Conclusion & My Personal Choice
While these are both amazing thermostats, I personally would choose the Ecobee over the Nest. I am a person who likes data, so I want the extra energy tracking data that Ecobee offers. I also think you can’t go wrong with the longer 3 year warranty and the high energy savings ratings AND the home away sensors. Functionality wins over looks for me. Ecobee = better functionality, Nest = better design. So its Ecobee all the way for me baby! However, if you want to be more hands off and have a thermostat that will program itself, go with the Nest.
So which thermometer did you choose? The Ecobee or the Nest? Leave a note in the comments below!
