ecobee is a Canadian

home automation Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It m ...

company that makes

smart thermostat Smart thermostats are Wi-Fi thermostats that can be used with home automation and are responsible for controlling a home's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. They perform similar functions as a Programmable thermostat as they allow the use ...

s, temperature and occupancy sensors, smart

light switch In electrical wiring, a light switch is a switch most commonly used to operate electric lights, permanently connected equipment, or electrical outlets. Portable lamps such as table lamps may have a light switch mounted on the socket, base, or i ...

es,

smart camera A smart camera (sensor) or intelligent camera (sensor) or (smart) vision sensor or intelligent vision sensor or smart optical sensor or intelligent optical sensor or smart visual sensor or intelligent visual sensor is a machine vision system whic ...

s, and contact sensors. The thermostats are controlled by using the built-in touchscreen, web portal, or app available for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, Android, and the

Apple Watch Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches produced by Apple Inc. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services. The Apple Watch was rel ...

. Other devices are controlled solely through the app or web portal. The thermostat or camera acts as a hub for their other devices. The light switches do not require a thermostat or camera but do not provide hub functionality. Additionally, ecobee provides a set of subscription services to complement its product line.

History

ecobee was founded in 2007. It has been recognized with a number of awards, including the

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

Technology Green 15 Award for Canadian green technology companies, and the 2011

AHR Expo The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE ) is an American professional association seeking to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems design and constructio ...

Innovation Award in the category of

building automation Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, lighting, ...

. In March 2018, ecobee raised a CA$80 million series C round of funding. In November 2021, ecobee announced that it would be acquired by

Generac Holdings Generac Holdings Inc., commonly referred to as Generac (derived from a combination of ''generating'' and AC), is a Fortune 1000 American manufacturer of backup power generation products for residential, light commercial and industrial markets. ...

for $770 million. The sale closed the following month.

Products

Smart Thermostats

ecobee created the world's first smart thermostat, the ecobee Smart, in 2008. Since then, they have gradually updated their thermostat lineup over the years up to the most recent release of the flagship ecobee SmartThermostat in June 2019. Additionally, they continue to sell the ecobee3 lite as a less expensive, non-Alexa enabled smart thermostat that does not ship with any remote sensors but still includes support for them. The thermostats incorporate a touchscreen and work with up to 32 remote temperature/occupancy sensors which can adjust the temperature based on where you are. The ecobee4 and ecobee SmartThermostat also include

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and ...

support. All thermostats since the ecobee3 allow the user to set different schedules each day for various activities (called comfort settings). By default these include home, away, and sleep. Custom comfort settings can also be created. The remote temperature/occupancy sensors can engage a Smart Away mode if no movement is detected or a Follow Me mode to selectively control the thermostat based on where people are within the home. All remote sensors which are designated as "participating" in a comfort setting take the average of their temperatures and use that as the building's "overall" temperature. A vacation mode is provided which allows users to set a temperature range that the thermostat should maintain between specified dates (for extended times away from home). Additionally, users can set convenient reminders for HVAC maintenance, furnace filter replacement, or UV Lamp replacement, as well as alerts for high/low temperature and high/low humidity.

Room Sensors

The remote sensors can connect to an ecobee thermostat to provide temperature and occupancy information or an ecobee camera to provide occupancy information for the home monitoring service.

eco+

ecobee began rolling out eco+ in 2019 to personalize individual thermostats to the home's environment. Most notably, this includes the ability to connect your utility company to your thermostat. Using this information it can heat/cool the home depending on current and upcoming time-of-use rate changes, or allow the home to participate in demand-response events.

Smart Light Switch

The ecobee Switch+ is a smart light switch announced in May 2017 and released on March 26, 2018. The Switch+ has a microphone with built-in Amazon Alexa, along with occupancy and daylight sensors.

SmartCamera

The ecobee SmartCamera is a smart camera released on April 15, 2020. It features 1080p video, a 180 degree field of view, auto pan-tilt, Amazon Alexa support, two-way talk, and night-vision.

Contact Sensor

The ecobee SmartSensor contact sensors were released on April 15, 2020 alongside the SmartCamera to complement the Haven home monitoring system. Similar to the Room Sensors, they connect to a hub device (thermostat or camera) wirelessly.

Subscriptions

Smart Security

ecobee Smart Security provides a subscription-based self-monitoring home monitoring system which integrates the sensors in all of its products into a home security system.

Air Filters

ecobee Air Filters automatically sends the user furnace filters when their current filter must be replaced.

Integrations

ecobee products integrate with: Microsoft's Cortana,

, Apple HomeKit,

Google Assistant Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and home automation devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike t ...

, Samsung SmartThings, Hubitat,

Wink A wink is a facial expression made by briefly closing one eye. A wink is an informal mode of non-verbal communication usually signaling shared hidden knowledge or intent. However, it is ambiguous by itself and highly dependent upon additional ...

, Haiku Fans,

IFTTT IFTTT (, an acronym of If This Then That) is a private commercial company that runs online digital automation platforms which it offers as a service. Their platforms provide a visual interface for making cross-platform if statements to its us ...

Logitech Harmony Logitech Harmony is a line of remote controls and home automation products produced by Logitech. The line includes universal remote products designed for controlling the components of home theater systems (including televisions, set-top boxes, D ...

, Vera, and

Control4 Control4 is a provider of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a personalized and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and ...

. ecobee uses an open

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

for additional integration options.

References

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External links

Official Website
Home automation companies Manufacturing companies based in Toronto Sustainable energy Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies IOS software WatchOS software Android (operating system) software Canadian brands