Roger Fingas
Honeywell has announced the Lyric T5, a new Wi-Fi-connected smart thermostat with support for Apple's HomeKit platform.
HomeKit compatibility lets users operate it by way of Siri or Apple's native Home app for iOS 10 and the Apple Watch. It can also be controlled via a black-and-white touchscreen, Honeywell's Lyric app, or Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, found on devices like the Echo.
As with some other smart thermostats, the Lyric T5 can be set to heat or cool based on a weekly schedule, and will adapt to a home's normal cycles to optimize temperature changes. Significantly, it can use geofencing — polling a phone's location — to determine when a person is leaving or on their way home, and adjust temperature automatically.
Some other features include filter change reminders, and alerts about extreme heat or cold.
The Lyric T5 will ship in October for $149.99.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
14 Comments
That is a price many will be able to live with. Let the competitive games begin.
yup. while the Nest is a classier looking device, this works and the price is right right.
I haven't had much success with geo-fencing on iPhone. Seems so delayed and the radius its rather broad. It is not very practicable in my experience. The thermostat looks like a nice piece of equipment though, however I really don't even need a new thermostat. My house is so well insulated that I don't have to turn on the heat or AC more than a couple times a year. I did have the AC on last weekend though as it was 105º F here in So Cal.
Is that it or is other hardware required? I have a Tado system that comprises a wifi controller on the boiler, a thermostat similar in function and size to the pictured Honeywell unit, and a wifi bridge attached to my router. I have been happy with Tado as a company.Not only are the continuing to invest in upgrades and new hardware, but they also are very good on customer service. This includes if required arranging for an engineer to fit their hardware at a reasonable cost.
Looks like it has a 1970s interface, but for $150, works with HomeKit and if it doesn't send my every move to the Google mothership, I'd consider it strongly.