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Since the launch of Google Home in 2016, all providers of smart home products have been trying to make their products compatible with Google Home in order to reach a wider audience. There aren’t too many smart thermostats that work with Google Home yet, but fortunately the two best on the market are compatible with Google Home.
The best smart thermostats that work with Google Home are:
This article is limited to these two smart thermostats because they are among the best and they have Google Home already very well integrated into their system. There are a few other smart thermostats that work with Google Home, but they are not part of this article and some are very country-specific. As soon as there are similarly good thermostats on the market that are compatible with Google Home, I will of course update this article.
Check out the detailed reviews below in this article to learn more about the two best thermostats you can connect to your Google Home.
Table of Contents
Nest Learning Thermostat
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Nest has been part of Google since 2014. So it’s not surprising that this thermostat has very good compatibility with Google Home.
As the name suggests, the Nest Learning Thermostat* is able to analyse the heating behaviour of the user and learn from it. This learning phase can last about a week. Through this learning behavior, the Nest thermostat can control the climate in the house so that you get more comfort and save money at the same time. After two to three years, the thermostat has already paid for itself.
The Learning Capability of the Smart Nest Thermostat
The installation and setup of the Nest thermostat is quite intuitive and takes about 30 minutes. The ingenious thing about the thermostats learning ability is that you don’t have to program it yourself and the skill in programming is not reflected on the bill at the end.
With other thermostats, a programming error can be quite expensive. With one of my thermostats I didn’t set the night mode correctly at the beginning, so the heating didn’t go into sleep mode at night. Just by avoiding this error the Nest thermostat would have been worth it!
With the Nest thermostat you simply have to move the wheel to the left or right after installation, depending on whether you want it to be cooler or warmer. By manually adjusting the indoor climate during the first days and weeks, the thermostat learns on its own and automatically sets the temperature as you would probably like it to be. The longer the nest thermostat learns, the better its predictions will be.
Of course, this learning phase never ends completely, because over the seasons, of course, your heating behavior also changes. For example, in summer it can control not only your heating but also your air conditioning and in winter it heats only the rooms you use and saves energy when you are not at home.
If you still change the temperature manually, the Nest Thermostat will remember this and try to learn from it. The learning capability of the thermostat is so efficient that it shows an energy saving of about 20 percent compared to other programmable thermostats. These savings are exactly the details that a human user overlooks or doesn’t bother to go into so much detail. Here self-learning programs have a clear advantage over humans, as they do nothing but optimize their program all day long.
How to Connect a Nest Thermostat with Google Home
If you’re connecting the Nest thermostat to Google Home, you can also control it via voice command: “Hey Google, set the temperature to XX degrees!”
Once you have installed the thermostat and connected it to your WLAN and Google Home, you can add the devices:
- Open the Google assistant app.
- Go to the compass icon in the ‘Explore’ tab.
- Go to Settings.
- Go under ‘Services’ to ‘Home Control’.
- With the plus icon you can add a new device.
- Go to ‘Nest’.
- Now you can assign a place in your house to the device.
Which Commands are Available for the Nest Thermostat with Google Home?
Once you’ve connected the thermostat to Google Home, you can control it with voice commands.
Before each command you have to say “Hey Google…” or “Ok Google…” so that the Google Assistant feels addressed. Try the following commands, for example:
- “Hey Google, set the temperature to XX degrees!”
- “Ok Google, lower (raise) the temperature by X degrees!”
- “Hey Google, make it warmer (or colder)!”
- “Hey Google, what’s the temperature inside?”
Auto-Away Function and App Operation
With the Auto-Away function, the Nest thermostat automatically detects when you leave the room and automatically switches to an energy-saving mode. He can tell on his own if you’re in the room or not. He even notices it when you walk up to him or look at him. Then its display lights up and shows the current temperature. This function alone can save a great deal of energy.
In addition to the operation via voice command by Google Home or Alexa, you can also operate the Nest thermostat from anywhere with an app. So you can practically control the temperature from your smartphone.
If, for example, you have already finished work on a cold winter’s day, you can turn up the heating on your smartphone before you leave work, so that you have it nice and warm at home when you arrive.
The Nest thermostat learns when you are normally at home, but if you come sooner or later you can adjust this via the app. IFTTT (IF This Then That) allows you to connect the thermostat to other Smart Home devices. For example, if you have a smart motion sensor, you could connect it to the thermostat. So the thermostat always knows exactly when you’re coming home.
With a smart thermostat, the days when you had to check all your heaters before going to bed in the evening are over. With the Nest thermostat you can rely on it to do this on its own or control it from the bed via the app.
Energy Efficiency Indicator
On the display of the nest thermostat a green leaf is shown when a change has led to an energy saving. In this way you learn for yourself what changes you can make to your behaviour to save energy. Sometimes even a small change of 0.5 degrees can make a difference of 5% in energy consumption. In addition, the Nest Thermostat indicates whether there is any energy saving potential anywhere.
Heating Warning System
The Nest Thermostat detects when the heater is not functioning properly and notifies you. This allows you to react more quickly to a possible defect and possibly save the heater from being replaced.
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Design
The housing of the Nest thermostat is 8.4 cm wide and 3.2 cm thick in diameter. The size is very ergonomically designed to allow the thermostat wheel to be operated with one hand. The wheel itself has a good weight – it just feels good to turn it. You don’t have the feeling of touching a cheap plastic device, but feel the quality of design during operation.
Due to the round and very simple design the thermostat looks very futuristic and elegant at the same time. The large 480 x 480 pixel display is large enough to display all symbols and numbers well without getting pixelated. With the large and sharp display it is also no problem to see the temperature display from across the room.
Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat
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The smart Ecobee4 thermostat* is my personal favourite when it comes to smart thermostats in general. I list it here only in second place, because the Nest Thermostat belongs to the Google company and certainly promises the best and most sustainable connection to Google Home.
With the Ecobee4 thermostat, the entire house can be smartly air-conditioned and heated with several zones. Especially if you couple Ecobee room sensors with the thermostat, you can make the thermostat even more smart by knowing exactly how high the temperature is in which room.
Perfect Expansion Options with External Temperature Sensors
A particularly ingenious feature of the smart Ecobee4 thermostat is that it can be expanded with external sensors. Up to 32 Sensors can be connected to the thermostats and distributed throughout the house. This allows the thermostat to know how hot or cold it is in each room, without putting a smart thermostat in every room.
In addition to a thermometer, these external temperature sensors also have a presence sensor. This means that it notices where people are in the house through the sensors and adjusts its heating behaviour accordingly. This means that you do not run the risk of sitting in the cold at home outside your normal presence at home.
Design
Just like its predecessors, the Ecobee4 has a very elegant and slim design. If you see this device on the wall, you immediately know that it must be a smart device, as it looks very modern and futuristic with its high-quality display and housing.
The front is equipped with a touch screen in the middle that is about the size of a smartphone. On the upper side there is a LED strip which lights up as soon as you talk to the device.
The display shows much more information than the Nest thermostat. Although the Nest thermostat wins in the category aesthetics and design, the Ecobee4 offers more functionality in the touch screen.
How to Connect the Ecobee4 with Google Home
Also with this thermostat it is quite easy to connect it to Google Home. The process is exactly the same as with its predecessors:
- Open the Google Home App.
- Go to the devices and add the Ecobee to the device list.
- Once you’ve inserted it, you’ll need to enter your Ecobee account username and password to get it authorized in Google Home.
As soon as you have connected it, you can operate it via voice command and address it in the same way as with the Nest thermostat. Commands like “Hey Google, set the temperature to XX degrees,” or “Ok Google, increase the temperature in the kitchen by X degrees,” give you the convenience of not having to do everything by hand all the time.
Unbeatable Customer Service
Ecobee has one of the best customer services out there and also offers a three year warranty (Nest has only two years). Customer support can be reached via virtually all channels: social media, phone, e-mail and live chat. And if you need extra help, you can order someone from the Ecobee website to install the thermostats in your home.
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Other Features
- Geofencing: If you allow the Ecobee4 to access the location of your smartphone, it will know when you’re on your way home and wake the heater from its standby mode.
- Energy saving tips based on collected data: The Ecobee App gives tips for saving energy based on collected data and analysis of your heating behaviour.
- Combines weather data with the heating control: The Ecobee4 thermostat heats or cools the house in time to compensate for weather-related external influences.
Bottom Line
The compatibility of Smart Home products with Google Home is gaining more and more momentum. In the future, many more thermostats will certainly be able to be integrated with Google Home.
Most larger companies in the smart home sector have already established Google Home as a standard alongside Alexa & Co. Most smart devices such as Sonos speakers*, Arlo security cameras* or TP-Link smart plugs* can already be connected to Google Home.
Fortunately, there is a good competition between Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit. As a result, we can expect that in the future there will always be better Smart Home products at fair prices.
Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.