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Many smart thermostats are actually a bit stupid. They will run as planned, or you can use apps or smart speakers to adjust the target temperature, but they won't consider too many other factors-such as whether your home is occupied or cool when it is hot. Nest first came up with the idea of ​​a thermostat that can predict your needs, but Amazon's smart thermostat makes this concept suitable for almost anyone: it is priced at $60, but at the time of this review Amazon sold it for only $48.

Amazon Smart Thermostat is designed in cooperation with Resideo, which is a derivative of Honeywell and sells smart home products under the Honeywell home brand. It uses cloud-based machine learning to analyze how you use the HVAC system, and then Use what Amazon calls a hunch to automatically heat and cool your home. Premonitions are based on the location of your smartphone and how often someone interacts with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.

Therefore, if you leave home to go to work at about the same time every morning, the thermostat will learn to reduce the cooling or heating load when you are out—unless someone interacts with Alexa at home. The longer your life revolves around Alexa, the better your thermostat’s hunch will become. The thermostat can also be programmed manually, but it is not compatible with Google Assistant or Apple's HomeKit ecosystem.

Amazon Smart Thermostat has connections on its back panel and can be used in various HVAC systems, but it requires C line power.

Amazon Smart Thermostat is suitable for almost any 24V HVAC system, and it is not compatible with line voltage systems that use 110 or 240V wiring (baseplate heaters, etc.). It relies on the C line to supply power; if you don't have a C line on your wall, Amazon will sell a bundle that includes an adapter kit. This raises the suggested retail price of the thermostat to $85 (the bundle price at the time of our review was $63). You need to connect the thermostat to a Wi-Fi network, but it is only compatible with 2.4GHz networks.

It's no surprise that Amazon's smart thermostat is tightly integrated with Amazon's Alexa ecosystem.

The Amazon Smart Thermostat is shaped like a square with rounded corners and measures 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.8 inches (HxWxD). You can buy it in any color as long as it is white. The current temperature is displayed on the touch screen in 0.9-inch numbers in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Touch the touch-sensitive area of ​​the thermostat to easily adjust the temperature and select the mode: cooling, heating, fan only or automatic.

Unlike the Nest thermostat, Amazon does not have an indicator to report when your HVAC system saves energy and money (Nest products display green leaves to convey this). However, the products of both companies have obtained Energy Star certification.

Unlike our preferred product in smart thermostats, the more expensive Ecobee smart thermostat with voice control function, Amazon smart thermostat is not equipped with a microphone, nor is it a smart speaker. In other words, the device can be controlled by any Alexa-compatible smart speaker or smartphone with the Alexa app installed, and it can quickly respond to commands to increase or decrease the temperature by a specified number of degrees, or just say "Alexa, make it more Warm. "

I first turn off the HVAC circuit breaker and remove the old thermostat. Then I installed the connection board on the wall, passed the wires through, and then clamped the thermostat to the connection board. The instruction manual provided is helpful, but very general. It took me about 20 minutes, but any capable HVAC technician should be able to install it in a few minutes.

After turning the HVAC power back on, the thermostat's screen displays "SEt", indicating that it is powered on and ready for configuration. I opened the Alexa app on my Samsung Galaxy S20 phone and clicked "+" to add an Amazon thermostat.

The Amazon Smart Thermostat will display the "SEt" message when it is powered on for the first time and is ready for configuration.

I need to capture the QR code inside the thermostat, but to do this, I need to remove the connection panel. After putting it back in place, the app searched and found a new thermostat. It was set up in about 10 minutes with little intervention.

After going online, the Alexa app will display the current temperature together with other devices (such as my home's smart lighting). It's easy to see and turn off the AI ​​hunch of the thermostat, but I find it best to let it try to predict my needs.

During the week when I used the smart thermostat to control the heat in the office, I told it to lower or raise the temperature many times. It has learned my characteristics and automatically turns the heating down when I go to bed, and automatically turns up the heating when I arrive at the home office in the morning.

Smart thermostats that cost between $60 and $75 are very cost-effective, and over time, it can actually improve its performance because it can remind me of my life. In other words, it quickly became an important member of my family.

If your smart home revolves around Alexa instead of Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit, the Amazon smart thermostat is great value for money.

Brian Nadel is a contributing writer for TechHive and Computerworld and the former editor-in-chief of Mobile Computing & Communications magazine.

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