There are several reasons why you might want to automate your home heating and air conditioning systems with one of the best smart thermostats for Alexa. Connected smart thermostats are an excellent investment whether for convenience, energy efficiency, or that "cool" factor. If you are in the Amazon ecosystem, there are a growing number of great options. The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is our top choice because it has Alexa built-in, includes a room sensor, and is easy to use.
Waste less and stay cool with a smart thermostat
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The latest ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is without a doubt one of the most complete thermostat packages you can get. As we saw in our ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium review, this smart home accessory is a serious upgrade over its predecessors with an upgraded user interface and a design that looks every bit as premium as the price.
The touchscreen is large at four inches with full color and a high resolution. In fact, control is a big perk of the ecobee with support for both Alexa and Siri. You don't even need a separate smart speaker as the thermostat itself has a built-in smart speaker. While it's not exactly a room-filling Hi-Fi speaker, it's plenty for asking questions, gettings the weather, or just giving HVAC commands.
This package comes with one of ecobee's SmartSensors in the box which allows the system to monitor another room including temperature and occupancy. The Follow Me feature even allows the system to track you through the house to customize the temperature in the rooms you're in. Similarly, it can see when you leave the house helping it to eliminate waste and save money.
The Amazon Smart Thermostat is one of the cheapest smart thermostats you can buy making it an easy top choice for many. Despite its low cost, this smart thermostat has a bright and clear display, touch controls, and an easy setup process. As we saw in our Amazon Smart Thermostat review, the guided installation process was easy for anyone handy with a screwdriver, and setting up with the Alexa app was a breeze.
The app will work to come up with a schedule for your home to help you save on your energy bill while helping you maintain a comfortable temperature. Like most smart thermostats, you'll need a c-wire for power but you can also grab a separate c-wire power supply if your home doesn't already have one. If you have all the wires you need, installation is simply matching the colors to the included wall plate.
Not everyone will love the Alexa app but it's a strong platform with a ton of devices supported and clear controls. If you want to upgrade to a smart thermostat on a budget with Alexa, the Amazon Smart Thermostat should be one of your first considerations.
The ecobee3 Lite Smart Thermostat may be a few years old at this point, but it's still a great value. While it doesn't have fancy features like the Smart Thermostat with Voice Control, you can easily use your existing Alexa devices to monitor and manage this smart thermostat.
The ecobee3 doesn't include any smart sensors in its base configuration. Still, there are bundles available with them, and it works with any of the individual ecobee sensors you may have or purchase. Of course, you can also just march right up to it and tap away on its touchscreen to change the settings whenever you're up for it.
Emerson is another one of those names like Honeywell, well-established in the HVAC world, so it should come as no surprise that it is also in the smart thermostat game. The Sensi Touch Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is a great option for any home, thanks to its large, bright touchscreen and compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple HomeKit.
This device will monitor your home's energy usage and provide historical data to help you make better heating and cooling choices. It can also send you smart alerts to detect extreme temperature swings or unusually high humidity levels. You also get automatic upgrades, so you don't have to worry whether your unit has the latest features to keep your system running smoothly.
We really like that the Sensi's color screen will change to reflect its status (heating or cooling), but the display unit's large size might not fit in with everyone's home decor. And while we certainly appreciate that it works with Alexa, some reviewers have commented that the Alexa integration is a bit limited. For example, you can ask the assistant to change the temperature but not set a different mode or schedule.
ecobee and Nest may get all of the headlines, but they're not the only game in town when it comes to smart thermostats. Honeywell has been building great thermostats for decades, so it stands to reason that it would have several strong entries when it comes to smart devices. The RTH9585WF1004 (wow, that's a mouthful!) is an excellent alternative to ecobee and Nest and works with most major voice assistant platforms, including Alexa.
The design of the RTH9585WF1004 is more reminiscent of a traditional thermostat panel, albeit with a modern flair. It has a monochromatic touchscreen display, and you can change the background color to suit your tastes. At 4.5 inches, you get more display area than other similar devices. This allows you to see more data at once, such as a five-day forecast and humidity levels indoors and outdoors. It will send you intelligent alerts on screen and in-app to know when your system needs service. It also learns your heating and cooling preferences with its Smart Response Technology to optimize temperature controls at the right time.
Even though the Nest brand is owned and controlled by Google, their smart thermostats can still work with Alexa and the Echo. The Nest Thermostat (2020) is the most affordable Google Nest thermostat and is arguably the easiest to use.
Smart voice control is not included in the device itself, so you'll need an Echo speaker to control the thermostat remotely. This device doesn't include all of the bells and whistles of more expensive Nest thermostats, but it does a great job of controlling the temperature of your home. So what else do you really need?
The Google Nest Alexa Skill is still available in the Alexa Skills store, but you can also try one of the many IFTTT applet recipes to connect your devices. Just look for the Alexa logo in the bottom right of each card or the Alexa wording.
While the Nest Thermostat (2020) is fairly easy to install, you really need to have a common wire to make sure it's getting the correct voltage to work as intended. It is also worth pointing out that you have to use the Google Home app to control this thermostat, and while we usually like the Google Home app, it's a less-than-optimal experience for controlling your Nest Thermostat. All the more reason to just ask Alexa!
The Honeywell T5 Plus doesn't have the screen real estate or display functionality of its bigger brother on this list, but this newer, more compact model does have a few tricks up its sleeve that the RTH958WF1004 does not. For starters, it includes the ability to do geofencing out of the box. This means you can set programmable routines to control the temperature based on where you are. So, for example, you can set the air to lower once you leave work or turn on the heat as soon as you are getting close to your neighborhood.
There are several features that this device carries over from the RTH958WF1004. It has smart alerts for maintenance, and it adapts to learn how long it takes to achieve the right temperature to adjust its schedule to suit your preferences automatically. It is also compatible with various utility rebate programs.
Bottom line
The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is the latest and greatest, top-of-the-line, the best option if you want a thermostat that works with Alexa. There's a room sensor included to get a better feel for your home's temperature, and you can give voice commands directly to the thermostat since Alexa is built-in. It's a bit expensive, but it looks great and is an excellent investment to help you save money on your home.
There is an ever-growing number of smart thermostats that work with voice assistants like Alexa, and the Amazon ecosystem, in particular, is perhaps the largest and most robust. When weighing your options, we recommend looking for the Alexa devices that not only work with Amazon's assistant, but that can work across multiple platforms, as you never know if/when you might change assistants or sell your home to someone comfortable with a different ecosystem. Thankfully, the ones on this list have you covered.
