What is Thermostat?
A thermostat simply switches the heating system on and off as necessary. senses the temperature of a system so that the system’s temperature is maintained near a desired set point.
It works by sensing the air temperature, switching on the heating when the air temperature falls below the thermostat setting, and switching it off once this set temperature has been reached.
A thermostat can often be the main control unit for a heating or cooling system, in applications ranging from ambient air control, to such as automotive coolant control, but is also used in many other applications, such as an electric clothes iron.
Basically thermostats are three types based on their functionality
- Basic thermostat normally we can call ‘Thermostat’
- Programmable thermostat – you can program but can’t control from remotely
- Smart Thermostat – Programmable and control remotely with self learning features
What is Smart Thermostat?
Regular thermostats let you adjust the temperature in your home—it’s just a control panel for your heating and air conditioning system. Programmable thermostats let you set the temperature and have the thermostat change it based on the time of day. What makes most smart thermostats so “smart” is that they learn from your behaviors, allow you to control the climate in your home remotely, show you energy consumption in real-time, and can even adjust themselves based on ambient conditions like humidity.
“Smart thermostat is thermostat with a Smart technology that let you remotely control your home’s temperature via a tablet, Smartphone or desktop for greater control over your central heating”
Smart thermostats are devices that can be used with home automation and are responsible for controlling a home’s heating and/or air conditioning.
they allow the user to control the temperature of their home throughout the day using a schedule, such as setting a different temperature at night.
This Smart thermostat can connect to Internet and it allow user to adjust /control heating from other internet connected devices such as Smartphone , tablet or desktop.This allows users to easily adjust the temperature remotely.
This ease of use is essential for ensuring energy savings.
Read: How to make your home a Smart Home with the help of AI and IoT?
How does Smart Thermostat work?
You can change the temperature of Thermostat in your home using control panel or dial .
A smart thermostat gives you more efficient, more user friendly and more accessible control over your home’s heating using three basic components.
Following are three components
- Device into Boiler
- Thermostat and main control
- App
The first component directly plugs into boiler that wirelessly talks to Thermostat present in the home.
Using App we can remotely control temperature using Smartphone. This app can download through play store.
This is the basic overview of most smart thermostats.
Some smart thermostats offer more, such as ‘learning’ your schedule by detecting when your Smartphone is in the house, or even taking it step further by detecting when you’re on your usual route home, and preparing your home to the desired temperature.
Read: Enabling Smart IoT Solutions using Google’s Brillo and Weave
So how does a smart thermostat benefit me?
- Save Energy and Money with More control
With Smart thermostat you have more control through Smartphone, tablet or web. Some smart thermostats have self learning feature with this they observe user behavior for some days and base on this observation they operate by it self only.
Ex. In Nest thermostat, if it detects no one in home then it automatically put all your connected appliances such as Air conditioner at power off mode.
This saves Energy plus money.
2. Set Alerts through the Thermostat App Helpful Reports
Smart thermostats have useful companion apps that let you do a number of things. One of the most useful is the ability to let you set alerts, so you can be notified if your home gets too hot or cold. These alerts are sent either to your phone as a text, or in an email.
3. Monitor Outdoors Conditions
Many of these thermostats will communicate with sensors outside that will give you an accurate reading of the outdoor temperature and humidity levels
4. Monitor Your Indoor Environment
your Smart thermostat will also give you information on your home’s indoor environment. Knowing your home’s humidity levels, for example, will help you determine whether you should increase, decrease, or maintain the set temperature.
5. Useful Features
Smart thermostats have useful features such as maintenance reminders and the ability to monitor energy consumption , Smart Thermostat has dirty filter detection so it can notify you when it is time to replace your air filter.
With Smart thermostat you can monitor energy consumption every week to know if your energy use has gone up or down and to become smarter about how you program your thermostat.
Smart Thermostat by Different Companies:
1) Google Nest
video credit : Nest Channnel
for more: https://nest.com/thermostats/nest-learning-thermostat/overview/
2) Ecobee Wi-Fi Thermostat with Sensors
video credit: ecobee channel
Read: Top 10 Benefits of IoT- More than just Saving Money
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Featured Image credit :
Berkeley Electric Cooperative’s photostream/flickr , Procastinaut/flickr
References :
Thermostatic , USWITCH, Wikipedia Thermostat , Wikipedia Smart thermostat