All you need to know about smart thermostats and if they can slash your bills
Smart thermostats are often recommended by heating and money experts as an efficient way to cut your household energy bill, the tech gadgets allow you to control the temperature of your home, set timers, and even place different settings for each room of your home, all capabilities which are set to drop energy bills.
And it can all be done from the ease of your mobile phone, an efficient way to control your energy and ensure you don't use more than you need. But are they worth it?
It's a question asked by many UK billpayers who are trying to cut their rising monthly costs, as the majority of energy providers push their customers to tech-savvy devices.
Brands including Bosch, Google Nest, Ecobee and Hive have been strongly recommended by energy-saving experts, including the team at Which? but do these pricey tech gadgets make a huge difference to your energy bill? We've rounded up all you need to know.
- Tado Wired Smart Thermostat £75 at Amazon
- Google Nest Thermostat £159 at Currys
- Hive Smart Thermostat and Hub £179 at Currys
Smart meter versus a smart thermostat
These are two very different energy-monitoring devices, both backed by experts as ways to cut your household bill but have two very different price ranges. A smart meter is the cheapest to go for, in fact, many UK providers including British Gas and EDF Energy give them to customers for free.
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The tech gadgets will automatically send meter readings to your supplier each month so you never have to worry if you're paying for more energy than you use, but the plug-in devices are purely for tracking, which is where smart thermostats come in as recommended devices for controlling and managing your home energy use.
You can read our full guide to smart meters, here, where we round up the money-saving benefits of getting the device installed, and how it could change your bill. 'Smart meter myths debunked and the simple £13 gadget to help households track spending'.
If you're looking for complete remote control over your energy consumption, then a smart thermostat is likely to be for you. And below are a few brands we'd recommend, packed with some end-of-year Christmas price drops.
Recommended smart thermostats
Starting off with the Tado Wired Smart Thermostat as it's currently £44 cheaper in the Amazon sale reduced from £119 to £75. This device is ideal for consumers in rented properties as it's designed to be reinstalled into different homes, a feature we thought was a perk straight away.
The Tado Wire Thermostat features include a smart central control which will allow you to individually manage rooms or zones in your home and set smart schedules. It's also packed with an energy savings report feature so you can get a full overview of exactly how much you're spending and the rooms in your home which may contribute to most of your bill - handy if you're looking to drop your monthly rate.
Next, we have the Google Nest Thermostat which is said to 'control 60% of energy bills' and £159 at Currys. Again this is fully controllable and users can set their heating preferences. Although more expensive than the above Tado model the Google product can also give you control over your hot water, potentially another way to save money on your monthly household bill.
Once installed, the small product connects to home thermostats to control hot water, schedule heating times to suit individual households and can be set to adjust temperatures when you're not at home through a mobile app.
The smart thermostat device can also be synced with an Amazon Echo Dot, which would allow users to control the heating through voice activation or more specifically 'Alexa, turn down the thermostat'.
Popular for its smart speaker qualities the Amazon Echo Dot has become a staple household gadget, which can also keep costs down at home. Amazon has recently launched a 'Smart Home Starter Kit' which consists of an Echo Dot and a smart plug, which allows users to track the usage of day-to-day devices.
Hive is another sort after smart thermostat brand, and we've picked out its Hive Thermostat and Hub which you can pick up for £179 at Currys. Like Google Nest this device includes hot water monitoring as well as the usual energy consumption control and it's compatible with both Apple's iOS and Android.
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Enery saving advice before Christmas
Bill payers are urged to turn their heating on at specific times this Christmas (Getty Images/iStockphoto)If you're on the look for ways to drop your energy bill we have you covered, here at the Mirror. Looking for a smart meter? We've debunked some of the biggest myths around the plug-in device to show how beneficial they can be for your monthly bill.
Worried about your bill racking up over December? We've taken advice from a heating expert who has explained the exact times you should have your heating on throughout Christmas, including the most economical way to stay warm.
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