ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential

The ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential is ecobee’s budget model, and it is honest about what it leaves out. There is no built-in radar occupancy sensing, no air quality monitoring, and no microphone or speaker, so you cannot talk to the thermostat itself. The case is plastic rather than nickel.

ecobee quotes energy savings of up to 23 per cent for the Essential against up to 26 per cent for the Enhanced and the Premium. That gap is the practical cost of losing the occupancy sensing.

What works in Apple Home

• Set the target temperature and the mode, and read the current temperature and humidity.
• Use the thermostat in scenes and automations, and control it with Siri.
• Read the remote SmartSensors as separate accessories.

Remote sensors

ecobee’s remote SmartSensors are the reason people choose this brand, and every model in the range works with them. A thermostat in the hallway does not know that the back bedroom is cold. A sensor in that bedroom tells it, and the thermostat can average the rooms that are occupied rather than heating to the temperature of the hallway wall.

This is the important point about the Essential: it keeps the single best feature in the range. A cheap ecobee with two sensors will usually heat a house more sensibly than an expensive thermostat with none.

Before you buy

Check for a C wire. Siri control still works from your iPhone, HomePod or Apple Watch, so the missing microphone only matters if you wanted to speak to the wall.

Specifications