Best smart thermostat for multiple zones
For large homes or even two-bedroom apartments, smart thermostats for multiple zones are key to saving energy without turning some rooms into ovens or freezers. Most of the best smart thermostats can detect the temperature in the room where it’s installed, but bedrooms or other rooms with different insulation or windows are liable to differ significantly in temperature. That’s why you don’t want just any thermostat, but instead one like the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium, which can pair with room sensors for total home awareness.
Below are all the multi-zone smart thermostats worth considering for your home. There’s even a model that works with AC-power systems like in-floor radiant heaters!
Andrew Myrick is a senior editor at Android Central. In between figuring out ways to put retro emulators on everything, Andrew thoroughly enjoys exploring what’s possible with Android tablets. He’s constantly looking for new and different ways to use tablets, such as replacing his laptop or turning tablets into smart home dashboards.
At a glance
1. Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium
Best overall
Compatibility with all smart home platforms, a great app, and dependability are what make the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium the best thermostat you can buy if you need multi-zone support.
Read more below
2. Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced
Best alternative
If you are looking for the same multi-platform experience and dependability you get from our top pick but don’t like its hefty price tag, the ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced gives it to you. You will need to pick up a room sensor though, as one doesn’t come in the box.
Read more below
3. Nest Learning Thermostat
Best for Google Assistant
Most smart thermostats will work with Google Assistant but if you want the best compatibility — including support for multiple zones — going straight to Google is a smart move. The Nest Learning Thermostat has you and all your rooms covered.
Read more below
Best value
The Google Nest Thermostat e has full support for multiple zones and is tightly integrated into the Google Home ecosystem. It also comes in at a great price and is our pick for the best value in the category.
Read more below
Best coverage
Honeywell is a long-trusted name when it comes to HVAC systems and the company’s T9 smart thermostat follows that tradition. With Smart Room Sensors that work up to 200 feet away, it’s easy to manage separate rooms from a single thermostat.
Read more below
Best for high-voltage systems
If your house uses baseboard heaters, in-floor heating, fan-forced heaters, or in-ceiling radiant heaters a “regular” smart thermostat isn’t going to work. You need an inexpensive smart thermostat in each room designed to work with high-voltage AC devices. A Mysa Smart Thermostat has you covered.
Read more below
Best overall
The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is the best smart thermostat for multi-zone heating and cooling thanks to the multitude of sensors you can place around your home to monitor temperatures for each area. It’s compatible with all popular smart home platforms — Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, and even Microsoft Cortana — and is fully controlled via an app on your phone. It also has a full-color touch display if you’d rather go hands-on.
As a bonus, the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium also has a microphone and is a stand-alone Amazon Alexa device or as a Siri speaker. It’s basically a smart thermostat and an Echo Dot in one package, which is why it tops our list of the best thermostats that support Alexa, too. The new Ecobee also allows you to make “intercom-style” announcements, provided that you have multiple Echo speakers around your home. A bonus is that if you use the new ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera, you can see who’s at your door on the thermostats display and even talk to them.
Equally important, it’s one of the easier smart thermostats to install because it ships with a power extension kit that substitutes for a C wire if your HVAC system is missing one. Finding the best smart thermostats that don’t require a C Wire can be tricky, and some that supposedly don’t need one can have power problems without it. Knowing your thermostat will work as intended is comforting — another reason why the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is one of our favorites.
During our review, we liked the new interface that’s much easier to navigate and see, especially on the larger display, is a very much welcomed update. As is the glass front with a zinc body for a truly premium design. Ecobee also managed to include an air quality sensor in the device, so it will monitor your home’s temperature and help ensure it’s clean. With all of these great features, it’s one of the best smart thermostats you can buy overall — not just for multi-zoned systems.
Best alternative
If you like what the best overall pick offers, but don’t want or need all of the fancy features, then the ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced is the perfect option. It has nearly all of the excellent HVAC monitoring and smart features from the Premium model, but skips out on things like air quality monitoring, to save you some money and still be one of the best smart thermostats for multiple zones. However, you’ll need to buy a set of roomsensors to use it for multi-zone heating and cooling, or find a bundle that includes them because this model does not ship with any.
Aside from the missing air quality monitoring, the biggest difference between the ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced and the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is the lack of stand-alone voice input. It also misses out on a feature that I really like, and that’s smoke detector sensing. This won’t work on the Enhanced model since it lacks a microphone. But, things like dual-band Wi-Fi, intruder alerts with the radar proximity sensor, and more are all there. With about $100 savings over the Premium model, the ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced might just do the job for your multi-zoned HVAC system.
Best for Google Assistant
The Nest Learning Thermostat is a great addition to any smart home, and with multi-zone capability, it makes for an excellent product for anyone who needs more than one sensor. Nest’s software can then learn when you’re likely to be at home and adjust the temperatures accordingly. That can lead to substantial savings on your utility bills, and it means you won’t ever have to adjust the temperature yourself.
Nest works with all popular smart home platforms, with the exception of Apple’s HomeKit. The third-generation Nest also comes in black, copper, steel, silver, or white to match any decor. It’s a great thermostat overall and one of our favorites. Even though it’s several years old at this point, it still holds up against newer devices for energy savings, and its software continues to get updates, such as the new Nest Thermostat HVAC monitoring function.
Nest thermostats are fully multi-room capable, but not without a compatible Nest room sensor. You’ll need to purchase one or more in order to control the temps the way you like in a multi-room environment.
Best value
The Nest Thermostat E may lack some of the features its more expensive sibling offers, like Smart Sense, but it can adjust the temperature when the house is empty to save money on heating and cooling with its Home/Away Assist feature. This version uses a sensor that detects the movement in the room, and when there is none for a set amount of time, it adjusts. This means it’s a good bit less expensive than it’s sibling, which has more sensors and requires more adaption to guess when you’re going to head out based on your habits.
It’s also compatible with most smart home platforms, excluding Apple HomeKit, and is fully adjustable through Nest’s Android and iOS apps as well as the Nest website. You can adjust the temperature or see how much money you’re saving from anywhere. As we said in our Nest Thermostat E review, it’s a great device for saving money with very few downsides.
Just like the Nest Learning Thermostat, you’ll need to buy a Nest room sensor to turn this into a smart thermostat for multiple zones. These room sensors are one of the main reasons to consider it over the new Nest Thermostat, which doesn’t support sensors and thus can’t work as a multi-zone thermostat.
Best coverage
Chances are you have had some experiences with Honeywell products in the past, and you can continue doing so with the Honeywell Home T9. This smart thermostat is capable of managing the temperature in your various rooms, but you’ll likely want to snag a few additional sensors.
These Smart Room Sensors provide a signal of up to 200 feet, making it easy to manage separate rooms from a single thermostat. Honeywell even packages the Home T9 with one of those sensors to get you started. You’ll get a basic, no-nonsense design with touch controls and smart assistant integration from Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
Unfortunately, Honeywell did not build a sensor into the Home T9, so you’ll likely want to mount the included sensor near the T9. While testing the thermostat, we found that the room sensor does a good job of reporting the temperature of the room it’s located in very well to the primary unit.
Apple HomeKit users will also want to look elsewhere, as the Home T9 does not integrate with your current HomeKit setup. While Honeywell included the ability to schedule and set up geofencing, you can not use these in tandem. Instead, you’ll need to pick one or the other.
Best for high voltage
Ecobee, Nest, and most other smart thermostat makers focus on HVAC systems, which keeps people with baseboard heaters, in-floor heating, fan-forced heaters, or in-ceiling radiant heaters from taking advantage of them. Thankfully, Mysa has filled this niche and provides most of the same perks you’d get with the bigger brand-name thermostats.
The Mysa Smart Thermostat is easy to DIY install and lets you set automatic schedules, control your temperature remotely, automatically shut off heat or air with geofencing, and control the temperature using Alexa, Google Assistant, or HomeKit. Its minimalist, boxy design is meant to blend in more than stand out, but it does at least let you tap to change the room’s temperature quickly.
Using the Mysa app, you can create multiple zones for different rooms in the house, and control them individually. Unfortunately, you’ll need to buy multiple Mysa thermostats for this to work, which sort of offsets the energy savings you’ll get from a smart thermostat. But for larger homes with high voltage heating, it’s common to have decentralized heating with multiple thermostats, so you’re hopefully prepared to spend money in order to save money.
How to choose
We think the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is the best smart thermostat for multiple zones overall. You get the convenience of having a multi-zone heating or cooling system without buying any extra equipment, have Amazon Alexa built into the thermostat itself, and it’s more future-proof with the addition of HomeKit support. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced is a great way to get started if you’d rather save a few dollars by excluding Alexa’s presence.
If you already use Nest products or would rather not have Alexa and HomeKit support, the Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E and an additional purchase of a Nest Temperature Sensor offers the same functionality with the extra of some stand-alone learning capability that can save a bit of extra money.
What to look for in the best smart thermostat for multiple zones
Why you can trust Android Central
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Along with being compatible with multiple zones, there are a few other things that you’ll need to keep an eye out for. Arguably, the most important of which is deciding whether you want one thermostat “to rule them all.” This is where ecobee’s thermostat prevails, as it can be used to control multiple systems without needing more than one thermostat.
Otherwise, you would likely need to a thermostat in each zone that you want to control. For instance, if you opted for Google’s Nest Thermostat E, you’d need to install a thermostat in every zone. While this probably isn’t much of a problem, we recommend avoiding a “mix and match” approach. While possible, using the Nest Learning Thermostat with the Amazon Smart Thermostat probably won’t yield the best experience.
Something else to look for is compatibility. This one is two-fold, with the first being that you’ll want to make sure that your various systems can be used and controlled with a smart thermostat. Provided that your HVAC system was installed in the last 10 years, you probably don’t have anything to worry about. The only potential exception being that you might end up needing a C-Wire adapter.
If your system is on the older side, we recommend reaching out to an HVAC professional to help you determine the best course of action. You could also do a bit of research, provided that you have the name and model number of the systems in question.
The second aspect of compatibility to be aware of is with the smart home ecosystem that you’re using. Many of the best smart thermostats work with both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. However, some only work with one or the other.
This is an area where the Ecobee excels, as it can also be used with Apple HomeKit, offering an additional layer of flexibility and versatility. Unless you’re planning to set up something like Home Assistant, your best bet is to either stick to the ecosystem you’re already using or look for a thermostat with multi-platform compatibility.
link
