Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat learns habits, matches your neon decor (video)

Honeywell has had WiFi-capable thermostats on the market for some time, but few of them would be a great match for home interiors that have escaped 1980s beige chic. The company's new Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is going a long way toward bringing that design fully into the present century. Owners can color match the touchscreen interface with the paint on their walls, down to very exact shades. Of course, the thermostat wouldn't be much of a competitor in the Nest era if it didn't have some of that namesake intelligence underneath. As with its main rival, the Honeywell system has (already existing) Android and iOS apps, and can tell how long it takes to change the temperature; it's also aware of when filters need a change based on furnace behavior. If you're on the cusp of a home renovation and don't want anything so gauche as a differently-colored screen, home improvement shops should have the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat this May for $249.

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HONEYWELL'S NEW WI-FI THERMOSTAT FOR DO-IT-YOURSELFERS OFFERS ELEGANT DESIGN AND CONVENIENCE OF CONNECTIVITY

Thermostat Offers Beauty and Brains: Match or Accent Home Décor while Balancing Comfort and Energy Savings

MINNEAPOLIS, April 10, 2013 – /PRNewswire/ – Honeywell (NYSE:HON) today announced the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, a groundbreaking connected thermostat that allows design-focused homeowners to customize it to match or accent their home décor. In addition, the Honeywell thermostat offers Wi-Fi connectivity that allows consumers to regulate their energy usage and home comfort through their smartphone.

Featuring a touch screen display, the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat is equipped with mobile and email alerts that put homeowners in control by notifying them when their home is too hot or cold, the humidity level is too high or too low, when the filter needs to be changed, or if the ho me loses power or Internet connectivity.

With Smart Response™ technology, the thermostat learns how long it takes to heat and cool a home to ensure it is always at the temperature homeowners want, at the time they want it. The Instant Away feature allows homeowners to balance comfort and energy savings: on your way out the door, simply tell the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat when you will be back and it can start saving energy instantly while you are gone.

The Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat converts an energy-saving product into a design tool. "As home décor evolves, consumers want their thermostat to complement their décor," said Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls. "It puts creativity in the hands of the homeowner with our Color Match feature. Just as they pick fabrics and paint, they can choose what the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat looks like in their home."

The Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat's innovative design, 60 percent smaller than other connected thermostat models, is a first in the do-it-yourself (DIY) market:

* A free smartphone app – Honeywell's patented Total Connect Comfort app – is available in iTunes Store and Google Play. Homeowners can be thousands of miles away from home or have a vacation home, yet still control their settings and energy usage, resulting in significant cost savings.
* Temperature is controlled within +/- 1 degree, making it one of the most precise and dependable thermostats on the market. Other "smart" thermostats can swing as much as +/- 4 degrees, an inefficiency that causes heating and cooling systems to work overtime to achieve the desired temperature and forces homeowners to constantly modify settings to reach their comfort level.
* Installation is intuitive and fast.
* The thermostat's "home display" shows the room's actual temperature and humidity levels, as well as outside weather conditions. Homeowners can choose to illuminate the home display making it easy to see from anywhere in the room, or allow it to "sleep," adding a convenient level of customization not available in other brands.
* Filter reminders are specific to the filter brand and amount of time the furnace is on/off, so filters are replaced only when absolutely needed, saving money.
Contained within the elegantly designed thermostat is Honeywell's scheduling technology that learns homeowners' daily schedule in just minutes. Other thermostats require several days of homeowner adjustments to teach the thermostat about their lifestyles and habits.

The Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat from Honeywell will be available at home improvement centers across the United States and Canada beginning in May 2013 at a suggested retail price of $249. Homeowners who prefer installation via their heating and cooling contractor can ask for the Prestige IAQ, which has all the features of the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat plus indoor air quality controls. To learn more, visit www.yourhome.honeywell.com. For more information on the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, including exclusive rebates and how-to videos, please visit www.wifithermostat.com.