Spring hasn’t arrived in my high desert climate in central Oregon, and this lightly snowing March morning is chilly, especially in my office far away from both the thermostat and the fireplace. But I have a quick fix for this.
“Hey Google, show me my thermostat,” I say.
“Got it,” my Nest display responds. It brings up all my Nest thermostat settings, including a large dial on the touchscreen. At a touch, I move the temperature up a couple of degrees to keep the heat lasting longer than usual. A voice command would have worked too, but I like the tactile control when my display is handy.
Finally, I take my wireless satellite sensor — it looks like a large, white pebble you’d find in a river — and perch it on a nearby shelf. My thermostat uses the sensor’s readings in combination with the primary thermostat in the hall, picking up on temperatures in the spots where people actually spend time. Like me, currently shivering in front of my computer.
These are only a few of the tricks in a smart thermostat’s high-tech bag, and they’re especially timely. CNET’s energy survey from 2024 found that 78% of US adults are concerned about rising home energy costs, with almost a third of respondents relying on borrowing and payment plans to afford their energy bills. Heating bills in winter 2024 to 25 that rose by as much as double-digit rates didn’t help matters.
The Trump administration’s tariffs are complicating matters, from broad supply chain effects to, as CNET editor Ajay Kumar relates, the targeting of Canadian electricity. That means individual consumers in the Midwest and New England could endure even more energy woes this year.
“Keeping the thermostat on a hold or trying to remember when to turn it on/off or up/down only drains energy and your wallet,” Adina Roth, product lead for the Nest Learning Thermostat (like the model I’m currently using), tells me. “The most amazing part of a smart thermostat is the ability to keep your home at a comfortable temperature and balance energy usage.”
Changes like these help me shave $20 or more off my monthly heating costs in winter, while alerting me if my energy savings suddenly dip. While it’s a new model, a couple more months of this and it will have paid for itself with minimal trouble. That’s a far cry from eyeballing old dials and levers on thermostats from decades past.
And installation? After wiring in my share of outdoor cameras and doorbells, this thermostat presented little challenge, especially after a quick wiring pic with my phone. Renters may need to ask permission to install one, but everyone can benefit from the savings — and without AI privacy issues to boot. I’ll get more into all that farther along in this article.
The end result: A mild-mannered smart device from brands like Ecobee, Google Nest, Honeywell and Amazon has an incredible ability to address energy issues and save us all money — without overwhelming home renovation. But that’s not all this sub-$300 device can do.
In this article:
How far home temperature control has evolved
We’re entering a new era of efficient home heating and cooling, influenced by algorithms and wireless sensors to create dynamic temperature controls addressing numerous headaches. The cutting edge is changing quickly, even if most folks are slow to adopt: Our research found that only 20% of US adults have used a smart thermostat to address their energy woes.
One reason for slow acceptance is how new all this tech (and the buildings that can use it) is: AI-powered smart thermostats are a very recent arrival in the history of humanity’s temperature control journey. Those efforts span 50,000-year mammoth bone hearths in Ukraine, the beautiful bâdgir, or windcatcher towers, developed by ancient Persians, even a servant-powered mechanical fan with 10-foot fan wheels to cool down the palace halls of the Han dynasty.
But it was the commercialization of natural gas in the 1800s that birthed modern heating, while refrigeration compression arrived in the early 1900s to do the same with cool air. Thermostats swiftly became the go-to method to measure and regulate temperature control.
Those old mechanical thermostats didn’t offer much outside of basic up-or-down control until the smart home upgrades of the 2010s. Now, if you have whole house climate control, one thermostat upgrade is all you need to tap into the latest home tech evolution.
A dazzling, timely home centerpiece
Smart thermostats sport a marked stylish streak. Curved designs and vivid touchscreens make them look nigh-otherworldly on a humble hallway wall. Those touchscreens can be customized, but my Nest Thermostat 4 is permanently set to light up with the outdoor weather when approached. Its screen shifts with mesmerizing animations like falling snow, drifting fog or evening sunlight based on what’s happening outside.
Behind the pretty face, capabilities previously unknown to thermostats are at work. While it may not be AI in the way most of us think of it these days, smart thermostats have used learning algorithms for years to study house habits. Fortunately, the basic operation will still seem familiar to anyone who’s set temperatures.
