Bring Your Thermostat Into the Smart-Home Era for $120
You don’t need the fanciest model to make your heating routine smarter. A refurbished Ecobee we love is on sale through October 21.
Courtesy of Ecobee
Psst—I’m going to let you in on a little secret as a smart-home editor. Even though I now own the much-lauded Ecobee Premium ($260) smart thermostat, I had an Ecobee3 Lite for eight years, and I loved it just as much. It's everything you need a smart thermostat to be, without weird add-ons you'll never actually use, like occupancy detection and a built-in speaker for podcast streaming. (Unless you regularly listen to Uncanny Valley on your thermostat, in which case, you do you.)
The Ecobee3 Lite has a touchscreen and app control and is compatible with Ecobee sensors if you want to split the temperature difference across floors in your home. However, many people simply want to be able to turn their thermostat on and off from their phone and have the ability to set schedules. For this, the Lite has you covered.
Photograph: Kat Merck
Ecobee
3 Lite
Though it's been formally rebranded as the Essential and now runs $140, the OG Lite is still available refurbished straight from Ecobee. During the brand's fall sale, it's just $120 with free shipping—and it comes with the same three-year warranty as a new model.
If you've been wanting to upgrade your thermostat but missed Prime Day and don't want to wait until Black Friday, you may want to take a peek at this sale, which ends Wednesday, October 21.
Refurbished versions of the Enhanced ($170) and Premium ($220) thermostat models are available as well, plus packages that include Ecobee security accessories. I have tried most of the brand's add-ons and find Ecobee to be a bit buggy as a security and smart-home ecosystem (not the best, but also not the worst); however, I do heartily recommend the smart thermostat alone.
If you already have an Ecobee thermostat, you can also score a set of not-refurbished security sensors for $50, or the Ecobee video doorbell for $130, which lets you see and speak to visitors through your phone—or thermostat.
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Kat Merck is a commerce editor for WIRED, where she covers smart bird feeders, indoor gardening systems, kitchen composters, and all things sustainable home tech. As a forestry major at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Kat practiced axe throwing on her college logging team and trained as a wildland firefighter ... Read More