A smart thermostat provides a convenient way to automate your home temperature. Whether you are sitting in your living room or vacationing across the globe, you can easily adjust and program heating and cooling settings with a few taps on your phone. Smart thermostats make it easy to save money on your monthly utility bills while also helping to maintain the perfect indoor climate 24/7.
While upgrading to a smart thermostat is a straightforward solution, finding the one that fits your budget may be a challenge. But don't worry if your budget isn't ready for one of those fancy expensive models – you can still get all of the great features without breaking the bank. We've rounded up our top 5 favorite budget-smart thermostats that will guarantee maximum comfort at an affordable cost.
1. Nest Thermostat
Nest thermostat features a clean, mirror-like display that shows temperature, current mode, and other information. Instead of a dial or bulky buttons, swipe-up and down controls on the right side lets you adjust your HVAC settings quite smoothly.
Nest thermostat boasts various smart features that can upgrade your home climate. It has a Quick Schedule feature that lets you set custom schedules according to your preferences. Another great feature is Savings Finder, which provides suggestions to lower energy usage. It can also change the settings to minimize consumption when your home isn't occupied. Moreover, this thermostat will even remind you when it's time to change your air filter or other HVAC maintenance tasks so that you never miss out on caring for your unit. Another plus point of this budget thermostat is that it is designed to install yourself.
Price at time of publishing: $129.99
2. Cielo Smart Thermostat
Enjoy the perfect home temperature in style with the Cielo Smart Thermostat. With its unique 2.5 D curved glass face and sleek edges, it adds an elegant and modern touch to its design. Cielo Smart Thermostat has an interactive control screen that responds instantly to your every command, allowing for smooth adjustments and maximum convenience. It can also sense your presence with its motion detection, lighting up whenever you pass by to show you all your settings at a glance.
This smart climate control device offers a wide range of innovative features that allow you to easily customize your home comfort settings. It has an intelligent scheduling feature that can automatically adjust your temperature settings throughout the day based on your set routine. Cielo Smart Thermostat ensures that you are not heating/cooling an empty house. With its geofencing feature, it can automatically turn down the thermostat settings when you are away and return to your usual settings when you come back. For those looking for even more control over their bills, this smart device also has built-in tracking of HVAC usage, which reveals how long it runs each day - making saving money quite effortless.
This affordable, user-friendly smart thermostat is a breeze to set up. The installation guide walks you through every step, making the process pretty straightforward.
Another great thing about Cielo Smart Thermostat is that it is compatible with various smart home systems, including Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri shortcuts, and SmartThings.
Price at time of publishing: $139
3. Honeywell Home T5 Smart Thermostat
The Honeywell T5 smart thermostat is an affordable option with a minimal design and a simple touch interface which makes it super easy to make adjustments.
It provides a scheduling mode in which you can set schedules based on your routine. There’s also a Home Away mode that automatically adjusts the temperature when you are home or away. This not only provides convenience but also results in lower energy usage. Smart Alerts is a cool feature of Honeywell T5 in which you can set high and low-temperature alerts, and you will be notified if your home temperature exceeds your set limit.
With Honeywell Home T5 smart thermostat, you Adaptive Recovery (Smart Response) feature that learns how long it takes for your system to achieve your set temperature and starts heating or cooling your home early so that it reaches your desired temperature at the scheduled time. Integration with most major voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT, and also Apple Homekit is a bonus in this price range.
The thermostat s quite easy to install with a straightforward instruction manual; you can take also use the Honeywell Lyric app for help. For installation, you will need a C-wire; otherwise, the device won’t work.
Price at time of publish: $143.99
4. Sensi Smart Thermostat ST55
The Sensi ST55 brings convenience and affordability to your home climate. It features a simple, rectangular look with LCD in the center. The LCD is a window into your climate control system. It's easy to know at a glance which mode you're in – heating or cooling – plus the set temperature and current room temperature.
The installation & programming are simple; once set up, you'll gain access to various smart features. You can create customized schedules and have your home climate auto-adjusted when you enter or leave the house via the geo fencing feature.
It offers integrations with Alexa, Google, and Siri voice commands, HomeKit, and SmartThings. However, it doesn't support IFTTT applets.
It requires C-wire for installation and works with most single and two-stage HVAC systems.
Price at time of publishing: $114.99
5. Wyze Smart Thermostat
If you are looking for a reliable and affordable smart climate control device for your home, you should definitely take a look at Wyze smart thermostat.
It features a sleek, oval shape, with a temperature display on the top with a dial towards the bottom. There is no touch or LED interface for adjustments; you can only use the dial for that.
When it comes to smart features, it allows you to create heating/cooling schedules and set home, away, or sleep temperature routines. If energy savings is your top priority, the Wyze thermostat lets you monitor your energy consumption and ensure you're not overspending. There's a chart in the Wyze app to see how many hours you use your HVAC daily. It has another handy feature to lower bills called Coast to Cool feature. It signals your unit to turn off before the end of the heating/cooling cycle and switch to fan mode.
Wyze has an easy installation process with a step-by-step guide in the app. Wyze claims the process takes less than 30 minutes.It works with Alexa and Google Assistant but has no support for Apple HomeKit and IFTTT.
Price at time of publishing: $79.98
Budget Smart Thermostats For Savings & Comfort
There's no doubt that a smart thermostat can add convenience and savings to anyone's home. But with so many options on the market, it's hard to know which one to choose. With our list of the top five budget smart thermostats under $200, you'll be able to relax knowing you've made the right decision for your wallet and your lifestyle when it comes to experiencing optimum home climate control.