4 of the best smart thermostats – reviewed
It's time to get a proper housewarming present, but which smart thermostat's the right one for you?
4 of the best smart thermostats – reviewed
There are lots of reasons to get a new boiler-brain. Firstly, many of them let you talk to your heating via voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, which is an incredibly satisfying way to crank up the warmth. But the main benefit is saving you cash (for boosting your comfort food fund) and cutting down on wasted energy. Thanks to tech like geofencing and smart radiator valves, they can help your heating react to when you’re actually around, and only warm up the rooms you’re in. So which thermostat’s the right one for you? That’s where we come in…
TADO SMART THERMOSTAT
Tado has spent the last five years blossoming into a serious smart heating player – and now it’s learned voice control via Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit. The app is simple, but dig down and you can do some serious tweaking. Though pricey, Tado’s Radiator Thermostats are an essential add-on for larger houses. They even use geofencing to sense when you’re coming home. The only thing Tado doesn’t do is look as pretty as Nest. But we’ll happily trade that for fancy zonal controls.
NEST 3.0
While it’s not quite on the cutting edge of home tech anymore, the third-gen Nest still does almost everything you’d expect of it: aside from its intuitive wheel-shaped design, this thermostat’s easy-to-use app and myriad learning capabilities all add up to a device that can save you cash without you having to think about it too much. Unlike Tado and Evohome, the Nest doesn’t do zoned heating, so you can’t tweak the warmth of your bedroom, lounge or kitchen individually. Still, if you live in a small flat or aren’t fussed about such details, then this thermostat delivers on almost every other metric – including geolocation.
HIVE ACTIVE HEATING
While it’s still a major player, Hive lacks some of its flashy young rivals’ clever tricks. It’s not smart enough to learn your habits, for example, and can’t offer individual room control beyond a maximum of three zones. You still get full app and browser control over your heating, though, along with IFTTT and Alexa compatibility, geolocation, holiday scheduling, and integration with other Hive products. It’s all about simplicity – and it delivers.
HONEYWELL EVOHOME
Honeywell has made some improvements to its Evohome system, including Alexa and IFTTT support, in-built Wi-Fi (so you no longer need a second router) and the option of controlling your hot water as well as your radiators. There’s no habit-learning tech here: it’s all about letting you control everything. You can set heating schedules for every room, and then manually override them from your phone or just by turning the radiator valves. The only issue? It’s expensive: if you want every room to have its own heating zone, the valves soon add up.
