Smart thermostats and wi-fi | The best of 2021

Winter is coming and it is time to update all those appliances and systems that heat our homes, allowing us to better experience the coldest period of the year. Among more or less technological devices, thermostats and chronothermostats over time have become much more than a simple tool capable of activating the heating system below a temperature threshold or at a certain time.

Read also: Thermometers digital and infrared | The best of 2021 In fact, with new technologies, in particular thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), it has become a smart device capable of guaranteeing greater efficiency in consumption, many more features as well as the possibility of controlling it remotely comfortably, from the your smartphone or computer, while still guaranteeing simplicity and immediacy of use.

The key feature of a smart thermostat is connectivity. These devices, once set up, will connect to your home Wi-Fi network with the aim of providing many more services; first of all the weather forecast for your city. With these they will develop a heating plan for your home, adapting its use to humidity, temperature and other parameters.

To further increase its potential there is also the so-called geofencing: once synchronized with your smartphone the thermostat will manage the temperature of the house not only based on the time, an element that is traditionally found in all thermostats, but also thanks to your distance from home. In other words, the thermostat will maintain a higher temperature in the house if you are in the perimeter or in the surrounding areas and will keep it lower when you are outside your home; this reduces the energy consumption of your system based on your not only planned, but also unforeseen needs.

For the most advanced products, artificial intelligence is also exploited: the thermostat will learn the average temperature trend of the house and based on the external weather conditions and your daily habits and consequently adapt the shutdown and the ignition of the heating. With these latest technologies, the thermostat becomes what we could metaphorically define as an organ of the house, able to adapt in unique ways, house by house and guaranteeing, if properly exploited, a significant saving on utilities. Ready for a life of lower bills and warmer homes?

The best smart thermostats and wi-fi

Homix Smart Home Hub Nest Learning (3rd generation) Netatmo NTH01-EN- EC BTicino Smarter SX8000 and SX8000W Tado V3 + Honeywell Lyric T6

Homix Smart Home Hub

As the first product of this guide, we want to offer you an Enel X Smart Home solution with Integrated Alexa, so that you can experience the Alexa experience, without the need to own such a device. The Enel X thermostat manages to optimally manage the heating of your home, increasing comfort and reducing energy waste, effectively replacing your old thermostat. It is possible to add home automation devices, lighting devices and much more, and manage them through the Homix app, compatible for both Android and iOS. Finally, this thermostat is fully compatible with the main boilers on the market and therefore can adapt to any context.

Nest Learning

Acquired by Google in 2014, Nest is a guarantee of quality for home automation devices. Among these is the Nest Learning Thermostat; now in its third generation, it is among the best thermostats you can install in your homes. The strong point of this product is the self-learning: once synchronized with your smartphone, in a few days the thermostat will learn your habits and know your home, consequently optimizing the switching on and off times of the system to guarantee the temperatures. desired with minimum consumption. Despite being compatible with the vast majority of systems, Google dispels any doubts with a short and simple questionnaire available on its official website about your system. In terms of control, you can manage it with your smartphone, handling it directly or using the Google Assistant. Unfortunately it is not yet compatible with other voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri, but if you are making your home smart using the products of the big G it is absolutely not a problem.

Netatmo NTH01-EN-EC

Netatmo is a leading company in the home automation sector and its thermostat NTH01-IT-EC is undoubtedly one of the best on the market. Characterized by a particularly simple design, this thermostat compatible with gas, wood, oil boilers and with both home automation and traditional heat pumps will make all owners of Apple devices happy thanks to the possibility of managing it remotely using the Apple HomeKit application or via the voice assistant Siri and Alexa. It is also possible to synchronize it with Netatmo thermostatic valves: characterized by a design similar to the thermostat, once synchronized these valves allow even more precise management of the house temperatures; it will in fact be possible to set the temperature and the behavior that the heating system must have room by room. Finally, the self-adaptive technology adjusts the behavior of the system to the environmental conditions and to our behavior, leading to significant savings in the bill.

BTicino SX8000 Smarther and BTicino SX8000W

Our roundup of the best wi-fi and smart thermostats continues with two products made by BTicino. The two products differ only in their assembly, the SX8000 model is in fact the built-in model, while the SX8000W is wall mounted. Going into more detail, these two thermostats differ from the others in the ranking in terms of functions; they do not have self-learning technologies or technologies based on artificial intelligence, with this product you can "only" set the switching on and off of the thermostat based on the time, the temperature of the house and based on your geolocation. But to make this product unique and worthy of this ranking there is the boost mode: activating it, the thermostat will bring your heating system to maximum capacity, guaranteeing dear home warmth in the shortest possible time. To assist and manage all these features, there is the dedicated Home + Control application, available for Android and iOS, which will allow you to make the most of the potential of this product. Finally, compatibility with Alexa, Google assistant and Siri make it the ideal thermostat for anyone who has not yet chosen (or plans to change) their voice assistant.

Tado V3 +

Compatible with all voice assistants, equipped with an extremely simple and intuitive application and with one of the best artificial intelligence ever, the Tado V3 + thermostat is the perfect product for anyone who wants a powerful and highly customizable solution. Alongside this thermostat, Tado has in fact also produced a series of smart thermostatic valves that allow V3 + to manage every room in your home in a personalized way and to optimize the heating plan of your home down to the smallest detail. Not only that, thanks to its humidity detectors, Tado V3 + is able to detect if a window is open, adapt its operation to the weather and over time it will learn the structure of your home, which allows it to improve consumption even more. By purchasing this thermostat you will take your home into the future, and considering that it is not necessary to attach it to the wall or recess it, it is perfect for those who want a smart home but do not intend to carry out interventions that are too invasive to have it.

Honeywell Lyric T6

Manufactured by one of the leading companies in the field of thermostats, Honeywell Lyric T6 is a seemingly very simple product, but it hides within itself enormous potential. Compatible with all the most popular voice assistants and with Apple HomeKit, its proprietary Lyric application, available for Android and iOS, is simple and immediate and will allow you to manage system switching times, the temperature of the house and much more in any whenever and wherever you are. The potential of this thermostat also goes through the simplicity of installation, very similar to the old thermostats, the very large display, perfect for those who have difficulty reading, and also the fact that it is Honeywell: with over 100 years of history behind it, the company has one of the densest assistance networks you can find, as well as a wide range of home automation products to complement your thermostat. Whether you have a problem or want to make your home smarter, you will find a Honeywell dealer near your home.

How to choose the best ones smart thermostats

Although thermostats were born simply to manage the switching on and off of the heating for us, we have seen how advanced they are today and how many functions they can offer. For this reason it is appropriate to focus on some notable characteristics of the products that can be decisive for the choice of your next smart thermostat; not all functions may be of use to you and purchasing the one that best reflects the use you want to make of it will not only simplify your use, but may also make you opt for a cheaper model with fewer specific features. Here are the technical specifications to look for:

Compatibility with the heating system Compatibility with home automation and smartphone Programmability Accessories included

Compatibility with the heating system

Just like for thermostats, not all the heating systems are the same. From the oldest centralized systems, to the most modern based on home automation and already prepared for smart use, not all thermostats are compatible, we therefore recommend that you inform yourself adequately about the compliance of the system with your choice; the most obvious example of incompatibility is with some old centralized and condominium heating systems: in this case the thermostat cannot manage the switching on and off of the heaters in total autonomy, thus leading to inefficiency and malfunctions in the behavior of the heating. In these situations, thermostatic valves could solve part of your problems, but we suggest that before making any purchase, you should be adequately informed about the system and thermostat, either through personal training or through a professional installer.

Compatibility with home automation and smartphones

Not all thermostats have dedicated applications for some operating systems, and others do not have integration with voice assistants such as Alexa or the Google Assistant. Buying a product without these functions, or not compatible, does not affect the basic operation of the thermostat (unless you want to use geofencing mechanisms for temperature management), but it could reserve some disappointments.

Programmability

A thermostat can activate the heating based on the day of the week, the time, the temperature of the house or using geofencing. These parameters can be combined with each other, they can be more or less optimized and sometimes some can be completely absent; We therefore suggest that you carefully analyze how the thermostat you are purchasing is programmable in order to be aware that the features offered meet your needs in the most appropriate way.

Accessories included

The thermostat is no longer a simple box attached to a wall; today it is a device capable of communicating in different ways with many devices and some companies offer devices compatible with the thermostats they produce to further increase its capacity. We are talking about thermostatic valves, switches of various kinds, or temperature controllers. Specific products, each designed for different purposes: it is also important to analyze these products at the time of purchase; whether to buy them now, or to improve or expand your heating system in the future.