Want to make sure your home is warm and cozy when you get home, even on the coldest days of the year? A smart thermostat will make your life more convenient and it can help save you money on your electric bill.
On this page:
A smart thermostat connects to your home's internet and allows you to control your household temperature remotely on your smartphone or laptop. This allows you to maintain the ideal temperature in your home – from wherever you are – to keep heating and cooling costs to a minimum.
Some smart thermostats can even learn your household's heating or cooling preferences and adapt the temperature setting accordingly. These sophisticated learning thermostats often rely on built-in sensors to spot movement in different rooms and then create a customized temperature schedule that adjusts automatically based on occupancy.
Being able to control your home's temperature from anywhere is pretty convenient.
Plus, many come with real-time energy use data that allows you to keep a close eye on your heating costs, when you're home and when you're not.
Most importantly of all, these benefits of smart thermostats mean you have better control over your heating and cooling, which will help you save energy and money.
Upgrading to a smart thermostat to control electric space heating can reduce electricity used for space heating by 9% on average.
There are several types of smart thermostats that will work with different home heating types. Options are available to control electric baseboards, electric wall heaters, a central forced-air furnace, ductless/mini split heat pumps, room air conditioners and AC units and certain models can be used to control in-floor electric heating. You'll need to do some research to determine which model is best for your home's system and your existing wiring.
Here are a few questions to help you get started.
Does your home use electrical heating (including baseboard heaters or electric floor heating)? Here are some line-voltage smart thermostats to consider:
Does your home use a forced-air heating system (including central and ductless heat pump systems)? Here are some low-voltage smart thermostats to consider:
Choose a product with a brand name you trust. It should have ongoing product support for good longevity, and robust data protection and privacy policies in place.
If you swapped out your regular baseboard thermostat for a line-voltage smart thermostat, you could configure an efficient heating schedule that adds up to some big savings on your bill.
On the surface, line-voltage smart thermostats aren't cheap, with one of the most popular models costing $139. Buying 4 or 5 is obviously a significant investment. However, using a smart thermostat effectively can help you save around 5% on your energy bill.
Using that 5% savings estimate and our cost calculator, you can see that line voltage smart thermostats can pay for themselves in under two years.
Obviously, this is just an estimate and your own savings will depend on a variety of factors, but it shows that it's possible to recoup your investment in just two years.
You can enroll qualifying smart thermostats in our Peak Rewards program and earn up to $50 per year. Through that program, we'll remotely adjust your smart device's operation for brief periods to manage the demand on our electrical system. You can override control of your device at any time.
Before you buy, check that your preferred smart thermostat is compatible with other smart home products you may have, or plan to get. Often different brands can work together when coordinated within a smart home ecosystem – such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home or Apple Home kit.
Other smart home products you might want to consider are:
Learn about smart devices that help you save energy at home, from anywhere.
Learn more
Our top tips to maximize the efficiency of your baseboard heaters.
Learn more
Learn how you can save effort and electricity with light timers and sensors.
Learn more
