Ecobee during the heating season, the company says most us-
ers will see an average decrease of 23 percent in their heating
and cooling bills. Its algorithm not only takes into account things
like the weather forecast and how long it takes to reach the pre-
ferred temperature in your house, but also the temperature of
any room in which you’ve placed a SmartSensor (one is includ-
ed, and you can buy more separately). The SmartSensor is my
favorite feature for two reasons. For one, as in most old houses,
the temperature in my home varies widely between the living
areas and bedrooms. And two, the sensor’s motion and proxim-
ity detection helps the Ecobee determine if anyone’s home and
adjust the temperature accordingly.
The Ecobee has an LCD touchscreen display that shows
the weather and current indoor temperature and lets you
navigate menus to make adjustments. You can also use voice
commands to do all these things, plus control other smart
accessories and stream music to a Bluetooth speaker. And
since it is HomeKit compatible, you can also control the ther-
mostat via Siri. As a parent, I also appreciate the Ecobee’s
access control feature, which requires you to enter a pass-
word before adjusting the thermostat or changing the heating
or cooling schedule, thus preventing kids from cranking up
the heat instead of putting on another sweater.
- First Alert Onelink
Safe & Sound Smart
Smoke + Carbon
Monoxide Alarm
($249 MSRP,
$216.52 on Amazon)
Ever since my
neighbor had a
house fi re last year,
I’ve been extra vig-
ilant about making
sure all my smoke
detectors are in
working order. I was
excited to try the Safe &
Sound because of its carbon
monoxide alarm (CO becomes a concern once the house is
closed up and the furnace is turned on) and its HomeKit com-
patibility. The fact that I will be alerted of problems even if I’m
not home is another big plus. My neighbor was outside when
her kitchen caught fi re, and it was engulfed in fl ames by the
time she noticed. However, like the Ecobee, the Safe & Sound
is wired in. If you rent or don’t already have wired-in smoke
detectors, you may want to consider the wireless version of
Nest Protect even though it’s not HomeKit compatible.
Onelink has taken the standard features of an alarm (sound
and lights) and upped the capabilities big time. The Safe &
Sound, in addition to telling you where it’s detected smoke or
what the carbon monoxide levels are, works as an LED night-
light, comes with Alexa integration, and can act as a Blue-
tooth speaker. In fact, Onelink is adding AirPlay 2 compatibility
before the end of the year. I’m not convinced that the sound
quality of the speakers will be conducive to listening to music.
But if you have multiple alarms placed throughout your house,
the convenience of having them double as speakers that are
integrated with your other AirPlay devices can’t be denied. - Levoit
LV-PUR131S
Smart True
HEPA Air
Purifi er
($179.99)
I live in an old
house with two
dogs and radia-
tors rather than
a forced air sys-
tem. During the
winter, vacuuming
a lot and opening
my windows for a
few minutes ev-
ery day has been
my main strategy
for combating dan-
der and other indoor
pollutants. Then I discovered
Levoit’s air purifi er and have been
happy to add it to my arsenal. Levoit’s
three-stage fi ltration includes a HEPA fi lter and an activated
INSTALLING THE ECOBEE SMART THERMOSTAT
Because it requires a common wire for power,
installing Ecobee’s thermostat can be a bit more
complicated than setting up a lot of other smart ac-
cessories. However, Ecobee has done an excellent job
of making things as simple as possible, with instruc-
tional videos and articles on its app and website. The
company has also included a Power Extender Kit for
customers whose thermostats have only the standard
four wires and no C wire. For homes with less com-
mon wiring setups, like my dual wire heat-only boiler,
Ecobee has resources for identifying the best way to
make your system compatible with the thermostat.
With their help, I was able to determine that I needed
a fast-stat common maker wired into my boiler. So, if
you have an older system and don’t feel comfortable
messing with wiring, you will want to factor in the cost
of extra parts and installation when buying this ther-
mostat.