The IT Nerd

ecobee, Inc. today launched its smart light switch, the ecobee Switch+, delivering on its vision for invisibly integrated voice assistance in every room of the home. With built-in far-field voice technology and the Alexa Voice Service, ecobee Switch+ offers customers easy and effortless access to information, entertainment and intuitive control.

The company expects ecobee Switch+, introduced today during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas, to propel the smart home industry into a whole home voice future, bringing the power of ecobee to every room and allowing customers to experience a smart home that can listen, learn and respond to their needs. ecobee Switch+ will cost $99 (USD) in the U.S. and $119 (CAD) in Canada and is available for online pre-order starting March 13, 2018 and in stores March 26, 2018.

ecobee Switch+ can bring voice into any room and is far more than a traditional light switch; it is the first available light switch to come equipped with built-in Amazon Alexa and a suite of smart features. ecobee Switch+ also lets you rely on motion and daylight sensors or a mobile device for smarter lighting control. Plus, when paired with an ecobee thermostat, the smart light switch will function as a room sensor to manage hot or cold spots. Together, an ecobee thermostat and ecobee Switch+ offer a seamless solution that makes for an unmatched, better home experience. The room sensor feature will be available later in 2018 via a software update.

Like all ecobee products, ecobee Switch+ will integrate with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, the Google Assistant, SmartThings and IFTTT. ecobee remains committed to integrating with multiple smart home ecosystems, empowering customers to control their devices using the service that meets their specific needs.

Pricing, Availability and Compatibility

ecobee Switch+ will retail for a suggested price of $99 (USD) in the U.S and $119 (CAD) in Canada. Beginning March 13, ecobee Switch+ will be available for online pre-order in the U.S. and Canada on ecobee.com and select retailers including Amazon, The Home Depot and Best Buy, and will be available in store across North America on March 26. ecobee Switch+ works with any light controlled by one switch with a neutral wire and supports most energy-efficient light bulbs, such as the LiFX. It is also rated to control 600w incandescent or 150w LED and CFD loads.

ecobee Inc. proudly announced that it has donated 776 ecobee3 smart thermostats to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). The installation of ecobee smart thermostats will help improve the energy efficiency of TCHC buildings while also improving the comfort of residents and help to advance Toronto’s climate Change action plan TransformTO. This partnership with The Atmospheric Fund (TAF)and TCHC is the latest initiative spearheaded by ecobee’s A Better Tomorrow, a program that centers on the company’s commitment to advancing sustainability and community through technology.

Toronto Community Housing is North America’s second largest public housing provider, providing homes for almost 110,000 people across 2,100 buildings. The ecobee3 units, installed at 7 and 11 Arleta Ave. and 710 and 720 Trethewey Dr., give residents the ability to adjust temperature based on their preference, helping them to live more comfortably, while using less energy.

This donation is part of a larger energy efficiency demonstration project by TAF called TowerWise. The buildings, which are home to a mix of tenants that includes seniors and families, were retrofitted to achieve energy, emission and cost reductions. Before the pilot project, the buildings were centrally heated, meaning the heat ran no matter how indoor temperatures varied through the winter. The newly installed ecobee3 units use sensors to make intelligent heating and cooling decisions to reduce energy waste and offer TAF and TCHC unique, real-time insights to identify other opportunities for future improvements.

As buildings are the source of over half of Toronto’s carbon emissions, the TAF project shows how to make them more energy efficient, comfortable, and affordable while fighting climate change. In addition to the new ecobee3 smart thermostats, TAF also installed new boilers, LED lighting and measures to improve indoor air quality. These changes reduce the building’s carbon emission by 30 per cent and utility costs by 20 per cent.

ecobee’s A Better Tomorrow platform centers on the company’s commitment to fighting climate change and building livable communities through technology, data, volunteering talent and investing in science. Beyond traditional philanthropy, A Better Tomorrow is about taking action and getting involved to address today’s pressing social and environmental issues. For more information, please visit https://www.ecobee.com/social-impact/.

Toronto-based ecobee Inc. today launched its next-generation smart thermostat ecobee4 in Canada in conjunction with Amazon’s rollout of Alexa Voice Service north of the border. ecobee4 adds Amazon Alexa voice service and far-field voice recognition to an already packed list of smart thermostat features including ecobee’s pioneering room sensor technology.

ecobee4 will be available for purchase on November 15, 2017. ecobee will continue to help lead the smart home category towards a whole-home-voice future with a voice-enabled smart light switch rolling out in early 2018. More than just a light switch, ecobee’s first venture beyond smart thermostats will come equipped with Amazon Alexa and borrow from ecobee’s signature room sensors by measuring occupancy and temperature to help deliver effortless comfort and control to the rooms that matter most.

With a built-in speaker and microphone, ecobee4 can be controlled through its sleek touch-screen, a smart phone or voice. Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service allows customers to ask their ecobee4 to adjust the temperature of their home, in addition to the growing list of Alexa capabilities such as setting a timer, helping plan your commute or playing the news. Thanks to far-field voice recognition, ecobee4 will conveniently respond to voice commands from anywhere in the room. ecobee4 is compatible with the company’s pioneering room sensor technology, which measures occupancy and temperature to deliver comfort when the customer is home and energy savings when they’re away.

Pricing, Availability and Compatibility
ecobee4 smart thermostat ($329 CAD) will be available online (ecobee.com, Amazon.ca, Lowes.ca and HomeDepot.ca) and in stores beginning November 15, 2017. The device comes with a wireless room sensor and supports up to 32 sensors. To ensure ecobee4 will work in your home, visit ecobee.com/compatibility. ecobee4 will be compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT.

Residents in over 100 Ontario communities including the Greater Toronto Area, along with residents of Alberta and Manitoba are also eligible for rebates available from Enbridge ($100), Energy Efficiency Alberta ($100) and Manitoba Hydro ($75), respectively. To find out more about rebates, incentives and special offers, please visit ecobee.com/rebates.

For more information on the ecobee’s whole-home voice experience visit: www.ecobee.com/voice.

Canadian smart thermostat company ecobee has just added an exciting update to their high value model ecobee3 lite. Not only is this smart thermostat crafted with style ensuring it’s worthy of a spot on your wall, it now comes equipped with the ability to give Canadians the best in temperature control through room sensors. This upgrade gives Canadians the choice to add temperature control to any room in their house at any point in their home’s journey. Based in Toronto, ecobee has created innovative, eye-catching thermostats to better understand when to adjust the temperature in your home based on its unique energy profile, your schedule, the weather outside and thousands of other data points.

Being more mindful of our energy usage is one of the small things we can do to cut down on energy waste and reduce power bills. With ecobee, customers can save up to 23 per cent on their heating and cooling bills.

For more info, take a look at their press release.

ecobee, maker of the world’s first Wi-Fi smart thermostat and the top-rated ecobee thermostat, launched the ecobee3 lite which delivers the same features and quality of a premium smart thermostat but at a significantly lower price than devices from the leading competitors, lowering the barrier to entry for smart home technology.

ecobee3 lite’s many smart features help customers lower their heating and cooling costs, paying for itself in about a year. It features a high-resolution full-color touchscreen and integrates with Amazon Echo, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, Wink and IFTTT. The ecobee3 lite launch is accompanied by a new mobile application from ecobee, which will be available on Apple and Android devices.

The ecobee3 lite will be available beginning October 31, 2016 and exclusively on ecobee.com in Canada for $219 (CAD). Canadians can start pre-ordering the ecobee3 lite at ecobee.com.

There’s a hot new startup on the scene in Toronto called ecobee and if you haven’t heard of them, you will. Here’s what they bring to the table. 

This is the ecobee3 which is a smart thermostat that goes above and beyond what you’d expect a thermostat to do. Most thermostats, including a lot of so called smart thermostats set the temperature of your entire home based on the temperature of one room.

How smart is that? Well, it’s not.

The ecobee3 is a smart thermostat that bases the temperature of your home using wireless remote sensors to make you more comfortable. You can have up to 32 remote sensors to optimize the temperature in your home. The wireless remote sensors measure temperature and occupancy. By knowing which rooms are occupied, ecobee3 makes smarter heating and cooling decisions, delivering more comfort when you’re home. And when you’re not. 

How smart is that? Very smart.

The intelligence continues in one other area. Smart home devices are usually islands unto themselves. You might smart plugs from vendor “a” and light bulbs from vendor “b” and neither speak to each other. Thus you need two apps to run them. ecobee says that this is a #fail which is why the ecobee3 supports Apple HomeKit, Amazon Echo, Wink, Samsung SmartThings among other standards, which means it plays really nice with others. And you use it as part of a larger solution that is easy to manage.

Now all of this is remarkable. But what’s remarkable about the ecobee3 is that it’s gone from no market share to #2 in the space in about a year. Not bad for a startup from Toronto. I spoke at length to Rahul Raj who is the VP of Marketing & E-Commerce at ecobee. He really is passionate about ecobee and the ecobee3. He really spent a lot of time talking to me about the fact that the company spent a lot of time to make sure that the ecobee3 is easy to install and they wanted to create a product that people will rave about. They also wanted to create a product that other companies will partner with, highlighting the fact that Apple only sells the ecobee3 in Apple Stores and helped ecobee with HomeKit support, or the fact that Amazon not only partnered with ecobee, but they sell it online as well. Oh, I’ll also mention that Telus which is one of Canada’s top telcos is selling the ecobee3 in their stores like the one I wrote about recently. Finally, they stand behind their product by having staff that can help you to install the product as they are trained in how HVAC systems work. 

ecobee is a company that you should keep an eye on. They have a product that is game changing. And it’s backed by a staff with passion and partnerships that make a great product amazing. With a combination like that, they are really going to shake up the smart home space.