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The best smart thermostats for Alexa

Nest Smart Thermostat on wall.
Nest
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Smart thermostats are helpful in reducing your home’s energy use, and keeping things comfortable all the time. By factoring in local whether, presence of inhabitants, and electrical rates, you’ll barely need to touch the thermostat once it’s set up. On the occasion you do need to make some tweaks, hands-free assistants are often tied in. For those with a few Echo devices in the house, you’ll want a smart thermostat that plays nice with Alexa. Let’s dig into the best smart thermostats that work with Alexa.

Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control

Ecobee smart thermostat installed on wall next to woman walking down stairs.
Ecobee

Ecobee remains one of our top picks for smart thermostats across the board. What makes Ecobee particularly Alexa-friendly is a model which has a built-in speaker and microphone. This feature allows users to talk directly to the thermostat as if it were just another Echo device. Ecobee makes a particularly strong name for itself thanks to remote sensors for multiple rooms. This helps your smart thermostat develop a more robust model for your home’s climate. The sensors also expand presence awareness, so important rooms stay at a comfortable temperature, while power isn’t wasted on rooms with less traffic.

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Nest Learning Thermostat

A Nest Learning Thermostat installed on a wall corner next to the kitchen.
Google / Google

Nest remains one of the top dogs in smart thermostats. A great interface and robust learning capabilities make for a compelling package overall. You can dig into your historical data to find inefficiencies and build your schedule around that, or let Nest automatically schedule when to manage the home temperature based on its own presence awareness. In addition to support for Alexa, you can also issue hands-free commends via Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri.

Sensi Lite Smart Thermostat

Sensi Lite smart thermostat with Alexa, product image.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Standout features of the Sensi Lite smart thermostat are the top-rated design, with a sleek and stylish appearance, and the DIY-friendly easy-installation. It works with most HVAC systems and no common wire (c-wire) is required for a majority of setups. It’s both smart home compatible and offers smart maintenance and usage opportunities, from filter replacement reminders to scheduling and energy-efficiency reports. It syncs with other smart home platforms and voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings. You can also tap into the features, functionality and reports from a top-rated mobile app, and control everything remotely, from anywhere. Moreover, Sensi won’t sell your personal information to third parties nor will it leverage any thermostat  activity data for targeting or advertising purposes. Your experience is convenient and safe and comes from a company backed by over 100 years of HVAC expertise.

Amazon Smart Thermostat

The Amazon Smart Thermostat installed on a wall.Where better to get an Alexa-compatible smart thermostat than directly from Amazon? Amazon’s foray into their own branded smart thermostat has been aided by Honeywell here. Its main claim to fame is a shockingly generous price tag. For only $60, you can have a perfectly capable smart thermostat with remote voice control, scheduling, and learning. A simple LED lets you see the current temperature, and hardware buttons are available if you want to tweak the thermostat the old-fashioned way.

Wyze Thermostat

Wyze Smart thermostat installed on wall being adjusted.
Wyze / Wyze

The Wyze smart thermostat is a simple way of improving your home’s energy efficiency. Through the companion app, you can build schedules, get energy-saving tips, and keep tabs on your home’s temperature history. In addition to supporting Alexa and Google Assistant, the Wyze thermostat slides in at a very reasonable $70 price tag. Wyze has a whole family of other smart home products, so you can count on their thermostat playing nice with their security cameras.

Smart thermostat shopping tips

Finding the perfect smart thermostat can be challenging with so many options. We’re going to answer some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Alexa-enabled smart thermostats.

What thermostat can I use with Alexa?

Most smart thermostats feature compatibility with Amazon Alexa. With it, you can raise the temperature, lower the temperature, set schedules, and check the current status. This all requires a way to issue commands, which is typically through Amazon’s Echo smart speakers. Even without them, you can install the Alexa app on your phone to issue commands. All of the thermostats listed here work with Alexa, but new ones are released all the time.

Can Alexa run my thermostat?

The easiest way to see if your smart thermostat supports Alexa is to download the app.

  1. Tap the Devices tab.
  2. Tap the + button in the top-right corner.
  3. Tap Add Device.
  4. Scroll down and tap Thermostat.
  5. Browse the available brands for your model.

If your smart thermostat otherwise advertises compatibility with Alexa, you can check the Alexa Skills store to see if it ties in that way. If it does, you’ll typically need to also install a separate app specific to that thermostat to connect to Alexa. While checking for Alexa compatibility, you should also see if your electrical wiring works with any potential smart thermostat.

Is Alexa compatible with Honeywell thermostats?

Yes, Alexa is compatible with a handful of Honeywell thermostats. In fact, Amazon’s own Smart Thermostat was made with Honeywell Home compatibility.

How much is an Alexa thermostat?

Alexa-compatible thermostats can be available for as little as $60.

Hopefully, these should provide plenty of options for those fully-invested in the Alexa ecosystem. With any one of them, you should be able to control your smart thermostat with hands-free voice commands sent to the nearest Echo. If you’re still on the fence about why you’d want a smart thermostat at all, we’ve got a few reasons why you might want to pick one up.

Simon Sage
Former Digital Trends Contributor

Simon Sage is a green tech contributor at Digital Trends. He looks at all sorts of devices that can help reduce emissions through electrification, like power stations, solar panels, smart thermostats, and LED lighting. He's also keen on exploring right to repair and sustainable transportation.

Simon started journalism 17 years ago in the mobile tech space, covering the meteoric rise and fall of BlackBerry. Since then he's dipped his toe in mobile gaming, app reviews, and sponsored content. He's been to his fair share of trade shows, such as Mobile World Congress, the Consumer Electronics Show, E3 (RIP), the Game Developer Conference, and a smattering of smaller shows. He's done multiple TV interviews, the most surreal of which was explaining how Pokémon Go works on a morning show. Simon's also hosted over 100 podcast episodes.

Previous publications include BlackBerry Cool, IntoMobile, and Mobile Nations sites like Android Central, iMore, CrackBerry, and Windows Central.

Simon's based in Ottawa, Ontario, where he is constantly clawing against the gravitational pull of becoming a government drone. He studied English at Carleton University there, including a stint at Lancaster University in the UK. He has since levelled up his education in sustainability through the Climatebase platform. Simon spends way too much of his free time playing games, especially Magic: The Gathering.

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