As we get ready to head into the Labor Day weekend, we realize how quickly the summer went by and how soon school will start. If you have a vacation home, you and your family might be thinking of making one last trip out for a long weekend of rest and relaxation. You’ll want to invest in a decent smart thermostat to save money, that’s why I give you my list of best Wi-fi thermostats for your vacation home here.
As you consider the long list of things you must do before you leave, the last thing that’s on your mind is whether or not your thermostat in your vacation home is getting the job done.
Installing a wifi thermostat in your home away from home can help to alleviate some of your pre-vacation worries. It helps to ensure that you are comfortable upon arrival and during your stay and means you’ll have one less thing to worry about when it’s time to head home.
Let’s take a look at some of the perks behind having a wifi thermostat for your vacation home, then consider some of the better options on the market to consider, if you don’t already have one in mind.
Packing and Planning
Of course, your smart thermostat isn’t going to pack the bags for you and your family, but it can provide local weather information, so you’ll know what you need to take with you. Easily view the current temperature and expected forecast to the area you are traveling by logging into the app. You can view the low and high temps so you’ll have a rough idea of what to expect while you’re there and make sure you pack accordingly.
Arrive in Comfort
Few things are worse than walking into your vacation home and being greeted with a blast of stale, hot air. With a wifi thermostat, you can set the heat and air in your home to certain temperatures, that way, when you and your family show up, you’re welcomed to a nice, comfortable home instead of stagnant air.
Cost Savings
If you’re looking to save money, one good way to do it is to have a wifi thermostat in your vacation home. You can quickly and easily adjust the temperature settings, so you aren’t using much energy when you’re not in your vacation home. Additionally, it helps to diminish the wear and tear on your cooling and heating equipment, which can help save money on maintenance in the long run.
Convenience and Security
Having a wifi thermostat gives you the peace of mind and sense of security in knowing that you can change the temperature settings at any time through the mobile app. You don’t have to worry about whether or not you remembered to raise or lower the thermostat after you’re already on your way home. Just log in to the app and make the change.
Additionally, if a cold system is heading toward your vacation home, you can change the temperature to make sure your home is warm enough to keep pipes from bursting. On the other hand, if the temperature is expected to be unseasonably warm, you can turn down the thermostat, so your home doesn’t overheat.
Best Wifi Thermostat to Have in Your Vacation Home
Now that we’ve discussed some of the benefits of having a smart thermostat in your home let’s take a look at some of the best ones on the market.
Ecobee3
The Ecobee3 smart thermostat with remote sensors is ideal for your vacation home. You have the ability to add up to 32 sensors, and the more sensors you use, the better the Ecobee3 is at providing the comfort you want when you arrive at your vacation home.
You can mount the sensors on a wall or simply place them on a stand if you prefer. Several sensors can be connected to the thermostat, and you can choose which ones to use for averaging the temperature and determining whether or not a room is occupied.
Unfortunately, the Ecobee3 does not support geofencing, so you can’t tell it to change the temperature in your vacation home based on your location. This feature is common in other top of the line thermostats, so it’s a bit of a bummer that the Ecobee3 does not have it.
The Ecobee3 does offer a feature called Follow Me, which helps to determine the rooms within your home that are occupied. It then takes that information and sends it to the primary thermostat. This feature helps the thermostat manage the temperature within the home based on its occupancy.
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It will also help cut costs since it knows where and when to raise the temperature if necessary. If you want to control the Ecobee3 from your smartphone, you can find the application on both the iOS and Android marketplaces.
While the Ecobee3 may not be the best of the devices on this list, it is definitely one of the better thermostats you can purchase for your vacation home. It lets you manage your thermostat settings no matter where you are, and alerts you when the temperature is not where it should be.
Want to know more about Ecobee? I review the Ecobee in depth here:Â Looking for a Top Smart Thermostat? The Full Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat Review!
Honeywell
Honeywell’s thermostats are chock full of features that no matter what you’re using it for, you’re sure to get your money’s worth. The Honeywell thermostat is great for your vacation home, and once you put it to use, you won’t regret it.
Obviously, the key feature you want in your smart thermostat is wifi, so you have the ability to manage your thermostat no matter where you are. The Honeywell thermostat also does a great job of preventing unauthorized users from accessing your heating and cooling settings and making adjustments. It uses a locking touchscreen that has a password option you can set up to prevent this from happening.
You can select from various modes for the Honeywell thermostat, some of which include fully locked, partially locked, and completely unlocked. These modes can come in very handy. For instance, if a guest wants to set the temperature in the home, but they aren’t familiar with the thermostat, it will adjust for a given period of time, but then it will return to the default temperature you have set.
Honeywell also has an Auto Alert feature that notifies you when the temperature rises above or below certain settings, or if the thermostat loses connectivity. This makes you aware that there may be a problem with your vacation home, so you can call someone nearby to check on things if need be.
Additionally, the thermostat will keep the compressor off for a predetermined period of time before it restarts, that way you don’t experience any equipment damage.
Another nice feature that Honeywell’s thermostat offers is its ability to make sure your vacation home is ready for you when you arrive. If you want it to be 70 degrees in the house when you pull up into the driveway, the thermostat knows how long it will take to reach that temperature and kicks on accordingly.
You can also add additional locations to a single account, which is especially handy if you’re wanting to control your vacation home without needing to install another application. This way you can monitor both your home and a vacation home at the same time from the same device. Honeywell does have a few drawbacks.
It does not operate on a battery, so if the power goes out, so does the display on the thermostat. Otherwise, the Honeywell thermostat is a great option to use as the wifi thermostat in your vacation home.
For more on Honeywell, check out my Honeywell Lyric Smart Thermostat Review: Should You Buy It? article!
Nest
We’ll save the best for last, as there simply is no wifi thermostat on the market today that compares with Nest’s learning thermostat. The Nest learns your habits as you go about your daily routine, and its motion sensor tells it when you’re home and when you’re not. This is especially handy if you have it located in a place you often walk, especially when you’re using it in your vacation home, so the temperature stays comfortable during your entire stay.
The Nest offers two great features: Self Learning and Auto-Away. With Self Learning, Nest only needs a few days to determine your habits and behaviors, adjusting the temperature accordingly. With Auto-Away, the application uses geofencing with your phone to determine when you’ve left the area. Then it lets the temperature raise or lower (depending on the time of year) until it senses that you have returned.
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You can also find a Nest app on both iOS and Android devices, so if you feel the need to check on your vacation home while you’re away, you can do so. You can also set the temperature when you’re just a few hours out, so everything is nice and comfortable when you walk in the door.
Nest’s Airware mode helps save you money by continuing to blow air through your vents even after it shuts off the AC instead of turning them both off simultaneously. Basically, you don’t have to waste time programming the nest, as it learns your behavior over a few days. This takes the stress out of worrying about energy costs.
And don’t forget how sleek and stylish the Nest looks. Its modern-looking over makes it a great addition to your vacation home, so it doesn’t look like you’re using something out of the stone ages to heat and cool your house.
Unfortunately, the Nest isn’t perfect and does have its share of drawbacks. Chief among them is that if you have an irregular schedule, the Nest might have trouble keeping up. This could be challenging if you’re only in your vacation home for a few days, but you can always override the temperature settings by manually adjusting them anytime you need to.
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To learn more about Nest, check out this article: Keep Your Home Comfy! The Full Nest Thermostat E Review!
Comparison
Now that we’ve discussed why you would want to have a wifi thermostat in your vacation home, and visited some of the best smart thermostats available on the market today, let’s take a look at how they stack up against one another.
| Â | Ecobee3 | Honeywell | Nest |
| Cooling Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Heating Stages | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Geofencing | No | No | Yes |
| Auto-Schedule | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Power Supply | Wired | Wired | Wired |
| Mobile App | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | Android and iOS |
| Warranty | 3 years | 1 year | 2 years |
Conclusion
Deciding to have a wifi thermostat in your vacation home is a smart choice. You have one in your regular house already, and mobile applications give you the capability to manage and monitor more than one location at a time, so it only makes sense. Additionally, a vacation home has a varied schedule, so you want the ability to control the temperature easily, no matter where you are.
Having a wifi thermostat puts you in charge of the temperature settings in your vacation home, and if you decide you don’t want to pay for wifi service while you’re not it, the smart thermostat will continue to behave as a traditional thermostat until it re-establishes connectivity.
Lastly, keep in mind that a smart thermostat will alert you to problems that occur in your home, like high and low temperatures. This could be related to other problems, and you could alert someone to the situation before it becomes something much bigger.
So the next time you pack up the family and head to your vacation home, remember to pack a wifi thermostat as well. You’ll be glad you did.
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