The ecobee3 adjusts nighttime temperature so the Parmar Family wakes up to a toasty house but saves money while they sleep.
By Lisa Biehle Files
What if your heating system were smart enough to stay at 70 degrees during the day and drop down to 65 degrees at night? What if it were smart enough to even reactivate at 4:30 a.m. so that your house would go from 65 degrees to a comfortable 70 by the time you woke up every morning at 6 a.m.?
And what if you wound up saving 23% (average) on your heating/cooling bills by the end of a year?
The programmable ecobee3 thermostat saves energy and money by using room sensors to deliver preferred temperatures at desired times. This system even works well in drafty Oak Park and River Forest homes.
For example, Paminder Parmar lives in a 120-year-old Victorian with boilers. He is impressed by the results he has seen with the ecobee3. He shared his ecobee3 home chart from Nov. 19 with us (above). The white line shows the actual temperature in his house which trended downward during the night. The orange line is the desired temperature which went up to 70 by 6 a.m. The orange box shows when the ecobee3 was activated.
“I find it amazing that ecobee can learn the thermodynamics properties of a house,” says Paminder, “. . . especially in these old Oak Park houses that take a long time to heat up, and it knew that the boilers would have residual heat for over an hour (from 4:55 to 6 a.m.) to reach 70 degrees by 6 a.m.”
A special price on the ecobee3, saving $50, is valid until Nov. 28. Additionally, ComEd will give $100 rebates to those who purchase the ecobee3. More information is here: https://www.comed.com/WaysToSave/ForYourHome/Pages/SmartThermostatRebates.aspx
“This is really a no brainer,” Paminder concludes, “especially for old, Victorian houses.”