Alexa Compatible Thermostat

Which Thermostat Works with Alexa?

• Honeywell Color Wifi Thermostat (Honeywell makes several)
• Ecobee Smart Thermostat
• Nest Learning Thermostat (All Nest Thermostats)
• Emerson Sensi Touch
• GLAS Smart Thermostat by Johnson Controls

Get an Alexa compatible thermostat to control your home temperature by voice and make your smart home even better.

Amazon Echo devices are a central building block in your connected home. Linking a smart thermostat to your Echo is an obvious step to building out your complete smart home.

The ability to control your thermostat by voice is convenient. However, it is also makes your home more comfortable and can even save you money.

Table Of Contents

1. 1. Honeywell Color WiFi Thermostat
2. 2. Ecobee Smart Thermostat
3. 3. Nest Learning Thermostat
4. 4. Emerson Sensi Touch
5. 5. GLAS by Johnson Controls

Thermostats that Work with Alexa

There are several thermostats that work with Alexa. However, not all thermostats work with Alexa in the same way. There are two categories of Alexa compatible thermostats. You can identify these thermostats by looking for the following:

1. “Works with Alexa” – Thermostats that say “Works with Alexa” can be linked to your Amazon Echo and other Alexa devices through a skill. These thermostats can then be controlled through your other devices by voice.
2. “Alexa Enabled” – Thermostats that say “Alexa Enabled” include a fully functioning Alexa within the device. You can control the thermostat by voice directly from the device or through your other Echo and Alexa enabled devices.

I will review each of these thermostats at a high level to help you narrow down the choices. There are several other smart thermostats that can work with Alexa. However, these devices are the most reliable thermostats that can be controlled by Alexa.

Best Alexa Compatible Thermostats

Here are the 5 best Alexa compatible thermostats.

1. Honeywell Color WiFi Thermostat

Honeywell is a trusted brand that produces a capable and reliable smart thermostat. This thermostat “works with Alexa” through the Honeywell Alexa skill.

The Honeywell Color WiFi Thermostat is a modern looking thermostat that blends in perfectly with your home decor. The screen color can be changed to match the color of your walls. The screen also has large, easy to read numbers that make it easy to control.

The Honeywell thermostat has flexible programming options to provide the most comfort and energy savings for your home. This includes permanent schedules for your normal days and weeks, temporary schedules when you want it a little hotter or cooler than normal, and vacation schedules for when you are away. The thermostat can automatically shift from heat to cool for maximum comfort.

Honeywell is also Energy Star certified so you can be sure to save money.There are several additional features that you will find on the Honeywell Color WiFi thermostat. The thermostat will alert you when it’s time to change the filter, if you home is too hot or cold, or if the internet connectivity is down. You can also see the current day and the five day forecast from the screen.

The Honeywell app allows you to control the thermostat remotely. The app is called Total Connect Comfort.

Pros

• Works with Alexa
• Trusted thermostat brand
• Change screen color to fit home decor

Cons

• No multi-room sensors
• No Geofencing

2. Ecobee Smart Thermostat

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat is Alexa Enabled so it operates like another Amazon Echo device in your home. This is the Alexa compatible thermostat that I’m currently using in my smart home.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat is the only Alexa Enabled thermostat in the list. You can control the Ecobee with any of your Amazon Echo device, but you can also control it directly by voice. As an Alexa enabled device, the Ecobee can set timers, give you the weather, make announcements, and acts just like another Echo.

The Ecobee is stylish and easy to install. I was able to complete my installation in about 30 minutes. I installed my Ecobee with a C-Wire, but the Ecobee includes a power extender kit (PEK) for older setups that don’t have a C-Wire.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat will work with most HVAC systems. The manufacturer states it will work with all of these types of systems and accessories.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat Compatibility

• Gas, oil, electric, and dual fuel
• Conventional – 2 stage heating / 2 stage cooling (2H/2C)
• Heat Pump – 4 stage heating / 2 stage cooling (4H/2C)
• Humidifiers
• Dehumidifiers
• Ventilators
• Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV)
• Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV)

The Ecobee does a good job of properly heating or cooling your home by using Room Sensors. Ecobee Room Sensors are small device that you can place throughout your home. These sensors detect presence and temperature. The thermostat uses this information to heat or cool the home to your preferred temperature based on the room you are in currently.

Scheduling is simple with the Ecobee. You can create custom heating and cooling schedules by day of the week and time of day. For example, you can create a schedule to cool your home to 68 degrees every night at 11PM and only use the master bedroom sensor. You can also easily set a vacation schedule so the thermostat uses minimal energy while you are away.

Ecobee can save you money by automatically detecting if you are home or away. It also has geofencing capabilities with the phone app. By using presence detection or geofencing, the thermostat can heat or cool your home less to save you money.

The Ecobee smart app allows you to remotely control your thermostat from anywhere. It also gives you alerts for maintenance or any performance issues.

Pros

• Alexa enabled
• Geofencing
• Multi-room sensors
• Easy vacation mode

Cons

• Can’t turn off Alexa

3. Nest Learning Thermostat

A leader in the industry that is full of features and has a modern look. A true “smart thermostat”.

The Nest Learning Thermostat started the new thermostat craze. It is one of the smartest thermostats available today, and it contains several advanced features.

One smart feature is found in scheduling. Similar to other thermostats, you can manually schedule the Nest with multiple temperature points each day. However, Nest can also learn your preferences and automatically create a schedule for you. For some users, this is a great feature. For others, it is frustrating and they find the thermostat leaving their home too hot or too cold.

The Nest thermostat has another scheduling feature called home / away assist. Nest will use presence sensors and your phone to automatically reduce your HVAC usage if you aren’t home. This is a great feature that works even better if you use Nest Protect smoke alarms to improve home presence detection.

The Nest thermostat is modern looking and it comes in four colors: copper, stainless steel, black and white. The screen has a simple to read display with a large font for the temperature. You can even see the current temperature from across the room when the display illuminates with its Farsight feature.

The Nest Learning Thermostat works with Amazon Alexa. At least it does for now. Google Nest and Amazon Alexa work together using the “Works with Nest” program. However, Google announced that it was shutting down the “Works with Nest” program and was moving to a “Works with Google Assistant” program. Google then suspended that decision, but left a lot of smart home users unsure if their connections would just be shut off one day.

Nest is a great thermostat with many features. But the questions around future integration with Alexa is the reason I switched from Nest to Ecobee in my home.

Pros

• Works with Alexa
• Automatically creates a schedule
• Integrates with Nest Protect smoke alarms
• Multi-room sensors available
• Geofencing

Cons

• Will Google phase out support for Alexa?
• Some don’t like the auto schedules

4. Emerson Sensi Touch

A great thermostat at a great value. The Sensi Touch is an all around solid thermostat that is simple to set up and use.

The Emerson Sensi Touch is a stylish, easy to install and easy to use smart thermostat. The device uses an HD color touchscreen with modern LED backlighting. This definitely looks like a smart thermostat.

If you read the reviews, customers consistently comment that this thermostat is very easy to install and use. Additionally, the Sensi Touch is compatible with a wide variety of HVAC systems.

This includes the following HVAC setups:

• Conventional (2 stage heating, 2 stage cooling)
• Heat Pump (4 stage heating, 2 stage cooling)
• Gas, Oil and Electric
• Geothermal and Duel-fuel

The Emerson website contains a Sensi compatibility check tool on their website.

Flexible scheduling is easy with the Sensi Touch. You can set a custom temperature schedule for each individual day of the week. You can also remotely control the temperature using the Sensi app. Additionally, the Emerson Sensi Touch thermostat “works with Alexa” so you can control the thermostat by voice with your Amazon Echo devices.

Other features found on the Sensi Touch include smart alerts for extreme temperatures or humidity levels. The thermostat will also send you monthly usage reports to help monitor your usage.

Pros

• Works with Alexa
• Easy to install
• Geofencing
• Stylish backlighing

Cons

• No Multi-room sensors
• Large thermostat

5. GLAS by Johnson Controls

Possibly the most elegant thermostat ever made. The GLAS smart thermostat is loaded with features but simple to use.

The GLAS smart thermostat uses a translucent OLED touchscreen that makes this one of the best looking thermostats available. The touchscreen is easy to read and easy to control. The screen also enters a sleep mode making it fully translucent when not being viewed.

The GLAS thermostat is easy to install, but it does require a C-wire. That is typical across Wi-Fi thermostats. The thermostat is compatible with gas, oil and electric conventional systems with 2 stage heat and 2 stage cool. It works with ground, air, water and dual source heat pumps with 2 stage heat and 2 stage cool. Check out the GLAS website for a complete ​GLAS thermostat compatibility checker.

You can schedule the GLAS thermostat manually or automatically with smart scheduling. You can manually set the schedule 7 days per week at multiple temperature points each day. Another option is to use the smart scheduling feature and built in presence sensor to create a schedule.

A unique feature found on the GLAS thermostat is indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring. GLAS will monitor humidity, total VOCs and equivalent CO2 to report your indoor air quality. It also reports outdoor air quality through web based information.

The Johnson Controls app allows you to remotely control the thermostat from your smart home.

The GLAS thermostat also “works with Alexa” so you can set the temperature with your voice from you Alexa device.

Pros

• Works with Alexa
• Beautiful thermostat (weird but true)
• Monitors air quality

Cons

• No multi-room sensors
• No geofencing
• Slow app

My Alexa Compatible Thermostat Recommendation

The Alexa compatible thermostat that I recommend is the Ecobee. I recently switched my thermostat from Nest to Ecobee. I enjoyed the Nest but I would override the smart schedule to my preferences and it lacks good vacation schedules. 

The Ecobee thermostat was simple to install and set up. I really like the remote temperature sensors so I can prioritize the temperature in certain areas of the home. For example, at night time, I only use the remote sensor in the master bedroom to manage the temperature.

I also enjoy the simple vacation settings that saves me money when the family is gone but has the home at the right temperature when I return. This is very handy when you need it.

Alexa Thermostat Commands

After installing your Alexa compatible thermostat, you can control your thermostat with simple voice commands. The commands you can use are specific to your thermostat. However, you will find three types of commands available on most thermostats:

1. Set a Specific Temperature – Found on most thermostats that work with Alexa.
   • Example, “Alexa, set home to 71 degrees”
2. Raise or Lower the Temperature – Move the temperature up or down from the current setting. Perfect if you are hot or cold but don’t know the current temperature.
   • Example, “Alexa, raise the temperature 2 degrees”
   • Example, “Alexa, I’m cold”
3. Get Thermostat Information – Depending on your thermostat, you can get temperature, humidity and other information about your home.
   • Example, “Alexa, what is the temperature in the basement?​

If you have an Alexa Enabled thermostat, then you can use any of the Amazon Alexa commands. Check out my list of over 100 Alexa commands that you can use.

P.S. Please leave a comment below to ask a question, help someone else or share your experiences. Thanks!