The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat is an easy-to-use Energy Star certified thermostat. It’s not the most sleek or modern-looking device, but it does the job.

The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat is compatible with up to 2 heat/2 cool conventional, up to 2 heat/1 cool heat pump with electric backup, hot water heat, forced air (gas, oil, or electric.) It isn't compatible with electric baseboard heat (120-240V).

This thermostat comes with detailed installation instructions, but we found it beyond us and ended up hiring a professional to do it. Installation does require a C wire, though Honeywell Home does sell an adaptor kit if your home lacks one. Once the thermostat was physically installed in my home, I had no trouble at all setting it up with the app and getting it working. And it works beautifully.

You’ll need to download the First Alert by Resideo app initially to set up your schedule. You can create a 5-1-1 day cycle, 5-2 day cycle, 7-day cycle, or set up one-week increments. You can also create a vacation schedule, even after you've left. Toggle on the Auto Away feature to allow the thermostat to update automatically based on your phone's location. You can also have the app send you filter change reminders. The First Alert app can also control any of their other home devices you may own, such as CO2/smoke alarms, security cameras, air quality filters, water leak sensors, and more.

Don't like using a separate app? You can also control the thermostat with your ecosystem of choice, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit (Matter certified.) I'm an Apple user, and I did not find that Siri voice control worked properly. However, Control Center worked just fine.

You can also manage the thermostat the old-fashioned way, toggling through the menu with the six buttons next to the display.

Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat: Price and availability

The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat was announced at CES in January 2025 and was released for sale in the US and Canada in the spring of 2025. As of this writing, it retails for $79.99 in the US but isn’t for sale yet outside of North America. You can find it at Amazon, Walmart, and tons of other major retailers online and in brick and mortar stores.

This model, otherwise known as RTH2CWF/U X2S Smart Thermostat, replaces Honeywell Home’s RTH6580 WiFi 7-day Programmable Thermostat, which retailed for a similar price. It’s not as fancy-looking as some of the models you’ll find on our roundup of the best smart thermostats, but it gets the job done.

Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat: Design

Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat comes in just one colorway. Honeywell Home calls it “white,” but I’d call it dove gray and off-white to be more specific. It measures 3.44 in/87 mm high, 5.13 in/130 mm wide, and 1.188 in/29.5 mm deep. It has a basic black-on-gray LCD display that lights up when you press a button. When dormant, the thermostat screen shows Mode, Current Temperature, Set Temperature, Status Display, Fan, and Time. It’s much easier to read when lit up, but it can be read when dormant as well.

The thermostat comes with detailed directions, so you can install it yourself if you’re fairly handy. I ended up calling a professional to install it, since I was unable to do it myself and I was having some other work done as well. It didn’t take the professional long at all. Installation does require a C-wire (24 VAC), which my home didn’t have. Honeywell Home does sell an adapter kit in case your home doesn’t have this wire. You also need to have WiFi 2.4 or 5GHz (802.11 b/g/n) in order for the smart features to work properly. Once you install Honeywell Home’s UWP wall plate, future upgrades will be easier, since you can just change the thermostat without redoing all of the wiring.

The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat is Energy Star certified. You’ll need to download Resideo’s First Alert app on your smartphone in order to set up the thermostat. It’s also the easiest way to control the thermostat. But once you’ve set it up, you can control it manually on the thermostat itself, or with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, or Google Assistant. The thermostat is Matter-certified.

The thermostat is compatible with up to 2 heat/2 cool conventional, up to 2 heat/1 cool heat pump with electric backup, hot water heat, forced air (gas, oil, or electric.) It does not work with electric baseboard heat (120-240V).

You don’t need to waste money heating or cooling your home unnecessarily when you’re away. Set up the thermostat’s schedule for a 5-1-1 day cycle, 5-2 day cycle, 7-day cycle, or one-week increments. You can also set up a vacation schedule. Toggle on the Auto Away feature to allow the thermostat to update based on your location.

Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat: Performance

The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat was only released months ago, but it looks like something from an earlier time. It’s not unattractive, but it doesn’t look particularly modern either. You can fully operate with the buttons just like you could in the 'old days', but you’ll have to go through a lot of menus to do so. It’s easier just to operate it within the app.

I hate to put yet another app on my iPhone, but this one, First Alert by Resideo, is important for the best experience with the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat. I did try controlling it from Control Center on my iPhone, but features are limited there. I also tried voice commands to Siri, but it didn’t work well. The thermostat definitely 'heard' me and changed the temperature, but it did not go to the temperature I said.

Using the First Alert app, the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat works great. I set it to heat my home to 68°F/20°C during the day and 63°F/17°C at night. Since my husband and I both often work from home, I didn’t set a daytime “away” temperature, though I could. I did take a nine-day vacation and set up a special vacation schedule, which worked beautifully. I checked multiple times on my vacation to make sure my home was only heated enough to avoid the pipes freezing. My home was comfortably warm when I returned on a particularly cold January day.

The Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat is compatible with Apple HomeKit (Matter enabled), Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. The First Alert app makes it easy to change the temperature, set up a daily/weekly schedule, turn your fan on and off, switch from heat to cool, and create vacation settings. You can also track your HVAC runtime in the app. You can also run other First Alert products via the app, such as air filters, smoke/CO2 alarms, security cameras, and water leak/freeze detectors.

I found that the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat worked quite well in heating my home to my specifications. I like being able to set the schedule to my precise daily needs, and being able to set up vacation mode even while already away on vacation. I feel like there is a lot less wasted HVAC use, as the thermostat makes it easy to set up a tailored schedule.

Should you buy the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat: alternatives to consider

If you're in the market for a smart thermostat and you're not sure Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat is the one, here are some others you might consider checking out.

• Google has launched new faces for the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen)
• The highlight is a subtly animated botanical face that changes each month
• The faces are available now through your Nest thermostat's settings menu

Google has launched a new set of faces for the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen), with botanical illustrations and subtle animation to make the slim thermostat look more like a piece of wall art.

The new faces are applied to the thermostat's Farsight screen, which is displayed when there's activity within 20ft. Once you move within about 3ft, the view will switch to show the current target temperature, time, room temperature, analog or digital time and date, or weather depending on which settings you've chosen. Google's support site gives a full breakdown of how the system works.

The new Farsight screens include a botanical face, which has 12 subtly animated artworks of fruits and flowers that change each month to suit the shifting seasons. The video clip below shows four examples.

The new faces are a collaboration with illustrator, animator, and filmmaker Mathilde Loubes, and are available now through your thermostat's settings menu.

Let's get minimal

Google is also adding three simpler-looking options to your thermostat's Farsight gallery: a classic Nest face, which it says is a throwback to the original Nest Thermostat, an understated minimalist face, and a new temperature controller face.

Although it's simpler than the botanical faces, the minimalist face still features subtle animation to make one of the best smart thermostats even more appealing, as you can see in the video clip below.

The rollout follows Google's announcement of a new set of Nest devices, including a video doorbell, an indoor security camera, and an outdoor cam – all with AI-powered image-enhancement.

Google might be phasing out the Nest app in favor of Google Home, but the brand is definitely still alive and kicking. It will be interesting to see where the company takes its Nest hardware next, and how it all ties in with Gemini for Home – particularly when it comes to paid-for features. Will Google Home Premium members get access to even more faces, or even the ability to create their own? We'll have to wait and see.

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• Support for older Nest thermostats is ending this year
• You can grab a big discount on a new model
• No new Nest thermostats will go on sale in Europe

There are a couple of pieces of Google Nest thermostat news to bring you this weekend: support is ending for the older 1st and 2nd-gen models, while Google is going to stop selling the thermostat in the EU completely.

First, the end of support for the 1st-gen Nest thermostat (launched in 2011), and the 2nd-gen Nest thermostat (launched in 2012). Google says (via 9to5Google) that there will be no more software updates issued for these devices, from Saturday, October 25, 2025.

At that point you'll no longer be able to control the thermostats from your phone either, and Home/Away modes will stop working too. You'll still be able to adjust modes, schedules, temperatures, and settings on the actual devices, however.

To help soften the blow, Google is offering some upgrade discounts on the latest 4th-gen Nest thermostat for those who have older models: if you're in the US, you can get $130 off, which is almost half price.

No-go in Europe

The second bit of news here is that there will be no more new Nest thermostats sold in Europe going forward. The 3rd-gen model and the Nest Thermostat E, which launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively, are going to be all you can get hold of now.

"Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," says the statement from Google.

That means the shiny new model, launched last year and described as sporting "a stunning design infused with AI" in our 4th-gen Nest thermostat review, isn't going to be available in Europe.

It's no surprise that consumers are wary of investing in smart home tech with discontinued devices and incompatible standards to deal with – even from the biggest companies in the business. It's an area where Google and others can do a lot better.

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• Tado thermostat owners are hot and bothered
• The best smart thermostats available
• How to build a zero-waste smart home

• Some Tado customers received a notification about a new subscription
• The message claimed that the Tado app will soon cost £1 per month
• Tado says it was part of a marketing study and no users have been charged

Some owners of Tado smart thermostats are feeling hot under the collar after the company ran a marketing study suggesting its app might soon require a subscription. A handful of users and potential customers shopping in the Tado web store recently saw a message saying that there would soon be a monthly fee to use the Tado app – though those who clicked a checkbox to confirm they understood were informed that it was only a test.

The pop-up message, which has been shared on Reddit and the company's support forums, says that app users will soon be charged £1 (about $1.20 / AU$2) per household per month "to continue offering you innovative features and top-notch service" and to offset increasing business costs.

According to the alert, the fee would come into force from 1 May, but using Tado devices through Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit devices would still be free.

Tado App Monthly charge from r/tado

When TechRadar contacted Tado for a comment, a spokesperson said: "As is typical in the industry, Tado routinely does marketing studies and research, and looks at customer feedback every day. Those involved in this study about paid apps retained full access to the Tado App with no charge and the tests are now complete."

Free or fee?

So is Tado really going to start charging a fee? We don't know. It certainly looks like a possibility, but at this point it could go either way.

Tado does already have a subscription service called Auto Assist, which lets users fully automate their household heating and cooling and unlocks extra features. For example, rather than just sending a notification if a window is left open, Auto Assist will automatically adjust the heating to avoid wasting energy. It can also use geofencing to turn your heating off automatically when nobody is home, and switch it back on when the first person gets back.

Some Tado owners have said they don't mind the idea of paying a fee to use the app if it comes with Auto Assist rolled in as well to sweeten the deal.

Comment from r/tado

The problem is that other customers purchased Tado hardware in the belief that the basic app would remain subscription-free, and many users on the company's support forums and on Reddit are unhappy about both the idea, and the way Tado concealed the fact that it was conducting a marketing study until users clicked through.

We'll have to wait and see what the company decides to do with the information it's gathered, and whether it goes ahead with a subscription or keeps the free model with Auto Assist as an optional paid add-on.

Do you own a Tado smart thermostat, and would you be willing to pay to use the app to control it? Let us know in the comments.

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• Do smart thermostats really save you money?
• Ecobee's new smart thermostat could save you money on heating – and it's half the price of the latest Google Nest
• The tiny Hive Thermostat has made heating my home far more efficient – and it looks great, too

Hive Thermostat (2024): one-minute review

Hive is a trusted name in the heating and smart device market, and the Hive Thermostat is its flagship product. The Hive Thermostat has gone through several iterations over the years, starting as the Hive Active Heating before becoming the Hive Active Heating 2, then simply the Hive Thermostat we now know. But this isn't the same smart thermostat we reviewed back in 2022 - it's a newer model with some upgrades.

While the design is largely the same, Hive has done away with the physical buttons of the smart thermostat's predecessor, opting for touchscreen compatibility instead and making for a more sleek and stylish design. But this thermostat doesn't just look good - it's got the goods, too.

The newest Hive Thermostat allows you to easily schedule your heating and Boost it on a whim, but signing up for a Hive Plus subscription is the key to unlocking some of the device's best (and most efficient) features, including bill insights, saving advice, and the ability to ensure you're not heating your home when you're not home. It's an extra cost that's worth investing in if you want to have more control over your heating bill.

However, like its predecessors, the Hive Thermostat doesn't come with native zonal/room control. Hive Radiator Valves must be purchased for room control, which cost £59 a pop (the thermostat and its accessories are only available to buy in the UK). Other extras, like the Hive Hub and installation, can also quickly increase its £119 price tag, but if you're looking for an easy-to-use and convenient thermostat, you can't go wrong as it's one of the best smart thermostats on the market.

Hive Thermostat (2024): price and availability

• £119 (hub and professional installation extra)
• Only available in the UK
• Available from Hive online store

The Hive Thermostat is only available in the UK and costs £119, making it £20 more than its £99.99 predecessor. That price can quickly increase, depending on your required extras - though delivery is free. You need a compatible Hive Hub for the Hive Thermostat to work, which costs an extra £70 if you don't have one, bringing the total to £189. Likewise, if you want to add on a professional installation from British Gas, this will add another £109 to the cost. Adding the Hive Thermostat, Hive Hub, and professional installation increases the total price to £298.

Other optional extras include a stand for £29 if you don't want to mount the Hive Thermostat on the wall, and a Hive Plus subscription (£3.99 a month / £39.90 a year). Zonal/room control doesn't come cheap, either. To heat rooms individually, you need to purchase a Hive Radiator Valve - costing £59 each - for each room you want control over.

For this review, I received the Hive Thermostat, Hive Hub, five Hive Radiator Valves, a professional install, and a year's worth of Hive Plus - which would typically cost an eye-watering £613.

The price of the Hive Thermostat comes in slightly less than the Honeywell Evohome, with similarly priced extras, but the Hive Thermostat offers more sophisticated features. If you're on a budget, it's worth considering the Drayton Wiser, especially if you're after room control. Like the Hive, the Drayton Wiser is only available in the UK.

• Value score: 4/5

Hive Thermostat (2024): design

• Easy-to-use digital display
• Small enough to be inconspicuous
• Professional installation optional

Straight out of the box, you get your Hive Thermostat with its four required AA batteries, a Hive receiver that connects to your boiler, and a Hive Hub (if you ordered one) that plugs into a normal electrical socket and your router via an ethernet cable. The Hive Thermostat comes with a 12-month warranty, but signing up to Hive Plus extends this.

The Hive Thermostat is stylish and inconspicuous, with the option to mount it on your wall or, if you bought a stand, set it on a flat surface. Measuring just 95.9mm x 95.9mm x 46.2mm (including the dial), it is considerably smaller than the 10-year-old Hive thermostat it replaced on my wall, and doesn't look imposing in my hallway. It's also much prettier than my old thermostat, with its black display, white surround, and silver dial giving it a contemporary look. There are also two discreet buttons on the top - one for the device's Boost feature, and one for Hot Water Boost (if you have a separate water heater).

While not in use, the display is blank, but press the dial, and the thermostat springs to life, with its touchscreen display showing a red back button, green tick button, and menu button (indicated by three horizontal lines).

The displayed text is easy to read, with large text showing the actual temperature and the target temperature. Just how toasty your desired temperature will make your home is indicated by the color of the text. For example, 21C appears orange (warm), 7C blue (cold), and over 25 red (hot). I found this very helpful, as it gave me a rough indication of just how hot I was making the house - very, apparently.

While you can install the Hive Thermostat yourself, the Hive Thermostat FAQs say, "You need to be competent in electrical wiring and DIY." If that's not you, you need to add on a professional installation when placing your order. The professional installation is done by a British Gas engineer, but you don't need to be with British Gas for this service or to use the Hive.

As mentioned, I already had an old Hive thermostat installed, but the engineer easily removed it and installed the new one, as well as the Hub and receiver. Alongside this, he installed my extra five Hive Radiator Valves, but this isn't typically part of the service. You need to install the valves (if you buy them) yourself, but it's fortunately a pretty straightforward process. My engineer also gave me a rundown on how to use the app to control my new thermostat. Overall, the engineer was at my home for two hours, but a typical installation takes about an hour and can be booked online when you order your Hive Thermostat.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Hive Thermostat (2024): performance

• Convenient smart app compatibility
• More efficient heating
• Linking with Siri can be confusing

The Hive Thermostat is a joy to use and there are plenty of features tucked away in this pint-sized heating device.

A click of the menu button brings up options for Heat, Holiday, and Settings. Under Heat, you can manually alter your current temperature, adjust your heating schedule, or simply turn the heating off. Holiday mode allows you to input when you'll be away for a long period and when you'll return, so your heating doesn't come on while you're away but your home is heated for your return. Thanks to Frost Protection, the thermostat turns on when your home reaches below 7C as default to prevent your pipes from freezing, while parents will be pleased to see the Child Lock function, which prevents little hands from adjusting the temperature.

The aforementioned Boost button on the top of the device allows you to heat your home to a desired temperature for a set period, so you can give your home a controlled heat burst. The other button, for Hot Water Boost, allows you to turn your hot water on for a set period but doesn't control the temperature - this button is redundant if you have a combi boiler like me, though.

While the Hive Thermostat is fairly straightforward to use, I found controlling the device via the Hive app much easier. Controlling my thermostat's schedule was much more straightforward; I could quickly use the Boost feature, and I was able to control my heating from anywhere. There's nothing like the simple pleasure of coming home from a night out and popping the heating on so the house is warm when you get home. You can also set up Quick Actions so you can activate predefined settings at the click of a button, but I found these a bit complicated and they would be better suited to those who own several Hive smart devices.

Even more convenient are the Away Mode and Geolocation features. Away Mode allows you to tell the Thermostat when you're out so it doesn't unnecessarily heat your home while you're away, while Geolocation gives you a notification when you get a certain distance from your home and have left the heating on.

These features are only available with a Hive Plus subscription, however, which I advise getting if you want assistance with saving on your gas bill and advice on using your heating more efficiently. This subscription includes a Saver Mode which predicts your bill and helps you cut it, a Budget Tracker that can alert you when you're overspending, and a Schedule Assist feature that advises on the most efficient way to schedule your heating. Unfortunately, these three features don't work if you have Hive Radiator Valves (as I do).

Fortunately, despite the Hub's ethernet connection, you can still use your Hive Thermostat manually if you lose internet connection, but you won't be able to control it via the app.

The Hive Thermostat's performance isn't completely flawless, though. While the device is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, Siri, Philips Hue, and Mixergy, I struggled to connect my thermostat with Siri - and the app's "Ask Hive" assistant did little to help. When I finally connected it, the voice command didn't work properly. This would be fine if there were clearer instructions on exactly how this compatibility works.

I also found a significant delay (around 15 to 20 minutes) between my radiators being Boosted and when they actually turn on, despite having Heat On Demand enabled, which should kick the thermostat, and therefore boiler, into action. This resulted in me increasing the Boost time to give the thermostat and boiler time to register the Boost.

A smaller issue I had with the device was its use of lithium batteries. No one likes changing batteries, and while it makes for an easier install, it does mean we need to keep a stock at home for when they run out.

Overall, though, these are only minor things, and the Hive Thermostat has made heating my home much more efficient - especially with the addition of the Hive Radiator Halves. With the press of a couple of buttons or the turn of a dial, I can heat my house, while the extra features ensure I don't use my heating when I don't need to - which should ultimately help my gas bill in the long run. It's made me more aware of how and when I heat my home, so instead of being scared to turn on the thermostat (and remember to turn it off), I happily turn it on, knowing I have greater control of both.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Hive Thermostat (2024)?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Hive Thermostat (2024): also consider

If you don't live in the UK, here are two other smart thermostats to consider:

• Ecobee revealed the Smart Thermostat Essential at CES 2025
• It'll go on sale in March this year for $129.99 (about £100 / AU$200)
• Features include smart schedules, app control, and energy use reports

Ecobee makes some of the best smart thermostats we've tested, and its latest model is one of the cheapest yet, meaning it could pay for itself much faster than rivals, so you can hopefully start saving money sooner.

The company launched the affordable Smart Thermostat Essential at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, and it's due to launch in March for just $129.99 (about £100 / AU$200). That's significantly less than most smart thermostats, and around half the price of last year's Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen).

As you'd expect, Ecobee's budget model doesn't have the same AI smarts as the latest Nest, but it's still an impressive device for the money. Its features include a full color touchscreen, the ability to 'learn' how long it takes to heat and cool your home, and customizable schedules and comfort settings, enabling you to set up routines that suit your home and preferences.

Cut consumption

The new thermostat can also be controlled using Ecobee's mobile app, or via voice commands to your smart speaker. Unlike many other smart thermostats, the Essential is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant, so it should work seamlessly with most smart home setups and won't tie you to one ecosystem. There's even zonal control if you connect it to the company's remote SmartSensors, which are priced at $99.99 (about £80 / AU$160) for a pack of two.

Of course, no smart thermostat will save energy (and therefore money) if you don't use it strategically, so it's good to see that even this budget model will generate reports to show you how much you're spending heating and cooling your home, and help you spot opportunities to reduce consumption.

We're hoping to put the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential through its paces soon to see how it compares with alternatives from big brands like Google, Amazon, and Hive.

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TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

One Minute Review

The fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat blends a terrific redesign with the smart features that we've all come to expect from the company's devices. Google arguably set the bar very high back in 2011, with a control set that mirrored an iPod, and the ability to learn your cooling or heating schedule from the get-go.

Between the facelift that makes it look more like a piece of art on your wall and the 'AI' power infused into its already well-regarded learning features, the fourth-generation Learning Thermostat is a pretty easy recommendation for most folks. Even when accounting for the price increase of up to $280, the fourth-generation model is more than a bit smarter, and now includes a temperature sensor in the box as well.

I especially liked the smaller changes, including the ability to accept or decline suggested temperature changes to my schedule, but besides the design, the best functionality change is the adjustable and more helpful display. Displaying the active temperature and visual for the weather from afar, and showing highs and lows as I get close, the FarSight feature means the new Nest Learning Thermostat is useful even when I'm not using it to adjust temperatures.

Setup within the Google Home app was easy for me, but my colleagues weren't as lucky, and most of the experience with the app is pretty basic. It might be intentional, but something a bit more full-featured would have been nice. Even so, adding Matter will make the folks waiting to use a Nest natively in the Apple Home app pretty darn happy. Myself included.

As a whole, the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat evolves into the modern age of the smart home in a successful fashion, which I think will make folks upgrading from a previous model quite happy (even though it's not plug-and-play). People new to Nest will find it to be feature-filled. That makes the decision of only releasing the fourth generation in the United States and Canada a bit more baffling.

Nest Learning Thermostat 4th Gen: price and availability

The Nest Learning Thermostat Fourth-Generation is available in the United States and Canada. You get your pick of Polished Gold, Polished Silver, or Polished Obsidian for $279.99 in the United States, or $379.99 in Canada. A temperature sensor is included in the box, but you can buy a single additional unit for $29.99 or a three-pack for $99.99.

As of now, there is no timeframe for when the fourth generation might launch outside the United States or Canada.

Nest Learning Thermostat 4th Gen: design

• The new Nest Learning Thermostat looks stunning.
• It was a simple install, though it's not plug-and-play if you're upgrading from an existing Nest.
• The larger, upgraded display steals the show and navigation is still impressively simple.

While the fourth generation model still inherently operates like the original Nest Learning Thermostat that dropped way back in 2011, it’s by far the biggest redesign the device has ever received. When mounted on the wall, it looks more like a piece of art hanging than a thermostat – especially in the ‘Polished Gold’ that I’ve been testing, which gives major rosy vibes when the light hits it right.

It’s the best-looking smart thermostat around, neither screaming 'technology' nor resembling a classic plastic thermostat. It’s sort of a cross between the two, with a design that allows the true smarts of the Nest Thermostat to shine through. More on that later.

Rather than a small, thick circular thermostat that gets placed on a bracket and then a mounting plate if you so desire, the Nest Thermostat fourth-generation has a slightly larger footprint on the wall itself. That’s not a bad thing, because this circular piece is attached via the bracket to your wall, acting as the stand for the thermostat's slim and elegant main hull.

It’s kind of like a supersize Google Pixel Watch 3, with the 3.9-inch circular, almost bezel-free dome giving the impression that it’s floating. You’ll turn this whole piece to the right or left to raise or lower the temperature. Google’s design team is still adamantly against touchscreens here, so you’ll click and turn it to complete most other tasks too (including some parts of the setup process), but you'll mainly use it to adjust heating and cooling modes.

The installation was really a breeze; in my apartment in New Jersey, where I’ve been testing the fourth-generation Nest Thermostat for several months, it took me no more than about 15 to 20 minutes to install. I wasn’t upgrading from a previous Nest, but considering the plate here is a different size, you will need to swap those out if you are. That's kind of a bummer, as it’s not a super simple swap for the faithful already invested in the ecosystem.

Still, Google provides mostly everything in the box, including the main bracket and a helpful wiring guide. Essentially, you’ll install the main steel bracket and use the included screws to get that on the wall. Then you have the thermostat base, which you’ll guide the wires through. You also get the mounting plate, which I opted to use, but that's optional.

Google is continuously moving things into its main Google Home app, which my colleague Lance Ulanoff, TechRadar’s Editor-at-Large, found particularly troublesome when trying to install his fourth-gen Nest Learning Thermostat. In my case, since I was setting this up as new in my ‘Google Home,’ things went a bit more smoothly – though Google Home did take a few tries to successfully connect to the thermostat after proper installation with wiring in my HVAC system, and ultimately, it’s a very basic control app for this thermostat.

The idea is that if you're currently using the Nest app, it will push you to use the Google Home app instead, and if you’re new, you’ll need to start with Google Home. Even if you bought the Nest Learning Thermostat for its Matter capability so you can use it with Apple's Home app (which does work eventually), you need to start with Google Home. Luckily, the team brought the easy installation help to the Google app, which will perform some checks, including a test of heating and cooling modes.

Once it's set up in Google Home, you get to take advantage of the major benefit of the Nest Learning Thermostat, and that’s the Matter support. Oddly enough, there is no Thread connectivity here, which is a strange omission. If you select your Nest Learning Thermostat within the Google Home app and then navigate to Settings > Device information > Linked Matter apps & services, it will generate a code that you can scan or send to Apple’s Home app, for example. You can also select and review the Matter code on the Nest Learning Thermostat itself.

You’ll need to set it up with a Google account in the Google Home app first, but the nice thing about a Nest thermostat is that the app eventually fades away, and you can focus on controlling it from the device itself or let the smart scheduling take the wheel.

As far as the classic mechanic, it’s smooth as ever with just the right amount of resistance to maneuvering the dial I’ve had more than a few friends ask me what it is when spotting it on the wall in the front of my apartment – it’s simply an eye-catcher.

The 3.9-inch LCD screen almost appears like it’s hidden behind the finish – a cool effect – and the content can change based on where you are. For example, if it doesn’t detect you directly nearby, it will use larger graphics that can be seen from a distance. If you approach, the Soli sensor – read as radar – will detect you and adjust the content as you get nearer. It’s dubbed the ‘Farsight’ display, and you can adjust it to show high and low temperatures, air quality, and even weather. You’ll set these from the device itself, but the weather animations are really neat.

It’s also a point of difference with competing thermostats like those from Ecobee, which tosses a speaker and a microphone into select models. I think the Nest Thermostat packs features that make more sense. Seeing the weather quickly as you’re heading out the door or picking what coat to wear is neat.

The display feels inherently meshed with this new look – it won’t steer away the folks who have loved Nest from the beginning, and it really looks dynamite. There also isn’t a better control system than just turning to the left or right and pushing in. Apple had it first with the iPod, but considering multitouch, I think it’s the gold standard for thermostat control.

• Design Score: 4.5/5

Nest Learning Thermostat 4th Gen: Performance

• The Google Home app is pretty basic, and it has some connectivity issues.
• Yes, the Nest finally works with Apple Home.
• The AI-infused learning features impress and make cooling or heating a home easier.

I’ve been testing the Nest Thermostat Fourth-Generation for several months, which means I’ve used it for a few seasons, including summer, fall, and winter. That’s pretty important to see how the smart scheduling reasoning and, ultimately, the functionality of the Nest handle the swap from cooling to heating.

Much like any other gadget released in 2024, Google has tossed in some AI capabilities, mainly affecting how the Nest Thermostat adjusts the temperature. This makes the previous learning aspects of Nest – arguably, the main appeal – a bit smarter and quicker once you get in a rhythm, but also more actionable. For instance, with the new Smart Schedule feature, you can accept or decline the adjustments it suggests, whether that’s a degree or cooler at night or warmer in the morning.

Further, as it begins to notice the change from cooling or heating, it takes a few days to stop suggestions and focus on learning before updating and delivering a custom schedule that you can manage if you like.

These minute changes that the Nest Thermostat suggests could lower your energy bill (aka the cost of cooling or heating your home), but you may not see those impacts immediately. What you might be able to do here in the United States is to see if your utility provider offers any rebate for the cost, as the latest Nest isn’t the cheapest.

Beyond learning from your habits and adjustments – on the thermostat, via the app, or through a smart assistant – it will consider conditions around your home. For example, if it’s a warmer day in the winter, it might lower your heating temperature to save on energy and factor in that your home might stay warmer for longer on its own. It's the same thing for a cooler summer day, and it works quite well. Similarly, if your forecast predicts a frigid temperature turn, it might turn the heating on earlier to ensure you’re still at a comfortable temperature in your home.

As with previous Nest thermostats, you can expect all of these to get better as you spend more time with the unit, and that’s exactly what I’ve found. I wouldn’t go into it expecting it to master your desired temperatures after just a few days, but you need to spend a week or two with it to see meaningful suggestions.

The thermostat also comes with a pebble-shaped sensor, which helps measure the temperature more accurately inside your home. The idea is to place this somewhere in your house away from the Nest Thermostat, which contains its own sensor, so it can get a proper read of the temperature and ensure the desired conditions are found throughout.

Including this in the box is pretty nice, and helps to make up for the price increase to $280. Unfortunately, although the Nest Thermostat works with Matter and therefore Apple Home the sensor doesn’t seem to move over. There were also several occasions when adjusting the temperature in the Apple Home app didn't work properly the first time, especially shortly after I first installed the unit. Thankfully that's now become far less frequent, and I’ve successfully controlled it from a range of Apple devices and through Siri. You can also integrate it through automation within Apple Home; the same goes for Google Home’s automation.

As far as the Google Home app goes, it’s pretty basic for controlling the Nest Learning Thermostat, but that might be intentional as the real appeal is these AI-infused learning features, which ultimately still impress. The fourth-generation Nest Thermostat shows an evolution in terms of features and revolution with design, but it’s still a compelling experience that lets you spend less time fiddling with a thermostat.

• Performance Score: 4/5

Scorecard

Should I buy theNest Learning Thermostat 4th Gen?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

There's good news for Google Home users  - a new interface is rolling out right now, and it's not just for people who invest in the Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) that the company unveiled last week.

We got our first glimpse of the redesigned Google Home app a few days ago when members of the Public Preview program noticed some big changes to the smart thermostat interface. Key features like the Energy Dashboard and fan settings are now more easily accessible, displayed as large cards rather than hidden behind icons, and it's possible to tweak the temperature directly through the Favorites screen.

The overall look is busier, with more data on screen at once, but overall, it seems in line with the updated interface on the new thermostat's curved glass face.

A warm reception

As Android Police explains, the new-look app appears to be rolling out more widely, and it's not just for users with the latest hardware. People with the original Nest Learning Thermostat (launched in 2018) and even Ecobee devices have also noticed the new design appearing on their phones.

This news will be particularly welcome if you live outside the US and Canada, where the new Nest Learning Thermostat is unavailable. At the time of writing, Google has announced no plans, dates, or prices for the new device anywhere else in the world.

So far, the reception has been generally positive. Some Google Home users on Reddit have praised the "more intuitive and legible UI" that makes it "easier to see what's going on at a glance," while others have complained about how much space the new tiles occupy on the Favorites screen.

My Nest app updated and got this cool new UI for the thermostat. from r/googlehome

Google hasn't officially announced the new style interface yet, and it seems there might still be a few kinks that need ironing out, particularly when the app is used with an Ecobee thermostat, but it appears to be nearly ready.

Thinking of upgrading your home heating system? We'll soon be testing the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) through its paces to see whether it earns a place in our guide to the best smart thermostats.

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The Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) will start shipping next week, and Google has started preparing by giving the Google Home app a much-needed update that should make it simpler to control the temperature of your home.

Google unveiled the new smart thermostat at an event last week, showing off its slimmer design, curved glass front, and thinner rotating bezel. Now, Android Police has spotted some similarly smart upgrades to the Google Home app, which make key features easier to access. 

The app changes haven't rolled out to all users yet, but were spotted in the latest Google Home Public Preview, which you can try if you want to be first to check out new features, and are willing to accept that there may be some bugs that need to be ironed out before the final software release. 

Busier, but better

The new app doesn't look more streamlined than the existing version; if anything, each screen is busier, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

As you can see in Android Police's screengrabs, features like the Energy Dashboard and fan settings are no longer hidden behind icons, but are large, easily accessible cards on the app's home screen. Similarly, you can now control your smart thermostat directly through the Favorites menu, with a simple picker for dialing the temperature up or down.

The design updates should work nicely with the updated Nest Learning Thermostat, which can give you smarter suggestions for ways to tailor your home's heating and cooling schedule to save energy. We were impressed by how smooth it feels to operate during our hands-on experience last week, and it makes sense that Google would carry that simplicity through to the mobile app.

To join the Google Home Public Preview program and get an early peek at new features like these, open the app on your phone, and select Settings > Public Preview > Join Public Preview. Alternatively, you can visit home.google.com, sign into your account, then select Public Preview> Join Public Preview.

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After a flurry of leaks, we now know exactly what the hotly anticipated fourth-generation Google Nest Learning Thermostat will look like thanks to an early unboxing video shared on TikTok and YouTube.

FranklyHonestManReviews, who only created his channels yesterday and declines to name his source, managed to get his hands on the smart thermostat in three colors: polished silver, polished gold, and obsidian. He says these are "all three available colors", indicating that unlike the third-generation model, the new version won't come in white.

The unit itself has a much slimmer profile than the previous model, and appears to have a very thin bezel (it's the same color as the glass, making it hard to see). It's not yet clear whether you will be able to turn the bezel to change the temperature, as with previous Nest Learning Thermostats, or if the unit has a touchscreen.

Based on information from Twitter user Arsène Lupin, we already know that the case is made from stainless steel rather than recycled plastic.

Backward compatibility

The mount shown in the unboxing video isn't identical to that of the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, so you may not be able to simply unclip your third-gen thermostat and replace it with the fourth-gen model. The new Nest Learning Thermostat offers smart ventilation with compatible HVAC systems, which may have necessitated a change.

As 9to5Google notes, the third-generation model has a USB-C connector rather than micro-USB, but this will only be used for charging and troubleshooting/diagnostics.

The unboxing video also confirms that the thermostat is packaged with a second-generation Nest Temperature Sensor, which can be placed on a flat surface, and has a fitting on the back so it can be mounted on a nail or picture hook. You can use this to identify cold spots in your home, and it could be particularly useful for a baby's room, which needs to be kept at a safe and consistent temperature.

FranklyHonestManReviews hasn't shared details of what's in the thermostat's manual, but since he has it in his hands, it may only be a matter of time. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more.

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Google is about to release a new Nest Learning Thermostat, which will help you save money by heating your home in a greener way according to newly leaked images.

Last week, we got our first look at the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) thanks to materials posted on Twitter by Arsene Lupin. Now, Lupin has shared even more details, including some intriguing hints about the new thermostat's features.

The new images confirm that the thermostat will have a face with rounded glass edges rather than the large moveable bezel of previous models. However, the differences are more than just superficial, and the new thermostat will make better use of what is effectively a screen mounted on your wall.

Now, instead of just displaying temperature settings or nothing at all, it can also show you a weather forecast, display the time, and more. The leaked materials refer to it as a 'home screen', suggesting that you may be able to choose from a range of widgets.

More importantly, the new thermostat will help you save energy and cash with a feature called Adaptive Eco, which calculates an energy-efficient temperature for your home when you're away.

Google Nest thermostats can already switch to Eco Temperatures automatically when they detect that nobody is home, but you must set a suitable temperature range yourself. It looks as though the new Learning Thermostat will work out a temperature itself, which should mean it feels comfortable when you arrive home, while using as little energy as possible.

Like its predecessors, the Google Nest Learning Thermostat (gen 4) will 'learn' the temperatures you like, and create a schedule automatically based on the way you raise and lower the temperature throughout the day. You can adjust this schedule through the Google Home app, but unlike earlier versions, the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) will also suggest tweaks that you can make to save energy.

Installation and extras

The new Nest Learning Thermostat will be compatible with Matter, and work with any Matter-enabled smart home app. Google says that it will be relatively quick to install "in around 40 minutes or less", and although the leaked promo materials don't state so directly, judging by the photos it looks as though it will be compatible with the same base as the previous version, allowing you to simply clip the new face into place.

Last week, we learned that Google is releasing a new version of the Nest Temperature sensor, and according to the new images, you'll get one in the box with the new Learning Thermostat to help pinpoint cold spots in your home.

None of these details are official yet, and we may have to wait until after the Google Pixel event taking place on September 13 to learn more. Any appliance that reduces energy usage is welcome, though according to Lupin the new thermostat will cost $279 (up from $249 for the previous model), so it could be a long time before you reap the cash saving.

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A new version of the Nest Learning Thermostat could arrive very soon, according to leaked promotional photos. The pictures indicate that the new smart thermostat will have a similar design to its predecessor, but Google may have switched from a moveable dial to a touchscreen.

The images were posted by Arsène Lupin on Twitter and shared by 9to5Google. They appear to be leaked promo materials advertising a new version of the Google Nest Temperature Sensor, which will be compatible with three Nest thermostats – including the currently unreleased Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen).

The new Learning Thermostat appears to have a rounded glass face rather than flat, and the interface seems to have been refined. While the 2015 Nest Learning Thermostat used a rotate and press/click interface, the larger glass surface and thinner metal bezel of the redesigned device suggest that it may have touch controls instead.

In terms of the actual functionality, this may not be a huge step up from the 2015 model. An FCC listing published last month suggests that its wireless capabilities will be the same, with Soli low-energy motion sensing, but it's hard to say more than that at this point. Integration with Matter would be one of the most obvious upgrades, particularly for this high-end thermostat, but we'll have to wait and see.

Hopefully the similarity in design will mean that upgrading from the 2015 model is simple, with no additional rewiring.

A long-overdue update

The original Nest Temperature Sensor went on sale in 2018, so the Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd Gen) is long overdue.

It looks very similar to its predecessor (a small, circular device to be mounted on a wall or placed on a shelf), and connects to the Google Home app, where you can set the temperature you want the room to reach at a certain time of day.

We would have liked to see some connected radiator valves, like those made by Hive, which would allow for temperature control in individual rooms, but there's no indication that such a thing is coming.

The Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) and Temperature Sensor (2nd Gen) could be released after the Google Pixel event that's taking place on August 13. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more.

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A mysterious new Google device has appeared in filings at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US – but we're not sure exactly what it is. It could be a new Nest Thermostat, or perhaps a smart speaker or smart display.

As reported by Android Authority, the gadget in question unsurprisingly supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. More interesting is a mention of 60GHz radio support, which sounds similar to the Soli radar tech built into the current Nest Thermostat models.

The Soli chip senses motion at close range, essentially, which enables the displays on Google's thermostats to light up when someone approaches. It would make sense that a new thermostat would have the same feature.

However, we've also seen Soli built into other Google products like the Pixel 4 (for gesture control) and the 2nd-gen Nest Hub (for tracking your sleep), so while a thermostat is most likely, it could be something else we're looking at here.

Time for a refresh

You could make the case that smart thermostats don't need to be updated all that often, but even so, the Nest Thermostat range could use a bit of a refresh: the most recent one launched by Google came out all the way back in 2020.

Despite its age, it remains top of our best smart thermostats list, ahead of rivals from the likes of Hive and Ecobee. Unfortunately, there's not enough in this FCC listing to really tell us anything about potential upgrades that could be on the way. 

The flagship Nest Thermostat is currently discounted on the Google UK Store, while the more affordable model (which you can't get in the UK) is on offer over on the Google US Store – perhaps a sign of a new device in the range arriving soon, or perhaps not.

All we can really do at this point is speculate, though we will of course bring you the news as soon as anything is made official – or as soon as there are any more leaks. If you're thinking of buying a Nest Thermostat, you might want to hold off just for a while.

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A big update for the Nest Thermostat, and a big leap forward for the Matter smart home standard, will now make it possible for the smart home gadget to work natively with Apple Home. This will unlock so many possibilities for the thermostat which, although it launched back in 2020, has been given a new lease of life for users to benefit from.

The Nest Thermostat is the first smart thermostat to support the new Matter connected standard. Since the over-air update arrived yesterday (April 18) the thermostat is now compatible with any Matter smart home platform over Wi-Fi. The rollout will continue over the next few weeks according to a post on the Google Nest community page so if you're yet to receive the update, don't worry: changes are coming.

In a nutshell, this new compatibility means that owners of the Nest Thermostat owners – one of the best smart thermostats – can now adjust the temperature, change the thermostat's mode and control the fan with multiple Matter-certified smart home platforms and apps such as Samsung SmartThings and Amazon Alexa.

After the update, you will see a new Matter settings page appear on the Nest Thermostat and in the Google Home app settings page. From here, you'll have the option to pair the smart thermostat to any other Matter ecosystem using a Matter pairing code. 

Although the iOS version of the Google Home app doesn't currently support Matter, you can still access the Matter pairing code from the thermostat. This means adding the device to Apple Home will still be possible while you wait for Matter support to be rolled out to the iOS Google Home app. Android users with the Google Home app needn't worry about this workaround because that version is supported by Matter.

Analysis: A much-needed boost for Matter

This announcement comes not a minute too soon for the Matter 1.0 standard, which has faced some resistance from brands in terms of adoption and a few teething issues along the way. 

The idea behind Matter is a fantastic one; to make smart home devices faster, more secure and a whole lot easier to set up and use across ecosystems using the home Wi-Fi. The execution, though, has been a little slow off the mark.

When we caught up with Google last year we were told that its goal is to make any Nest device that is Matter-capable compliant with the standard and to bring Matter to more device types in the future. 

Michele Turner, Senior Director of Google Smart Home Ecosystem, said: "We are actively working to ensure that all Nest speakers, displays, and Wi-Fi are updated to act as Matter Controllers for Google Home”. 

“We want to make sure virtually every user with a Google Home ecosystem is ready for Matter devices and to make it easy for new users to adopt,” she added.

At Google I/O 2022, the company also announced that its Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Nest Mini, Google Nest Hub, Google Nest Hub (2nd generation), Google Nest Hub Max, Google Nest Audio, and Google Nest Wifi devices would all support Matter.

Alongside video doorbells, smart thermostats are one of the most popular smart home devices for the home, so the deployment of Matter to the Nest Thermostat could be the boost that the alliance has been waiting for. 

We'll just have to see if this improves the user experience for existing customers, entices new fans to pick up the gadget, and instills confidence in this (very) new tech space.

It’s taken a little while, but we’re finally seeing the Matter standard roll out to various smart home devices. And this time, it’s coming to a Google Nest near you.

Eight devices in total will be getting the update and all will double up as central hubs to control other Matter gadgets, according to the announcement. You have the original Google Home speaker, Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (first and second-generation), Nest Hub Max, and the Nest Wifi Pro. Matter-supporting devices can connect to any of the eight either through Wi-Fi or Thread, a wireless standard that offers a “low-power connection.” In fact, the second-generation Nest Hub, Hub Max, and WiFi Pro are also getting an update allowing them to serve as Thread Border routers to control other Thread devices. Additionally, Fast Pair on Android is being updated so mobile devices can quickly connect to Matter.

There are some prerequisites for Android phones, however. A company representative told us mobile devices must be running Android 8.1 and up as well as Google Play Services version 22.48.14 to work with the new standard. Nest owners, however, don’t have to do anything. The firmware update adding the Matter support is installed automatically.

Future promises

Since Matter is still in its early stages, there aren’t a whole lot of devices that support it but that will soon change starting in 2023 when Google has plans to expand the standard. Google confirmed to TechRadar two such updates: the Nest Thermostat and Nest Wifi. The tech giant also states its currently working with various “partners from across the industry [like Eve, Nanoleaf, and Philips Hue] to make sure more smart home devices work with Matter.” And we’ll start seeing the fruits of their labor early next year.

Samsung is also currently working on updating Matter’s Multi-Admin tool for an easier onboarding experience. In 2023, the Google Home app will gain the ability to recognize “Matter devices that have been set up via the SmartThing app” on Android. That way, users won’t have to connect smart home devices one by one.  It all can be done in one fell swoop. And speaking of Google Home, the iOS version will be gaining Matter support next year, too.

Building a smart home

Pickings may be slim, but you do have some choices. Eve, which we mentioned earlier, recently rolled out a firmware update adding Matter support for several products like its Energy smart plug and a couple of motion sensors. Back in early November, Signify launched a set of Christmas lights under the Philips Hue brand for the new standard.

If you’re looking to build a smart home system but don’t know where to start, be sure to check out TechRadar’s recently updated best home security camera list for 2023. 

We’re all getting to grips with the rising price of energy and searching for ways to cut costs when it comes to heating our homes. While there are many low-tech things we can do (time to invest in those fluffy slippers you’ve had your eye on!), there are also a few ways that smart home technology can assist in saving those pennies. For example, you may have heard about how smart thermostats can cut down on costs, but how much of this is actually true?

If you’re unfamiliar, the best smart thermostats help to control the temperature in your home without requiring direct action from you. In other words, you can set schedules and routines or simply adjust the heating via an app from wherever you happen to be. For example, if you are on your way home from work and want the house warmed up before arriving, you can load the app on your smartphone and set it accordingly.

You can also connect them to other smart devices in your home and use voice control for models such as the Ecobee SmartThermostat, and automation ensures you’re not wasting energy by leaving the heating on while no one’s home. You can even set different rooms to different temperatures using extra devices such as smart radiator valves, so every part of the house will be exactly how you want it.

Below we have outlined a few of the critical factors that dictate how much, if anything at all, installing a smart thermostat in your home can save you, from your country’s climate to the personal preferences of you and your family.

How often do you put the heating on? 

It’s an unfortunate fact that even the finest smart thermostats aren’t magic wands, and if you’re the type of household that likes to be toasty warm even when it’s snowing outside, it’s unlikely that making your heating smarter is going to save you much money. The fact is that smart thermostats only really help you cut back on wasted energy spent on things like heating homes that are empty or going full blast overnight when everyone’s tucked up in bed. 

Do you already have programmable heating controls? 

Smart thermostats are all the rage, and for good reason, but you may already have everything you need to start cutting back on energy costs. The ability to control your home’s heating and cooling functions isn’t a brand new thing and, if your primary goal is to save money, then it may be worth sticking with what you have.

These old-fashioned thermostat controls tend to come in the form of a dial that allows you to choose a time for your heating to whir into life, and for how long. It takes a lot more work and organisation than using a smart thermostat, however, as you have to remember to set the dial and physically go to the controls when needed, rather than just using an app.

Do you have a variable schedule? 

Smart thermostats are excellent for those with unpredictable schedules, as features like geofencing (when your heating system can tell whether you’re home or away) and the ability to adjust temperature settings from absolutely anywhere mean that you’re never in danger of wasting precious energy on heating or cooling an empty home. 

Going to be late home from the office or decided to stay at your partner’s place that night? Just log in and make sure everything’s switched off. Similarly, if you’re heading home sooner than expected, you won’t have to go back to a cold/hot house.

How energy-efficient is your home already? 

If your home isn’t good at keeping the warmth in during winter, then your ability to save cash on heating it is unfortunately going to be limited. If you have more substantial issues than how your heating is controlled, consider addressing them to get the most benefit. You could also explore switching suppliers if you can get a better deal elsewhere.

Also think about which rooms would benefit most from extras like zoned heating and cooling, which many smart thermostats offer (if you’re willing to purchase extra radiator valves etc.). Perhaps your bedroom has single glazing, while your living room doesn’t take much to heat in the evenings? 

Consider the upfront cost 

While this article is primarily concerned with the long-term financial consequences of investing in a smart thermostat, it’s also true that there can be a significant upfront cost. Big brands such as Hive and Nest can set you back between $100/£100-$250/£250, but there are more budget-friendly options out there as well.

If you’re interested in Nest’s cheaper offering, read our article on ‘Should I buy the Google Nest Thermostat’.

You should also think about the additional cost of things like zoning valves and additional thermostats, which can save you more on your energy but also boost the initial cost of the smart heating system. And then there are subscription fees, which are required for some advanced features in the apps.

What do the top companies promise? 

Tado - Tado goes a step further than some by guaranteeing your money back if you don’t manage to save money with its smart thermostat. The website claims you can reduce your energy consumption by up to 31%.

Hive (UK) - Claims you will save up to £110 a year, or £230 a year with Hive Heating Plus.

Nest - Calling its thermostat ‘The Planet Protector’, Google claims its customers in the UK saved between 8.4% and 16.5% on their bills.

Drayton Wiser (UK) - the biggest promise of the lot, Drayton promises a saving of up to £450 or 30% on energy bills with its smart controls.

Ecobee - as of April 2021, Ecobee claims that customers in North America saved up to 26% on their heating a cooling costs. You can see how EcoBee measured up against Amazon’s offering in our guide to the Amazon Smart Thermostat vs EcoBee SmartThermostat. 

Verdict: do smart thermostats save money? 

Yes - smart thermostats definitely have the ability to save you cash if you use them to their full potential. But it might not be the solution many hope, with upfront costs, subscription fees and potential disparity between what is promised and the reality all factoring in. That said, consider carefully whether your home and lifestyle would benefit from a more automated heating and cooling system, and you could certainly feel the benefit by the end of the year. 

The best smart thermostats do more than just let you adjust the heating from your phone. They can make your home feel smarter, more comfortable, and potentially cheaper to run. Whether you want to stop wasting energy heating an empty house, wake up to a warm bedroom, or simply avoid arguing over the thermostat, the right device can make a real difference to running and affording your home.

That said, buying a smart thermostat is not as simple as picking the snazziest design. Compatibility should be your first checkpoint. Not every thermostat works with every smart home ecosystem, so if you already use Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple HomeKit, you will want to make sure your thermostat works with your existing setup.

Matter support is worth looking out for if you already have a smart home setup, or plan to build one over time. Matter is a smart home standard designed to make devices work more easily across platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa, reducing compatibility headaches and making it easier to mix devices from different brands.

It is also worth checking regional compatibility before you buy. Not every smart thermostat is available globally, and even when a model is sold in your country, it may not work with your heating system. This is especially important if you are comparing U.S. and European models, as heating infrastructure can vary significantly. Before settling on a thermostat, double-check that it is designed to work in your region and with your home setup.

The best smart thermostats

The best smart thermostat overall

Google's fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat is the best smart thermostat you can buy today, with a sleek new design that makes it look more like an art installation than an appliance, and AI-enhanced smart scheduling that makes it easier than ever to keep your home at the optimum temperature while minimizing your energy bills. You won't see changes to your bills immediately, but you can check whether your energy provider offers a rebate for the cost.

After using the Nest Learning Thermostat (Gen 4) for several months, our US Managing Editor of News, Jacob Krol, particularly appreciated the thermostat's Smart Schedule feature, which suggests temperature adjustments that you can accept or decline.

Beyond learning from your habits and adjustments – on the thermostat, via the app, or through a smart assistant. For example, on a relatively warm day in winter, it might dial down the heating slightly, and vice versa for a cool summer day.

The biggest downside is that the latest version of the Nest Learning Thermostat is only available in the US and Canada, and in April 2025, Google announced that it will not be selling this or any future Nest thermostats in Europe.

Read the full Google Nest Learning Thermostat (Gen 4) review

The best budget smart thermostat

Love the idea of zonal heating control, but don't want to break the bank? Then Drayton Wiser is worth considering if you live in the UK. You'll need a thermostat for each radiator in your home to get the most out of the system. Still, as thermostats are around a third cheaper than rival systems from Honeywell and Tado, the overall cost is more affordable.

It's simple to use and will switch the boiler on or off earlier than scheduled to ensure rooms in your home are at the temperature you want when you want them. It's also got Open Window Detection to help stop energy wastage by switching off the boiler if it detects a window has been opened and works with Alexa and Google Assistant.

However, it's not the most stylish of thermostats on the market, and there's no way to see the room's temperature from the radiator thermostat itself - you'll need to open the app on your smartphone. That said, it's hard to beat if you're on a budget and want complete control over your heating.

Read the full Drayton Wiser review

The best smart thermostat for zonal control

The Honeywell Evohome gives you total control over your home, with individual thermostats for each radiator enabling you to set an independent heating schedule for every room in your house.

It's difficult to grasp what a difference this feature makes until you've tried it for yourself. But, if you live in a house where different inhabitants prefer a different temperature, or if one room always seems hotter or colder than the others, this system will be a godsend. Moreover, it works with under-floor heating, too, so even if you have a large and complicated heating system, Evohome gives you total control over all of it via an app that's a pleasure to use.

The control panel and radiator thermostats aren't going to win any design awards, coming as they do in plain white plastic, but that's not really the point of the Evohome. It's expensive, too - as you'll need a smart valve for each radiator in your home. However, it's worth it for the granular control you get over your heating.

Read the full Honeywell Evohome review

The best smart thermostat for Alexa

The latest version of Hive's smart thermostat is smaller, sleeker, and smarter than ever. This third-generation thermostat has a similar look to its predecessors, but has done away with the physical buttons, replacing them with a touchscreen interface that we found quick and easy to use during our tests,

Scheduling your home heating is a piece of cake, and the Hive Thermostat (2024) let us easily see exactly how our choices were affecting our overall energy use - and therefore our bills. It was eye-opening, and the thermostat helped our reviewer Vic Hood make meaningful changes to the way she heated her home.

There are a few drawbacks - particularly when it comes to pricing. The thermostat itself isn't very expensive, but when you include the price of the Hive Hub, professional installation, and radiator valves to get the most out of the system, the costs start to add up.

Nevertheless, it's an excellent option if you're looking for a smart thermostat that's easy to use and compatible with your smart speaker or hub (it works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit) - particularly if you live in the UK where the latest Nest Learning Thermostat isn't available.

Read the full Hive Thermostat (2024) review

The best smart thermostat for beginners

If you live in Europe and can't get your hands on the latest Nest Learning Thermostat, the Nest Thermostat E is one of your alternative options. As the Nest's smaller sibling, it benefits from industry-leading smarts, lacking only the most advanced features of the premium model, such as the self-learning capabilities. However, the app is simple to use too.

It's made of white plastic, with a white coating on the plastic screen that meant we sometimes found it hard to see the information being displayed – but it does echo the design language of the original Nest Thermostat, so you'll be more than happy to have it on your wall.

The Nest E is an excellent example of how to streamline a flagship product to make a cheap alternative without damaging the qualities that made the original great. Make no mistake, this isn't flagship quality for a bargain price, but it's great value for what it is. It's currently only available in the UK.

It is worth bearing in mind that the Nest Thermostat E is an older model, which may affect its long-term appeal. While Google ended support for the first and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats in 2025, the Thermostat E is still supported and remains available through retailers in North America. However, with Google focusing on newer models and scaling back thermostat availability outside the region, we have dropped it slightly in our rankings in favor of options with a clearer long-term future.

Read the full Nest Thermostat E review

The best Matter-certified smart thermostat

The Honeywell Home X2S is an Energy Star certified smart thermostat, and is Matter-compatible, so you can easily use it as part of a pick-and-mix smart home setup from different brands. You need to install the company's own app to get started, but once that's done it's up to you how you control it.

That's a real plus, and during our testing we were impressed by just how easy it was to use as well. Setting heating schedules is easy, and we particularly liked how straightforward it is to create plans that will only heat your home when you're there, with vacation settings designed to minimize energy use without letting your pipes freeze.

The biggest potential drawback is that, unlike many of the other smart thermostats listed here, the Honeywell Home requires a C-wire. We had to use an adapter to install it, so be prepared for that possibility. The company's helpdesk will be able to advise if you get stuck.

This thermostat is only available in the US at the time of writing, so you'll need to consider one of the other options above if you live elsewhere.

Read our full Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat review

How to choose the best smart thermostat for you

Before selecting the right smart thermostat for you, there are some aspects to consider. As we’ve already mentioned, there are two types of smart thermostats to consider. Smart thermostats that control your system as a whole are usually more affordable and easier to install than smart thermostats that offer zonal control. However, you may find you’re still heating or cooling rooms that you’re not using and subsequently wasting energy and money.

Smart thermostats that offer zonal control are more expensive as you’ll need to install a smart valve on each radiator or cooling outlet - this allows you to heat or cool each individual room to a different temperature.

Some smart thermostats use AI to adjust your heating and cooling schedule based on how long it takes your home to heat up or cool down. In contrast, others include sensors that automatically switch the heating and cooling system off if they detect an open window or think no one is using the house at the time, saving even more energy.

Finally, not all smart thermostats are compatible with all voice assistants, so if you already use a voice assistant in your home, check whether it will integrate with your chosen smart thermostat. Also, consider whether it will integrate with your own smart home devices, such as the best home security cameras, video doorbells, and smart lights.

We also tested

FAQs about smart thermostats

How we tested these smart thermostats

To find out which are the best smart thermostats on the market, we assess how easy they are to install and control. Then, we evaluate their responsiveness when switching the heating and cooling systems on or off from a smartphone, both when we’re away from home and close by. We also judge how effectively AI amends the heating and cooling schedule based on how quickly or slowly your house changes temperature and any sensors that detect activity (or lack of it) and open windows.

We also appraise each design on its durability and how effectively Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri respond to commands related to the smart thermostat. We also assess any extra kit available for the smart thermostat, such as hubs and radiator valves, and consider whether it requires reading a thick instruction manual before use.

The best smart thermostats are a great way to save both energy and money when it comes to heating and cooling your home. If you’re going to be late home, you can ensure you’re not heating an empty house. 

There’s a number of smart thermostats on the market already, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat from Google and Hive Active Heating. Now, Amazon is joining the ranks with the Alexa Smart Thermostat. 

The Alexa Smart Thermostat was one of a number of devices unveiled at the Amazon event 2021 and will be launched in the US later this year. Priced at $59.99 (about £45 / AU$80), the Alexa Smart Thermostat has been produced in conjunction with  Resideo, which designs and manufacturers Honeywell Home thermostats.

Saving energy and money

Amazon says the Alexa Smart Thermostat will work with the majority of HVAC systems, and is Energy Star certified, which means the device can help save electricity. 

As well as allowing you to control your heating and cooling systems from your smartphone, the Amazon smart thermostat also makes use of the Alexa Hunches feature to automatically lower the temperature if it thinks you’re away from home or have retired for the night.

The Hunches feature was first introduced in the US in 2018 and saw Alexa on Echo smart speakers or Echo Show devices offer suggestions for any smart home devices installed in a property. For example, if you said "Goodnight" to Alexa and a smart light was still switched on, Alexa would offer to turn it off for you. Initially, it required you to confirm the action before Alexa could perform it. However, earlier this year, Amazon made Hunches automatic so there was no need to confirm you wanted the action performed.  

We spoke to Amazon, but it couldn't confirm if the Alexa Smart Thermostat would be rolled out in the UK or Australia., but it did reveal that "Internationalisation of all of our products and services is incredibly important".

"We are working hard to make all of the features and devices we’ve announced available everywhere our customers want them," it told TechRadar. 

The Alexa Smart Thermostat has square white styling and just like Amazon's smart speakers and smart displays, lets you issue Alexa with a command to adjust the temperature. When the heating is adjusted, the display illuminates with the requested temperature.

Analysis: The price is right but Alexa hunches might not be enough

When it comes to smart home devices, smart thermostats are lagging behind items such as smart speakers in popularity. According to Statista, in 2020 just 33 million US homes had a smart thermostat installed - that equates to just under a quarter of all homes in the US. However, in 2018, almost a third (28%) of US homes had a smart speaker, and that’s expected to increase to 75% by 2025, Statista figures show. 

It’s no surprise when you consider the cost of smart thermostats can be at least four times the price of one of the cheapest smart speakers, if not more. So by introducing one of the most affordable smart thermostats on the market, Amazon is going some way to helping break down this barrier to ownership with the Alexa Smart Thermostat.

At just $59.99, it’s cheaper than models from rivals Nest and even Honeywell - the firm that Amazon worked with to develop the thermostat. However, it doesn’t stop there  - Amazon also said rebates from local energy providers would be available when purchasing the smart thermostat from Amazon directly, which means it can be obtained for as little as $10. 

Many smart thermostats claim you shave hundreds off your energy bill - if you’re the sort of person that runs your heating system all the time, then chances are you’ll generate some hefty savings, but if you already use a schedule to adjust the temperature in your home, the savings won’t be as big. 

The smart thermostats that can save you the most money are those that are self-learning, as over time they work out how long your house takes to heat up and cool down, adjusting the schedule and temperature to reflect this. Sure, Alexa Hunches is likely to save you a few cents here and there, by working out if you’ve gone to bed earlier, or unexpectedly popped out for dinner, but if you already have your heating and cooling set to a schedule, it won’t be much. 

We’re a little disappointed that Amazon hasn’t gone down the self-learning route as this will save more energy (and money) long term, which as well as being good for the environment is also good for your wallet. We’re confident that Amazon can come up with the good, not least because Alexa itself is always learning and has come on leaps and bounds since its inception in 2014. If this happens, then the Alexa Smart Thermostat really will be a rival to Nest and others on the market. 

• Check our these great Echo deals

Two-minute review

Drayton Wiser is a smart heating system that offers zonal control, so you can heat the various rooms in your home independently. This not only saves energy-saving but also benefits the bill-payer, who will save some hard-earned cash by heating only those rooms that are being used, making it one of the best smart thermostats you can buy right now. It’s currently only available in the UK. 

Working in the same way as the likes of Honeywell’s Evohome and Tado’s smart thermostat, a module – or Heat Hub – connects to your boiler or heat pump, with smart radiator thermostats replacing any existing TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) on your radiators, allowing you to control each radiator individually via the Wiser app. There are even additional add-ons that ensure you can also control your underfloor heating, whether water or electric-based, and electric towel rails remotely too.

 However, unlike its rivals, there’s no-way to view the current temperature of a room from the thermostat itself; to do that, you’ll need to open the app. This does mean the system is more affordable, however, with radiator thermostats costing around £50, which is around £20 cheaper than its rivals. With each radiator requiring a thermostat to achieve the most efficient results, this can add up to a substantial saving, if you have a number of radiators in your home. 

As well as letting you set a schedule for your heating through the Wiser app, you can also turn on any radiator for between 30 minutes to three hours to boost the temperature in the room at any point, either via the app or through the thermostat itself. The system also offers a range of handy modes, which after learning how long your house retains heat for, will switch the boiler on or off earlier than scheduled to ensure rooms in your home are at the temperature you want, when you want them. Open Window Detection also helps put a stop to energy wastage by switching the heating off if a draft has been detected from an open window.

The smart heating system supports both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so if you have a smart speaker with either voice assistant built-in, you can increase or decrease the temperature in a specific room using voice control.

Depending upon the type of boiler you have (one that controls hot water separately or at the same time), the Drayton Wiser starter kit costs from £219.99. This includes a Heat Hub, smart thermostat and two smart radiator thermostats. Extra thermostats cost £44.99, making this the most affordable smart thermostat with zonal control on the market, although it’s not the most stylish with a plain white plastic design.

Drayton Wiser price and availability

•  RRP £219.99

The Drayton Wiser starter kit is available in two variants. Wiser Multi-zone Kit 1 works with combination boilers and costs £219.99. Wiser Multi-zone Kit 2 is designed for boilers that use a programmer to control the heating and hot water separately and is priced at £229.99. 

Both starter kits include a Heat Hub (a module that connects to your boiler), a smart room thermostat and two smart radiator thermostats in the box. Additional radiator thermostats can be picked up for £44.99, while extra room thermostats cost £84.99. Drayton also offers a smart plug that enables control of any electrical appliance connected to it from the Wiser app, priced at £42.

The Wiser Underfloor Heating controller, which works for water-based underfloor heating, costs £264.99, while the Electrical Heat Switch, which ensures electric underfloor heating, radiators or towels, can be controlled via the Wiser app is £59.99.

Wiser also offers a smart plug, priced at £42, which also lets you control any device connected to it, whether heating-related or otherwise, in the app. 

Design

•  All-white design isn’t as stylish as rivals 
•  Rounded corners on Heat Hub and smart thermostat in keeping with cylindrical radiator thermostats
•  Thermostats are battery powered and take two AA batteries

The Drayton Wiser components are all made from white plastic, so they lack the stylish metal and glass found on rival smart heating thermostats. However, on the plus side it means they remain affordable.  

The Heat Hub is a rectangular box with two buttons. One button activates the set-up process, while the other starts the whole system heating. LEDs above the buttons glow green when these options are active. The Heat Hub should be screwed to the wall next to your boiler. The square smart thermostat has a two-inch screen that shows the current temperature of the room it’s in, as well as the desired temperature. It also displays the relative humidity and battery level, and features a flame icon to indicate if the heating is switched on. 

Powered by two AA batteries, the smart thermostat can be freestanding on a table or shelf, or mounted on a wall. It has three touch controls on the front. The plus and minus button allow you to adjust the desired temperature of the room, while the middle button boosts the heating in said room by two degrees. The screen automatically goes to sleep after 15 seconds to conserve the battery, but pressing any of the three touch controls will wake it up. 

The final component, the smart radiator thermostat, is a white plastic cylinder, which fit to the radiator once the existing valve has been unscrewed. To manually override any schedules you may have set, simply swivel the top of the radiator thermostat right to start the radiator heating, or left to stop heating. An LED on the radiator thermostat glows red temporarily when the radiator is heating, and blue if it's been turned off. Turning and holding the radiator thermostat will also reset or put it into set-up mode, depending upon how long you hold it in that position. 

Unlike Honeywell’s Evohome radiator thermostats, there’s no way to determine the temperature of a room from the radiator thermostat itself – for this you’ll need to open the app. Note that the radiator thermostats are powered by two AA batteries, which can be easily replaced by removing the cover on the back of the radiator thermostat. 

Installing the Drayton Wiser system in your home is more time-consuming than rival smart thermostats because, in order to get the most out of the setup, you’ll need to fit a smart thermostat onto every radiator in your home. Otherwise, the radiators without thermostats will begin heating at the same time as those that have thermostats, potentially heating a room unnecessarily, and wasting energy. 

These smart radiator thermostats replace the TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) on your radiator, the type that let you adjust the temperature of the radiator manually. If you don’t have TRVs then you’ll need to bear the cost of changing your current valves to TRVs on top of the cost of the smart heating system. There’s no denying the radiator thermostats are bulkier than TRVs, but we found we didn’t notice them as much as we expected to. 

The Heat Hub needs to be wired into your boiler. Drayton recommends that this should be done by a qualified electrician or heating engineer. This can be organised through the Drayton website, so we opted to have a certified installer visit. Once complete, the smart thermostat and smart radiator thermostats can then be paired with the Heat Hub, and assigned to a room using the app. 

Performance

•  Heating can be switched on via app or through thermostats
•  Smart modes help to reduce energy use 
•  Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration

The Drayton Wiser system lets you set a schedule for each thermostat, indicating a desired temperature for each room in your home at different times of the day. For example, you can set the bathroom to warm up first thing in the morning and last thing at night, if you don’t use it during the day. As already mentioned, you can override a set schedule at any time by manually twisting the top of the radiator thermostat (turning the heating on in that room for 30 minutes) or from the app, where you can choose for the heating to remain on for between 30 minutes and three hours.  

Wiser’s Comfort mode can work out the time it takes for a room to heat to a particular temperature, turning on the radiator to ensure the room is at the desired temperature at the specified time. Alternatively, over time Eco mode will learn how long your home retains heat, using this information in conjunction with the external temperature to turn off the boiler sooner than scheduled if the desired temperature has been reached more quickly, saving energy.

The Open Window Detection feature switches the heating off if the thermostat detects a draft from an open window, also helping to save energy wastage and money. It can be switched on or off for each room in the house from the app. However, unlike Google Nest, this system lacks an activity sensor, which can turn off the heating if the thermostat senses that no-one is in the room. 

However, it does have an Away Mode. Rather than switching the heating off completely while you’re out, this feature allows you to set a minimum temperature at which you want your home to remain at while away. If the temperature plunges below this threshold, the heating will spring to life – handy, if you're concerned about frozen pipes when you’re not at home.

Like many smart home products, the Drayton Wiser smart heating system offers integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. We were able to issue commands through the Amazon Echo smart speaker in our home to turn the heating on and off. It’s also compatible with IFTTT for other automations – for example, we were able to get Away mode to come on automatically on leaving the house, with our smartphone providing location data for the thermostat.

We did notice a slight delay of around 10 seconds to one minute between boosting the heating from both the radiator thermostat or the app and the boiler springing into action. The further away from the Heat Hub the thermostat is, the longer the delay. Initially, we also struggled to get the radiator thermostat in the room furthest from the Heat Hub to remain connected to the system at all times. It would often drop the signal, meaning we were unable to control it via the app. However, after installing an optional Wiser Smart Plug – which also doubles as a range extender for the system – in a room between the Heat Hub and the troublesome radiator thermostat, connection issues were no longer a problem.

We also found it was easy to create some basic automations in the app using the Moments feature - such as turning the radiators in the lounge on, while also dimming the map connected to the Wiser smart plug to create a cozy atmosphere of an evening. 

App

•  Boost the temperature on any thermostat from the home screen 
•  Activate smart modes and Open Window Detection
•  Insights tab provides stats about the number of hours the heating has been switched on and energy saving made through Eco mode

The Wiser app is uncluttered and simple to use. Open the app and you’re presented with a dashboard of all the rooms in your home. For each room, you can view the current temperature and the next scheduled change for that room. If the heating is on in a particular room, for that room the flame icon to the left of the screen will be orange; if the room isn’t being heated then it’s a black and white outline. To the right is a stopwatch icon that can be used to boost the temperature. Tap the icon and then choose the length of the boost required, from 30 minutes to three hours. Once you’ve done this, the stopwatch will turn orange, just like the flame icon.

You can tap on a room and edit the schedule or access the room settings, where you can view the battery level for the thermostat, rename it and turn Open Window Detection on or off. Editing a schedule was made super-easy as a result of the ‘copy’ feature, which lets you duplicate a schedule with just one tap, rather than having to input it all for each day and on each device. 

From the home screen, you can also view the weather for your location and sunrise and sunset times, too. The cog icon at the top of the home screen provides access to the main Settings menu, from where you can activate smart modes such as Eco and Comfort, and set a temperature for the Away mode. 

The Insights tab includes information on how much energy you’ve saved with Eco mode enabled, while also presenting a ‘Heat Report’ that details how long and to what temperature over the past day, week, and month your rooms have been heated. 

There's also an additional Insights+ feature that, providing you have a smart meter installed in your home, uses the data from it to break down your energy usage and offer some personalised predictions about how much heating your home costs, and potential ways you can save. 

Battery life

•  Drayton says the batteries in each thermostat should last around a year 

Drayton claims the batteries in Wiser thermostats will last around a year before they require replacing. How often the temperature is boosted from the app or thermostat itself will affect the level at which batteries drain. Through our time with the Drayton Wiser system, we’ve found that when we’re out of the house, and therefore not boosting the heating as much, the batteries live up to these claims. However, recently, as the weather has been colder and we’ve been indoors more often, the batteries have depleted quicker than we’d have expected. There’s no percentage indicator on the battery meter, so it’s difficult to judge the impact of the past couple of months on the battery life.  

Should I buy the Drayton Wiser?

 Buy it if…

 You want zonal control on a budget
Drayton Wiser is one of the most affordable ways to get zonal control for your smart heating system. With extra radiator thermostats priced £44.99, it’s around £20 cheaper per thermostat than rival systems 

You want to control smart plugs in the same app
As well as smart thermostats, Wiser also offers a smart plug that can be added to the system in order to control other smart devices from the same app – whether that’s a lamp, fan or even a dehumidifier or air-con system. It’s easier than using a plug from a different manufacturer which has its own app. 

You want Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration
Drayton Wiser works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so if you have a smart speaker at home that has support for these voice assistant’s built-in, you can issue commands to increase the temperature through them 

 Don’t buy it if...

You want a stylish brushed-metal design
Drayton Wiser may be functional, but its plain all-white plastic design certainly isn’t stylish. If you prefer gadgets that make a design statement, this isn’t the smart thermostat for you. 

You want to see the temperature from the radiator thermostat
With no display on the radiator thermostats, Drayton Wiser is reliant on the app for checking the temperature of a room. If you’re someone who doesn’t always have their smartphone to hand, give this thermostat a wide berth. 

You want cutting-edge smart features
The smart features on Drayton Wiser are great, but they can’t match the smarts of thermostats such as the Google Nest, which is able to turn off the heating in a particular room if no-one is in it. Furthermore, with a geofence only available via IFTTT, this may not be as smart a thermostat as you want.  

Google has unveiled its first new Nest Thermostat hardware in three years – just in time for the Christmas rush, ready to tweak your heating and your air-con based on your usage habits.

The big change here isn't so much in design or feature set, but in pricing. Launching in North America and Canada for pre-order on October 12 (we're still waiting on global availability), it'll be priced at just $130, a significant saving over the $169 RRP of the Thermostat E.

With the added value on energy monitoring savings a smart thermostat can bring, that's a decent long-term saving to be had.

• Get ready for Prime Day

Sleek, colorful design

If anything, the new Nest Thermostat 2020 model has a stripped-back design. Now coming in four colors – white, a warm pink, dark grey and a very pale green – it doesn't need a common wire for set up, making use of a pair of AA cell batteries for back up.

The smart thermostat has a "smooth mirror" display for keeping an eye on temperatures and heating routines, but it isn't a touchscreen. Instead, taps and swipes on the side of the new Nest Thermostat let you control its functions – and you can of course use its accompanying smartphone app, or speak to it using a smart voice assistant like the Google Assistant.

Features like a Savings Finder and alerts for heating issues with boilers and air conditioning units are still available with the new cheaper model, and if you happen to be with an energy provider such as ComED or Duke Energy, you can benefit from rebates for using the device, too.

• The best smart home gadgets of 2020

The next Nest smart thermostat could be here in time for the winter months in North America and Europe, if a new FCC filing is anything to go by.

The filing, which appeared on Friday, is for a new Google device simply called “thermostat” with the model name “G4CVZ”. According to the specs listed, the thermostat will have a better version of Bluetooth (Version 5.0) than the Nest Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E, and it will use the latest Wi-Fi technology.

What’s more interesting, however, is the fact that it will include a 60GHz transmitter, similar to the one we’ve seen previously on the Google Pixel 4 for motion controls. 

It’s not entirely clear if that’s exactly the transmitter’s intended purpose, but the potential benefit there is that a motion detector could save on battery life and could give the Nest motion controls, allowing you to raise and lower the temperature by waving your hands.

Things are heating up at Google’s hardware division 

The new Google Nest thermostat joins a number of products the company has waiting in the wings for its next Made by Google event: there’s the Google Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5, the rumored Android TV dongle codenamed “Sabrina” and a new Google Nest smart speaker that’s already appeared in some images.

The likelihood of Google holding an event sometime in the next month or two to publicly unveil these products seems more and more likely by the minute. Considering that the company has almost always held a Made by Google event in October, our money is on that being the forum Google will use to do it.

What other evidence is there? Well, there’s also the fact, as 9to5Google pointed out, that we haven’t seen a new Nest thermostat since the launch of the Nest Thermostat E in 2017, and the time seems about right for the company to release an updated model. 

You can’t always trust your gut in an industry that hid the Microsoft HoloLens from the world for years, but when you start seeing FCC filings emerge chances are good that there’s something afoot.

• Looking for a better way to control the thermostat? Don't miss our guide to the best smart thermostats in 2020

If you have a Google Nest Thermostat, you'll know that the smart heating device will send you alerts when there are immediate problems with your HVAC system (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning). 

Now, Google is trialling a new feature that will tell you about any potential problems before they arise, potentially saving your heating from breaking down entirely.

Using artificial intelligence, Nest Thermostats, including the Nest Thermostat E and the Nest Learning Thermostat, will learn "how to identify unusual patterns related to your HVAC system," factoring in historical data and the current weather conditions – patterns that you probably wouldn't be aware of until your furnace or AC stops working. 

• Read our Nest Thermostat E review
• Or check out the Nest Learning Thermostat
• These are the best smart home devices you can buy in 2020

In a blog post, Google explains: "Sometimes, your HVAC system shows warning signs that it's having issues. For example, if it takes longer than normal to cool your home, there might be a problem with your cooling system (AC). If your Nest thermostat detects these unusual or unexpected patterns, we may send you an email alert." 

This email alert will tell you what your smart thermostat noticed, and which system (heating or cooling) has been affected. Google says you'll also get a link to an optional survey to tell the company more about the issue with your HVAC system and what steps you took to resolve it.

A helpful warning

As Android Police points out, these alerts won't be able to tell you if a component of your HVAC system is about to catastrophically fail, but they will give you a warning if parts are degrading over time – and in the long run, that could save you a lot of money.

Google says that it's still important to check for anything else that could be causing the issue, for example, someone leaving the back door open while the heating is on. 

The company also stresses that  “HVAC alerts are not meant to replace the diagnosis of a qualified HVAC professional".

In some regions, your Nest Thermostat will even help you find a professional to look at your HVAC issues. Customers in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Las Vegas and San Diego, will find a link at the bottom of their HVAC alert that sends to a website where you can book a qualified professional through Handy. 

Google hasn't confirmed when this feature will branch out to other regions, but we'll hopefully see it in more territories if this initial testing phase is successful.

To get these alerts, you'll need to opt in to Nest Home Report, after which you'll be automatically enrolled into HVAC alerts. To sign up to Nest Home Report, open the Nest app on your smartphone or tablet, and head to Settings. Then tap Notifications > Nest Home Report, and slide the slider to 'on'.

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Via 9to5Google

Google has shut down its Nest thermostat apps for smartwatches, claiming not enough people were using them.

The apps for Google Wear OS and Apple Watch let you adjust the target temperature with a tap of your wrist, see notifications, and set home/away modes so your home would be nice and cozy when you arrived back from work.

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It seems that wasn't enough to win over Nest owners, though. As 9to5Google reports, both apps are now defunct, and anyone who tries to use the Wear OS version now will be prompted to uninstall it.

Wrist assessment

You can still control your Nest with your smartphone, and it seems that's what users have been doing anyway.

"You will still get notifications on your watch with Nest app via your mobile device," a Google spokesperson said. "Wear OS users can control their thermostat with the Google Assistant from any Wear OS device, check out more details here.

"If you’re using an Apple watch you’ll no longer be able to adjust your thermostat or change Home/Away mode from your watch. However, the actions you were able to take on your watch are all available with the Nest app (available for both Android and iOS), so you’ll still be able to control your devices on the go"

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The Nest Thermostat E is the affordable way to get a smart thermostat in your home, and it comes with a good name behind it.

Nest was among the first companies to inject machine learning into heating and cooling your home, and since then has been hailed as the best smart thermostat manufacturer. Now, it’s back with a new, more affordable take on the smart thermostat in the Nest Thermostat E.

The Nest Thermostat E might cost less than some other smart thermostats, but it's not exactly cheap either. With that in mind, is Nest’s latest addition to the thermostat line-up worth buying? We put one in our own home to find out.

Price and release date

The Nest Thermostat E price is affordable, at least compared to the more premium Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Gen. The newer, cheaper smart thermostat costs $169 in the US at launch in September 2017. Now it's down to $139 if you can find a good deal.

The UK version of the Nest Thermostat E finally made its way to the UK in October with a price £199. It'll cost you £259 with professional installation. The Nest Learning Thermostat costs £219 in the UK without professional installation.

You get some of this money back by way of built-in energy saving features, in the US, there's a credit from energy companies that can make the device nearly free.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice about any new product is its design, and the Nest Thermostat E is no different. The device, unlike the standard Nest Learning Thermostat, is white – complete with a slightly frosted display. It’s similar to what we’ve seen before but that’s OK. The circular build has always served the Nest well, and it would be strange to see Nest adopt a different form-factor.

The puck-shaped device is a little smaller than the original Nest Learning Thermostat, coming in at 3.19-inches versus the standard Nest’s 3.3-inches. But it’s not enough smaller to be really noticeable unless you’re going from a standard Nest to a Thermostat E ... and we doubt that very many people are going to want to do that.

As mentioned, perhaps the biggest design difference between Nests has to do with the frosted, lower resolution display. The Thermostat E’s display comes in at 320 x 320 pixels (against the standard Nest’s 480 x 480). The frosted display makes the Thermostat E slightly harder to read in better-lit situations. That said, it’s not terrible, either – you can still see it pretty well if you have good eyesight, but those that don’t may not be able to see it very well at a distance.

The Thermostat also does away with the standard Nest’s so-called Farsight, which basically turns the display on when you enter a room to show the time, current weather, or temperature. That doesn’t mean the Thermostat E won’t wake when you approach – it will – but only to show the current and target temperatures.

All these downsides, however, are small ones. The display is fine for most situations, and let’s be honest, you’re not going to be watching any movies on your thermostat anyway. The lack of Farsight is a small loss, but only a minor one especially because the thermostat will still show temperature-related information because of the proximity sensor. 

Despite a few minor limitations, however, the Nest Thermostat E is super well-designed.

Installation and compatibility

Installing the Nest Thermostat E is just as easy as the standard Nest Learning Thermostat, assuming you have a compatible HVAC system. 

To install Nest, you’ll simply remove your old thermostat, take a photo or label the wires attached to it, then attach those wires to the appropriate terminal after you’ve screwed in the base plate. Then push in the main Thermostat unit, and you’re good to go. (Nest says the standard Thermostat works with 95 percent of HVAC systems – while the Thermostat E only works with 85 percent.) 

Chances are, your system will still work fine, but you may want to check compatibility here before you begin. The gist of it is that the Nest Learning Thermostat works with complex multi-stage heating and cooling systems, while the Thermostat E does not. 

Like the standard Nest, the Thermostat E doesn’t need a common wire to work properly – it’ll draw power from other wires on a 24V system, which isn’t always true in the smart thermostat market.

A big part of how the Thermostat E works is the app, and it’s pretty easy to connect the device to the app too. Once the Thermostat E is installed and powered on, download the app and follow the on-screen instructions to connect the device to your Wi-Fi network. It really is that easy and it shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes to conduct the entire setup process.

Perhaps the only downside here is that the thermostat doesn’t support external sensors. In other words, it can only determine the temperature through the thermometer on the thermostat itself. You can’t set up sensors in other rooms and control the thermostat through their readings the same way you can with some other smart thermostats. Rumor has it this will change at some point, but we don’t have any solid information about that.

Installation of the Nest Thermostat E is extremely easy, and while the device isn’t as compatible as its more expensive sibling, for most that won’t matter.

Day-to-day use

Once installed and connected to the app, the Thermostat E is a breeze to use – both from the Thermostat itself and from the app.

Let’s start with the actual device. The Thermostat E features a ring around the main unit, which is how you’ll interact with it. There’s no touch-screen here folks, but we would argue that the ring is just as easy and makes more sense in the majority of situations. 

From the main screen, you’ll be able to turn the device off, or turn the heating or air conditioning on. Then, simply turn the ring to the desired temperature, and the thermostat will either turn the heater or air conditioner on to achieve that target temperature. It’s really that easy.

Tweaking the settings is also pretty easy. Push the ring in to open up the menu, head to the settings option, press the ring in again, and find the desired setting you want to tweak. After using the thermostat for a few minutes, navigating through the interface will become a breeze  and you’ll find changing the settings more than simple.

The app is equally easy to use. To tweak the temperature, you’ll open it up, tap on the thermostat, and simply turn the ring around the temperature – just like you would on the actual device. The device is also pretty good at offering control over multiple devices without feeling cluttered. 

Perhaps the best thing about the Thermostat E is that it adjusts to your routine. Simply use it the same way you would any other thermostat for the first few weeks, after which you’ll find that the thermostat will adjust automatically without having to do anything. It’ll also switch on and off based on your location using Home/Away Assist – so you won’t waste any energy when you’re not home, and you’ll find the thermostat adjusting automatically when you are on your way home. That’s good news for those that hate those few minutes in between getting home and heating or cooling the house.

The Thermostat E doesn’t have to adjust to your routine. Scheduling events manually is also super easy: simply head to the app, hit the schedule button, and you’ll be able to tell the thermostat exactly when to change temperature during the week.

Verdict

The Nest Thermostat E proves that you don’t have to shell out for a smart thermostat. It does away with a few, unnecessary features, but it keeps the majority of the smarts and saves you a whole lot of money.

There are few situations in which the Thermostat E isn’t the best choice for you. For example, if you have a high-end multi-stage heating or cooling system, the Learning Thermostat may be a better choice. Still, if the Nest Thermostat E is compatible with your setup and you don’t care about the lack of Farsight or slightly lower quality display, then it’s an excellent option.

First reviewed January 2018

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Tado has just announced a new generation of smart thermostats dubbed the V3+, and they come with a new app and tools to help you improve the quality of your air.

That latter feature is called Air Comfort and it works by providing insights into your home’s air climate along with suggestions on how to improve it. 

Examples include when and for how long to open windows and when to air rooms, based on things like air freshness and quality, weather forecasts and pollution.

You’ll be able to access the Air Comfort skill through a new app, designed for the Tado V3+ Smart Thermostat. This also includes the main features offered by the previous Tado Smart Thermostat, such as geofencing, smart schedules, open window detection and weather adaptation, but is now more customizable.

Customize or automate

You can activate only the skills you’re interested in, while the layout is designed to be simple and intuitive. If you want to be more hands-off then you can subscribe to the Auto-Assist skill for £2.99 (roughly $3.90/AU$5.40) per month or £24.99 (around $32/AU$45) per year.

The Tado V3+ itself is available now for £199.99 (approximately $260/AU$360) in the UK, or you can get the Smart Radiator Thermostat Starter Kit V3+ for £119.99 (around $155/AU$215), but neither is currently available in the US or Australia.

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Until the invention of the smart thermostat, you probably only really thought about your thermostat when engaged in a battle of hotter/colder with the other inhabitants of your home, who clearly don’t care about bills/comfort. 

Now, thanks to connected thermostats you can control different rooms independently, ensuring that everyone gets a temperature they’re comfortable with, and that the bill-payer gets to save some pennies because only the rooms that are being used get heated.

One such thermostat is the Honeywell Evohome. At the time of writing, this thermostat is already a few years old, but in our opinion is one the of best smart thermostats you can buy, on account of its zonal controls, easy installation, and user-friendly interface.

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But the question is, now that there are younger, swankier models ram-packed with features on the market, can this simple, solid solution keep up? 

Price and availability

The Honeywell Evohome is available in the UK, US and Australia. As it's a UK company the prices for other regions can depend on the supplier so we'll be providing approximate rates here. 

Pricing is a little complicated (and not cheap) due to the modular nature of the kit. The control panel will set you back £229.99 (about $330, AU$220) not including installation, which in the UK will cost about £100. 

On top of this you'll need a valve for each radiator. These will cost £59 (about $85, AU$100) if bought individually, or there are packs where you can buy a larger number at a discounted rate. It's definitely worth looking for a pack that best suits your needs.

Installation

Installation of the Evohome system is a little more involved than with some other smart thermostats available due to the fact that each radiator in your house needs to be fitted with an individual thermostat.

This means you’ll need radiators with TRV valves to start with, or be prepared to stump up the money to change your current valves to TRV valves. TRV valves are the type that enable you  to adjust the temperature of the radiator. 

Most modern central heating systems will have TRV valves, but bathroom radiators often don’t. This was the case in our house, and we were told by the installer that what would happen was that the bathroom radiator would simply turn on any time one of the other radiators was on, which we figured wasn’t too big a problem.

If you don’t need to change valves, the installation of the individual thermostats is unbelievably easy. The TRV valves just pop off and the Evohome valves slide on. The installer even shows you how to do it yourself so that you can change the battery on the thermostat when it eventually runs out.

The main control panel just needs to plug into a wall socket and then connect to your Wi-Fi network, so can go anywhere you’d like it. It can be used as a temperature sensor or simply as a control panel. Pairing the thermostats and the control panel was also very simple – the entire installation took about half an hour for a two-bedroom apartment.

The only bit of the installation that was a bit tricky was the rewiring needed to connect the boiler to the wireless signal receiver. This makes your previous thermostat redundant, so you’re left with the option of having a redundant thermostat sitting on your wall, or getting it removed and repairing the resulting hole.

This isn’t technically part of the installation, but it’s worth remembering when calculating the cost, as you don’t have this issue with a direct thermostat replacement like the Nest Learning Thermostat.

Design

All of the individual components of the Evohome setup are made of the same white plastic, which is disappointing when some of the competition have clearly put a lot of thought into their designs. 

It’s not that the design is unpleasant; it’s just clearly been designed to be functional rather than fashionable. It does mean that it’ll probably be able to fit in with a wide range of interior design styles, but for our taste the range could do with a bit of an image upgrade.

The main control terminal sits on a white dock that’s also a charging platform. That’s right, the terminal has a battery on board so that you can move around the house while setting temperatures. You need to make sure you return it to the dock though, as the battery life isn’t long enough to leave it off the dock overnight, and it’s the unit keeping your entire heating system running. 

The terminal houses a backlit resistive touchscreen that allows you full control of the heating system. We’ll get into the full spectrum of the features a little later on. 

One gripe we had was that the screen is always on; it has an ‘idle screen’ that you can set to display either a digital or traditional clock face, with the option to show current settings, but there’s no option for turning the screen off entirely, which forced us to move the terminal to the study as the constant white light was an annoyance.

The individual thermostats come with their own screens that are adjustable, so they can point up towards you, saving you from having to crouch down every time you want to see what the temperature is currently set to. 

There is a twist-dial on the thermostats, so you can override the current settings from the radiator without having to use the control terminal or your phone. You won’t get as sophisticated a level of control, but to bump the temperature up or down a couple of degrees it’s perfect.

In contrast to the hardware, the app is beautifully designed. It’s very clearly laid out, with color coding for temperatures allowing you to identify at a glance the temperature for each room of your house. 

Performance

The Honeywell Evohome allows you to set schedules for each individual thermostat, so if you know that your bedroom is only used at night, you can set it to be cold during the day, heat up half an hour before you head to bed, and then cool down to your preferred sleeping temperature through the night.

The Evohome can even work out how long it takes to heat a room to a particular temperature, and turn on the radiator the appropriate amount of time before a scheduled window so the room is exactly the right temperature when you walk through the door.

Having zonal controls means you can have totally independent schedules for each room, so people using different rooms can have the heating set to their specific demands. 

This was something of a revelation when we got it to work. The apartment we were testing the Evohome in is one of those properties where every room is a different temperature, and what this means is that we always heat to the right level for the living room, but then go through to a cold bedroom. Not so with the Evohome – it was the first time since we moved in that the bedroom had been warmer than the living room.

And figuring out the temperatures that different rooms needed to be at to feel comfortable was something of an issue for the first few days. It’s definitely a more labor-intensive process to figure out the heating requirements of each room and the schedules, and we didn’t get it right for the first few days, leading to some cold evenings and hot nights.

While it is possible to just put your entire home at the same level constantly, that would be like doing the school run in a Porsche. You get Evohome to get unprecedented control – just be prepared to spend some time and effort exercising that control.

Once you’ve set up a schedule, it’s really easy to customize, override for short periods, even activate special settings. So if you’re up late you can do a custom override, or if you’re off sick a single button will activate ‘day off’ mode, which uses your schedule for Saturday on a weekday.

If you’re still wanting to save the pennies there’s an ‘economy’ mode that reduces all temperatures across the board by a few degrees, and if you’re off on holiday a simple push of a button turns all the heating down to 15 degrees.

Of course, one of the biggest draws of a smart heating setup is the ability to do all this from your phone, and the Evohome delivers in this department brilliantly. The app is so simple, it makes competitors like Tado look positively labyrinthine. 

All of the features are easily accessible and temperature control is totally natural, effected by either tapping up or down arrows or by holding and sliding to a preferred temperature. 

This simplicity runs through the entire Honeywell Evohome product. You truly get the feeling that anyone of any level of tech competency could pick it up, and that’s rare in the smart home market.

If you’re a serious smart home enthusiast you may find that the Evohome is slightly lacking in the smarts compared to some other thermostats on the market. It works with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, but only with Alexa and only in limited capacity. There’s a workaround using the free application IFTTT if you’ve got a Google Home smart speaker, but no integration with Apple HomeKit, Apple's smart home management software, and none coming either.

This is disappointing, especially as there are other smart thermostats from Honeywell, like the Lyric, that have all these integrations (but don’t have the zonal control of the Evohome). Hopefully there will be an Evohome 2 at some point down the line that combines the best of both.

The Evohome also doesn’t offer the more advanced features that we’re a fan of in other smart thermostats, like motion sensor-activated routines, geolocation-activated routines (turning your heating on if it registers, via your phone, that you’re on your way home), or learning routines and self-adjusting based on your routine to optimize your heating.

One of the major draws of Evohome is that it can control not only radiators, but, with additional kit, hot water and underfloor heating. Our installer found it hilarious that our flat was so small we only needed to have three radiators hooked up – the Evohome is designed for big houses with complex heating and hot water systems. 

The layout of our flat has proved an interesting challenge for this smart thermostat, as there isn’t a radiator in the hallway or kitchen. Our old thermostat was in the hallway, so the house would always heat to the point where the hallway was warm from all angles. 

Evohome’s zonal control has meant that the hallway has become neglected in the temperature department, and now we have to close all our doors in order to get rooms to stay the right temperature. 

Another thing worth mentioning is that the thermometers aren’t entirely accurate. Depending on the size of the room you may get different actual temperature for the same temperature reading. This isn’t a massive problem, it just means you have to take each temperature measurement with a pinch of salt and adjust each room accordingly.

We liked

We were blown away by how simple the Honeywell Evohome was to set up and use. The app is brilliantly designed, and all of the features are genuinely useful. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything superfluous about the kit or the app. 

Once you’ve got zonal control of the temperature in your home, you do wonder how you lived without it. Being able to have towels warming in the bathroom for your morning shower while keeping the bedroom cool until you wake up, and then having that room come up to temperature by the time you step out of the shower, is truly amazing.

You can control the temperature directly from the radiator thermostat, from the control terminal, from your phone, and even using your voice by asking Alexa. It’s truly remarkable how simple it is for something so versatile and useful.

We disliked

The design definitely leaves something to be desired, and if you’re hoping for the slick brushed metal smart home look, keep looking. Actually, if you’re a smart home enthusiast, probably best to keep looking. 

It doesn’t have many of the ‘smart’ features that you’d expect from a smart thermostat like motion sensor control and geolocation. It doesn’t adapt or learn based on your routines, and isn’t capable of working with HomeKit or Google Assistant without an IFTTT workaround.

If you’re the sort of household that leaves all the doors open, you’re going to have a problem with temperature bleed between rooms, a particular problem if you’ve rooms or corridors without radiators. 

Also, as each of the radiators is individually controlled, there is a small motor that makes a whirring noise when changing temperature. It wasn’t an issue for us, but for those that are very sensitive to noise, it’s worth considering.

Final verdict

The Honeywell Evohome is an interesting device. In so many ways it’s been left behind by its recent competitors, but it’s still the best we’ve seen in terms of simple, effective zonal control. 

It isn’t perfect by any means, and really we wish that Honeywell had amalgamated the Evohome and the Lyric into one device so you got slick smart home tech and industry leading zonal control. 

One thing that really sets the Evohome apart is how user-friendly it is. It’s a smart home thermostat for people who don’t like new and complicated technology – and that’s not us, yet we were still very impressed, which is saying something.

The Honeywell Evohome delivers brilliantly on its gambit: making zonal temperature control child’s play. If all you’re looking for is a system that allows you total control over the temperature of your house, even when you’re not there, get this one.

It’s so easy to use and set up, the app is brilliant, and we’ve only had one issue with the wireless connectivity the entire time we’ve been using it (as a side note, our Evohome emailed us to tell us the about the issue and reassure us that it had already been reported).

That said, if you want cutting edge smart thermostat features like AI-powered scheduling and geofencing, you’re better off trying something like the Nest learning thermostat, Hive thermostat, or if zonal control is important to you, Tado.

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Smart heating has been the poster-child for the smart home since Nest burst onto the scene in 2011, and since then companies like Tado have taken the technology far further. 

Whereas Nest utilises a single thermostat that’s only capable of reading the temperature in one room and adjusting the whole house’s heating, Tado’s system adds a series of internet-connected radiator valves to read and adjust your heating across all the rooms in your house. 

It’s a phenomenally feature-packed system, especially if you combine it with the system’s HomeKit integration, making it one of the best smart thermostats you can buy. You won’t find that your heating system fails to turn on just because the central thermostat is in the warmest part of your house, and nor will you waste money heating empty rooms. 

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As a result of this efficiency, we found that the Tado heating system reduced our energy consumption by 15% over the winter months. 

The energy saving aspects of the system are impressive, but we were a little less impressed with its control interface, which is more complicated than the competition. 

Nevertheless, if you’re prepared to invest the time it takes to learn how to use the system to its fullest, and the money it costs to equip your whole house with the hardware, then you’ll find Tado to be an investment worth making, for the environment if not directly for your own wallet. 

Price and availability

At present the Tado Smart Thermostat is only available in the UK and select European countries. The Tado Cooling system which controls AC systems is available in the US and Australia, so the Smart Thermostat may one day make its way to those countries too. 

In terms of price, it will really depend on how many radiators you have. The starter kit is £199, and includes the internet bridge and the Smart Thermostat. Then each additional radiator thermostat is £59. 

Installation and setup

For our test we went with a complete Tado installation consisting of a central Smart Thermostat aided by four Smart Radiator Thermostats. This would ensure that the upstairs rooms (which tend to be a lot colder than the rest of the flat) could be heated in line with the rest of the building. 

This left just two valve-equipped radiators in our home without the Tado radiator valves. We chose to not install these on the radiators in our kitchen and living room since they’re the most likely to be the same temperature as the hallway where the central Thermostat is. 

Although Tado advertises that you can easily install all its equipment yourself, we opted to have a certified installer come to get us set up. This can be organised through Tado’s website. 

When the installer arrived it was a fairly simple process to unequip our last thermostat, and get Tado’s system hooked up. The only time-consuming part of the process was getting the individual radiator thermostats hooked up to the system (since this required us, the user, assigning them each to a room on the app), but the whole installation was over in a couple of hours without too much hassle. 

With the hardware installed we then needed to set up our heating schedules, and this is where things got a lot more complicated. 

Our previous heating system was a Nest thermostat. It was less advanced, and lacked individual radiator valves, but its ‘self-learning’ functionality meant that if you wanted to you could avoid setting it up entirely and just set it to the temperature that you wanted on a daily basis until it learnt your preferences. 

However, the Tado lacks this functionality, which means that you have to set your schedules manually. 

It’s important to remember that this setup will probably only need to be done once, with small adjustments made over time. When we initially reviewed this smart thermostat, we found it to be a little more frustrating than it needed to be with no option to easily copy one day’s, or one room’s schedule. This meant that we had to enter in the same information over and over, when it would have been far easier to set a schedule once, and then copy it across to all relevant days and rooms. 

However, Tado has since rectified this and made it possible to copy schedules to make setting up the smart thermostat far easier. 

Design

Compared to the Nest’s beautiful circular display and iPod-esque interface, Tado’s efforts don’t make as much of an impression. 

The central thermostat is a fairly nondescript white square with a small button on the lower right which you use to wake it up and show you the current temperature. 

Somewhat confusingly, the area to the left of the physical button is then used as a touchpad to raise and lower the temperature. This combination of physical and touch-sensitive controls confused our non-techie flatmates somewhat, and overall the experience of operating the thermostat was a little less intuitive than the Nest.

Thankfully the individual radiator valves are a lot easier to love and feel like a much more premium alternative to the ‘dumb’ valves we previously had installed. A sleek, featureless while cylinder while not in use, the units reveal a neat little LCD screen when you use them, which displays their current status. 

Simply turn the satisfyingly clicky crown of the radiator valve and the LCD display will show you what temperature you’re setting the room to. It’s slick, it’s satisfying to use, and it’s obvious exactly what you need to do to get the desired result.

The final part of the system’s design is the app, which took us some getting used to. 

We’ve already been through how setting up a heating schedule using the app is a bit of a pain, but we also found that there were other elements of the app that default to working in an unintuitive way. 

If you want to change a room’s temperature using the app then typically you’ll head into the room’s section, and tap the section of the screen that shows the target temperature. In the iOS app this then brings up a fairly ugly default iOS interface, which you can then use to manually turn on the heating and pick a desired temperature. 

It sounds like a lot of steps and that’s because it is. It feels pointless manually turning the heating on when you also have to pick a temperature; surely the heating should automatically come on if you’re picking a temperature above what it currently is? 

You’ll also have to be careful to turn the temperature back down when you no longer want the heating to be on, as the system defaults to changing the temperature ‘Until Ended by User’. We’d recommend that you change this to ‘Until Next Automatic Change’ to avoid accidentally leaving the heating on overnight. 

We had our initial problems with the app, but it’s nothing that you can’t learn to live with. Be prepared to spend some time poking around to make sure you understand how everything works and that it’s all set up to behave as you expect it to and you shouldn’t experience any ongoing issues. 

Features

We’ve already discussed many of Tado’s features such as the thermostat, radiator valves, and Tado app, but there are a couple of extra features that are worth touching upon. 

The first is that Tado works with a number of third-party systems to add an extra layer of automation to your smart home. Tado supports all the major ecosystems including Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT. The first two are great if you want to be able to control your heating using your voice, while the latter is a great way of pairing your heating with your other smart home devices to, for example, have your lights turn off when Tado senses that you’ve left the house. 

We were particularly impressed with the HomeKit integration, which is Apple’s smart home ecosystem. We set up an Elgato Eve Button to act as both a heating and lighting switch, so that we could instantly turn on both the (Tado-controlled) radiator and the (Philips Hue-enabled) light when we entered into a room. 

Schedules are great, but having this functionality meant that we could set up certain rooms to only heat up on demand, and it felt very convenient. 

The system occasionally suffered with the same kinds of limitations as other HomeKit-enabled devices with button-presses sometimes failing to register. It didn’t quite feel as reliable as an old-fashioned light switch, but the breadth of the functionality meant that we didn’t mind too much. 

Disappointingly, Tado doesn’t include any form of motion-sensing in order to work out whether you’re at home or not – which you de get in the Hive system. It relies entirely upon your phone to know not to heat an empty home. 

In other words, the system relies on every member of your household having the Tado app installed to work out when the house is empty (so it can avoid heating it) rather than detecting motion and adjusting the heating appropriately. 

This could be an issue if there are any members of your household that don’t own phones (such as young children or technophobic housemates) who could find that the heating refuses to turn on if they’re home alone. 

It would be great if you could set up the system to only heat up the rooms of the people who are home, but unfortunately this functionality isn’t available (this was another element that Tado assured us was on the roadmap for future integration). 

Overall from a functional perspective the Tado system is strong. Room-by-room control is effective, and integration with external ecosystems means that the system should be able to work harmoniously with the rest of your gadgets. The only big missing feature is motion-detection, but depending on how you hope to use the system this might not be a huge concern to you. 

Performance

While playing with all the bells and whistles of a smart heating system is fun, the real test is how much energy it saves you. In an ideal world you’d save enough energy using a system such as this to allow it to pay for itself, but we’re not quite at that point just yet. 

By using the Tado system, we found that we saved just under 15% of our energy usage through the middle of winter versus our previous non-smart heating system. In comparison, Nest saved us 45% over the same period. 

However, this information comes with some significant caveats, and your experience will vary a great deal depending on the layout of your home, how you’re used to using the heating, and the weather generally. 

First, we should say that the weather was much colder the winter we had the Tado system installed. The Met Office recorded an average temperature of 4.6C in South England through 2017’s winter (our Tado test months), compared to 5.4C in 2016 (the year we had Nest installed), and 7C in 2015 (when we had no smart heating at all). This will have significantly impacted upon our energy usage over these three periods. 

Secondly, our flat was much more comfortable when using Tado than when we used the Nest. 

Our main thermostat is located downstairs, where it tends to be much warmer. Nest’s setup (which only records the temperature from one point in the home) was unable to recognise when it was cold upstairs, and hence wouldn’t turn the heating on. 

This was good news for our heating bill, but not great for the people that ended up with cold bedrooms upstairs. 

In contrast, Tado was much more consistent. The flat was heated evenly, and no one ended up with a cold bedroom. The downside of this is the slightly higher energy usage. 

The amount of control Tado allows means that we could have probably saved more money if we’d tweaked our schedules a little more by paying closer attention to when people spent time in their rooms, but without the self-learning smarts of the Nest system this would have been a much more hands-on process than we would have liked. 

Outside of energy usage, we had a couple of issues with the radiator valves. Just a few short months after we had the system installed, one of our radiator thermostats gave us a notification on the app to say that its battery was running low. Tado advertises that these valves should have enough battery life for up to two years of use. 

We replaced the battery, but a couple of weeks later found that the room was being consistently heated to a level far hotter than we’d specified. However, after a quick email to Tado their engineers were able to remotely detect that the valve was malfunctioning, and they sent us a replacement to install ourselves. 

Another valve was suffering from a similar issue, but this was apparently a software fault that could be corrected remotely. 

Tado comes with a two year warranty as standard, so we’d advise keeping a close eye on your room temperatures to ensure that nothing is malfunctioning. It obviously wasn’t ideal that two of our radiator thermostats developed faults, but Tado dealt with the issues quickly and easily. 

Verdict

The pieces are all in place for the Tado smart heating system to provide an excellent, efficient heating system and for the most part it succeeds. However, there are a couple of problems that we experienced which are worth bearing in mind if you’re thinking of investing in the system. 

We liked

An overall energy saving of 15% is excellent, but what’s more impressive is that Tado’s system managed to do this while keeping our flat feeling lovely and warm. We didn’t have to sacrifice any heat to save energy, and that feels like what smart heating should be all about. 

The radiator valves are beautifully designed, and the app is easy to use once you know what you’re doing. 

Integration with third-party services such as HomeKit and Google Assistant is an increasingly essential inclusion. 

Geofencing is a good way of ensuring that you don’t waste money heating an empty home.

We disliked

There’s no way to have the system learn your preferences automatically as with the Nest thermostat. 

The central thermostat is a little unintuitive to use because of its combination of a physical button and a touchscreen. Be prepared to explain how it works to other members of your household. The same is true of the app, which takes a little getting to know. 

No motion-sensing capabilities mean that everyone in your household will need to install the Tado app on their phones in order for the system to know when the house is occupied. 

We experienced some problems with the hardware, but Tado was more than willing to remotely diagnose the issue and send out replacement hardware as required. 

Final verdict

There is no perfect smart heating system at the moment. Nest has the most intuitive interface but is hampered by no zonal heating support. Honeywell’s Evohome can control radiators individually, but lacks the integration with third-party services like HomeKit and Google Assistant that really allow you to expand its functionality. 

Tado ticks so many of the right boxes, but its biggest fault is just that it’s a little unintuitive to set up and use for the first time. That said, it’s nothing that couldn’t be fixed via future software updates, and if you put the time in to learn how to best use the system then you’ll be rewarded with some nice energy savings while maintaining a beautifully warm house. 

Last summer Microsoft announced a beautiful Cortana-powered thermostat that looked like something out of a tasteful science fiction film, and now, at last, we have some more details about it.

The device, made through a partnership with Johnson Controls, will be available for pre-order for $319 (around £235/AU$406) beginning in March. That's a steep price even in the context of smart thermostats from rivals like the Nest Learning thermostat, which costs $249/£279 (around AU$317), but in this case looks are every bit as part of the appeal as function.

By far the most striking thing about GLAS is the translucent glass display that gives it its name, but it's also packed with a host of features (that, mind you, tend to be common with smart thermostats).

You can set the temperature, of course, but you can also use the device the check the outdoor weather, ask about traffic conditions or check your calendar. It'll also automatically adjust the temperature according to your usual preferences throughout the day.

Again, it's powered by Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant, so you can do all this with voice commands if you wish. It's also compatible with virtually all types of 24VAC heating and cooling systems, so you should be able to install it in your home or office with few complications.

If you're interested in more pre-order information, you can sign up for Johnson Controls' GLAS mailing list here. It appears the thermostat will be available in the US, UK and Australia.

• Interested in cameras more than thermostats? Check out Nest's wall cam!

If you’ve been interested in the Nest’s ability to save you hundreds each year on your energy bill, but couldn’t quite stand the taste of its $249 (£279) price tag, you’re in luck: there’s a brand-new entry-level model that does everything the original can at half the price.

The new model is called the Nest Thermostat E. According to the smart thermostat maker, it’ll cost only $169 and arrive just in time for the approaching winter months up here in the northern hemisphere. 

Now winter, is obviously the most practical season to use a Nest Learning Thermostat but, as it turns out, it’s also the inspiration behind the Nest Thermostat E’s design: The new learning thermostat is covered in a frosted glass exterior (an industry-first according to Nest), and a white ring will now encompasses the outer edge of the display. 

The display is not only a unique distinguishing aesthetic feature but, apparently, also a practical one as well. 

The frosted display uses an ambient light sensor to share information at just the right brightness – which means, when the display is off, the screen is grey, and when it’s on, it’ll use be just the right brightness. And of course, when no one’s home, both the sensor and the system itself will shut off completely.

Affordable energy control 

While the design of the unit might feel a bit unfamiliar, the Nest Thermostat E remains the same great energy-saving product you’ve always known. 

To that end, the thermostat ships with a pre-set schedule that should fit for the majority of folks, but that schedule can be morphed and modified either by your own wishes through the Nest app, or via Nest’s learning algorithm that detects when everyone is out of the house and shuts down the system accordingly.

Should you want to integrate the Nest Thermostat E into your existing smart home armada, that’s no problem – just like the original, the new Thermostat E works with both major smart speakers, the Amazon Echo and Google Home, as well as any product in the Works with Nest ecosystem.

The best part? It’s available right now via Nest’s website.

• These are the best smart home devices in 2017

It seems as though the iconic circular Nest thermostat could be in line for a redesign, after serial tipster Evan Blass tweeted out a picture of a new-look model (see below), one which would appear to be taking a cheaper and more plastic approach than the original.

Blass didn't supply any other pertinent details like a launch date, a price or a name, but we have heard whispers about a cheaper Nest before - one that would cost less than $200 rather than the $249 (or £249) that the current model retails for.

Sources speaking to Bloomberg said the new Nest would appear at some point next year, so it would make sense for the first official shots to be floating around. Alternatively the company might push out their new model in time for the 2017 holiday season.

The price would be driven down by using cheaper materials and a lot of plastic, rather than the metal of the current model. The thermostat's display could also see a downgrade as well, as Nest looks to make its product offerings more palatable to smart home enthusiasts on a budget.

On top of the new thermostat shown here, Nest is also apparently working on remote thermostat sensors that would monitor individual rooms in your home and allow you to change the temperature in them separately. Whatever's in the pipeline, it should be made official in the next few months.

Nest's most recently launched product is the Nest Cam IQ, which we were rather impressed with - as with a lot of Nest gear though, it's not cheap once you add in the subscription fees for recording what's going on around your home.

• If you're kitting out a smart home, here are the best devices for 2017

Microsoft has unveiled a sleek smart thermostat called GLAS that's backed by its Cortana digital assistant. This is Microsoft's first smart thermostat, and it looks incredibly promising – not to mention utterly gorgeous – based on a teaser video Microsoft released today on YouTube.

Built by Johnson Controls, the company that invented the first electric room thermostat, GLAS not only taps into Cortana voice controls but also the Windows 10 IoT Core operating system and Azure Cloud computing services. 

As you might expect, GLAS senses when you're in a room to adjust its settings accordingly. It monitors indoor and outdoor air quality and provides information on your energy usage and habits. And if a quick glimpse from the video is to be trusted, you can also check and update your calendar using GLAS.

All of this information is displayed on a translucent touchscreen, and you can speak directly to the wall-mounted GLAS, uttering commands to Cortana. 

Microsoft's video suggests the thermostat is meant for homes, businesses, doctors' offices and just about anywhere else you can imagine smart atmospheric controls being put to use.

Smart 'stat strategy

We're still missing critical GLAS details such as how much it costs and when it will release. Microsoft directed us to Johnson Controls when we asked for this information, and while the company didn't provide concrete details, a Johnson Controls spokesperson said more details about GLAS's launch will be announced later this year.

The smart thermostat space has historically been dominated by the likes of Alphabet's Nest, but Microsoft's first foray has a ton going for it, including a gorgeous design and all the heft of Microsoft's digital assistant, software and cloud systems behind it.

GLAS joins the Invoke speaker as one of the first Cortana-powered devices for the home. Made by Harman Kardon, Invoke is due to release in the fall. It's part of a grander scheme by Microsoft to place Cortana in third-party smart home devices, including refrigerators and, yes, smart thermostats. 

Microsoft's new device is still unproven, and we won't know for sure how good GLAS is until we get our hands on it. But as smart speakers like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod jostle for space in an increasingly crowded market, it's a wise play by Microsoft to do something different. 

Check out this gallery of Microsoft GLAS images:

• Best smart speakers 2017: which one should you buy?

Nest is working on a less expensive edition of its famous learning thermostat as well as shiny new products designed to keep your home secure, or so says a new report.

A source "familiar with the matter" detailed Nest's device development plans to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. The most eye-catching revelation centers on the cheaper thermostat; Nest is apparently looking to introduce a version of its smart 'stat that costs less than $200 (about £165, AU$265).

This would be a markdown from the model you can buy right now for $249/£249. While the cheaper version would still tap into your usage patterns to change temperature throughout the day, the report says the new thermostat won't feature as premium parts.

The new thermostat could release by next year, Bloomberg's source said, and Nest is also reportedly working on remote thermostat sensors that allow users to adjust climate room-by-room rather than a whole house at once. 

New security measures

While Nest, founded by Tony Fadell, father of the iPod, came out the gate blazing, its flame has since died down due in no small part to a lack of new product offerings. 

An acquisition by Google didn't reignite its lost spark, though now that Fadell is out, the company has moved under Google parent company Alphabet and the device engine is apparently turning again, Nest could be in for a resurgence. 

Other products that may give Nest a boost alongside the cheaper smart thermostat fall in the home security solution category. These include an end-to-end alarm system, an fresh take on Nest's indoor security camera and a new doorbell that rings in the digital age. 

The video-equipped doorbell system could be here by next year, while the alarm and indoor camera might go on sale in 2017.

• Read next: Google Home review

If you’re looking to smarten up your home this Black Friday, then Hive is having a sale on its various smart home products. 

Products such as the Active Heating, Active Plug and Active Light are all discounted by 20%, which should make it a lot cheaper to get your home’s lighting and heating automated, which has the potential to save you money in the long term if you use it to make your energy use more efficient. 

In his review, TechRadar’s own Marc Chacksfield said Hive “offers a great way to make your home smarter”.

Direct deals

These discounts are available from Hive if you buy direct from the Hive website, and results in products such as the Hive Active Heating Kit reducing in price from £249 to around £200, and the Hive Active Light reducing in price from £19 to around £15. 

This discounts will be available from from midnight tonight, and will be active until the Monday after Black Friday. 

Hive’s products are also Alexa-compatible, meaning you can use your Amazon Echo to turn your heating up or down, or your lights on and off.  

• Want more info on how Hive works? Check out our full Hive review.

Google has released a new version of its Nest thermostat, and while the changes aren't all that dramatic, it makes the smart home device a more compelling buy than ever.

The overall size is the same but the screen is now 40% bigger and packs in 25% more pixels - handy when you're trying to squint at the temperature reading from the other side of the room.

And speaking of long-distance viewing, there's a new Farsight feature that lights up the display when you walk in the room, just in case you were wondering exactly what the current setting was.

Heads up for your heating

Also new is a Furnace Heads-Up feature designed to alert users when abnormalities are detected with heating patterns. It's essentially a diagnostic test for your heating system and it's going to roll out to the first and second generation Nests as well.

In the US the new Nest sticks to the same $249 price (around £163, AU$356), with the second-generation model dropping to $200 (around £131, AU$286) if you don't mind a smaller screen. International availability and pricing has yet to be announced but shouldn't take long.

Google is also promising that the new Nest is even smarter at learning from your heating habits and can set up a personalised schedule in just a couple of days. As always, everything can be controlled via smartphone too.

• What you need to consider when designing your smart home

Nest has released its developer program which will allow anyone to build hardware, software and services capable of talking to the learning thermostat and smoke alarm made by the Google-owned company.

The "Works with Nest" API platform, announced in September last year and available now to anyone with a free Nest account, has already snared some high profile parters.

Jawbone will build Nest functionality in to its UP health trackers. It will inform the thermostat when users wake up in order to make sure the heating and hot water can be switched on. It'll also flash red when the Nest smoke alarm sounds.

Meanwhile, new Mercedes-Benz cars will tell the Nest to adjust the temperature when the homeowner is 30 minutes away. Likewise, new connected garage doors from Chamberlain inform the Nest when drivers leave the house, allowing energy savings to be made.

Harmony

Elsewhere, the Logitech Ultimate Harmony remote will enable users to control the temperature while choosing a channel and Whirlpool plans to build functionality into a washer and dryer.

Greg Hu, senior product manager at Nest, told The Verge, the possibilities for 'Works With Nest are endless.

"It could be software, it could be hardware, it could be a service."You just need a connected platform and that's it."

Which tools would you like to see play nice with a Nest thermostat? You can check out Nest's higfalutin promo video for the API showcasing the aforementioned examples below.

Home thermostat maker Honeywell has fought back against the Google-owned Nest company with a smart, Wi-Fi and GPS enabled-model of its own.

The Honeywell Lyric was announced June 10 and will allow users to control the temperature in their homes via smartphone apps for iOS and Android, just like the groundbreaking Nest device.

However, where Nest uses a motion sensor to determine whether owners are home, Lyric utilizes a fencing system to enter an energy-saving mode when users are a certain distance away from the property.

Owners can tinker the distance between 500m and 7 miles away from the home before the mode kicks in, meaning the device will know when you've gone far enough away for energy-saving to kick in and will know when you're on the way home so it can get the place nice and cool/warm in time for your arrival.

Fine Tune

The wall-mounted device can be configured to recognise all family members' smartphone apps so it won't turn the heating off when mum or dad heads to work on a Monday morning during the school holidays.

The Lyric also uses a built-in Wi-Fi-based Fine Tune feature.

When enabled, the thermostat goes searching for the local weather forecast and will modify the temperature settings based on the conditions outside.

The Lyric can also be controlled manually using the dial, while there's also Home and weather forecast buttons on the face.

Lyric goes on sale in August for cost $279 (around £166, AU$297) - slightly more expensive than the Nest - and is the first in a series of Honeywell devices to go under that name.

• Analysis: Why did Google buy Nest?

Apple's invasion of our homes might not stop at iPads and Apple TVs, according to a new report.

The company is reportedly prepping a new "software platform" that will let iOS devices control every aspect of smart homes, including lighting, temperature, security, and more.

This rumor comes from a report found on The Financial Times, which claimed to have spoken with sources who knew what they were talking about.

The site expects Apple to unveil the new iOS-compatible smart home platform at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC 2014) in San Francisco on June 2.

Get smart

The software platform will reportedly be similar to Apple's Made For iPhone (MFI) program, in that it will be built into iOS devices but open to development by third parties.

Like how any hardware maker can create an official MFI controller - as long as it's up to Apple's standards - so too will any smart device maker be able to craft appliances and other systems that can interact with iOS devices.

And the controls may not be limited to manually flicking the lights or adjusting the air conditioning. Location-activated features could also, for example, automatically light up a room when a person enters with an iPhone that's paired with the system.

Apple could be trying to get ahead of Google on this one. The search company bought smart thermostat company Nest this year, and a recent proposal from Google suggested the company could hypothetically plaster ads all over your smart home.

Smart homes have yet to catch on in a really big way, but Apple's involvement may push your average consumer into adopting smart thermostats, light fixtures, appliances, and more.

• Read TechRadar's MacBook Air review

Via CNET