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EverSense: More than a smart thermostat
First, there was the Nest Learning Thermostat, which brought home environment control to iOS users around the world. More recently, legacy thermostat and controls manufacturer Honeywell jumped into the fray with the Lyric smart thermostat. Now Austin-based Allure Energy is introducing a smart thermostat that also acts as a home hub. The company's EverSense system (US$299) is the first of its type to add features like music streaming, video playback and a weather app to the trusty home thermostat. The EverSense thermostat comes with an iOS app that provides proximity control of heating and cooling as well as remote control. Like the Nest, it can determine when you're at home or away and adjust the controls to make your life more comfortable. But it also adds features that the competitors don't have, such as wireless speakers that you can stream music to, an app that grabs your Flickr uploads and turns the EverSense display into a digital picture frame, the ability to play back videos, and a built-in weather app showing forecasts and radar images. The company plans to expand EverSense in the future, adding two more apps to the device -- one for Wi-Fi enabled security cameras and another to control smart plugs. The device itself is larger than a traditional thermostat, and makes use of GPS technology and a trademarked Proximity Control Technology to gradually adjust the temperature at a residence based on where the homeowner is to optimize energy usage.
Allure Energy EverSense energy management system hands-on
Allure Energy announced its EverSense energy management system (read: a fancy thermostat) back in December, but we were just on hand for its official unveiling here at CES. EverSense serves both as a thermostat and media playing device (yes, those are speakers you see on either side of the screen). It comes running a custom OS that works in conjunction with the Allure iOS app to control the HVAC systems in your home. The thermostat has proximity controls that work with your iPhone's GPS to turn on or off your A/C depending upon how close you are to your house. That way, the temperature's always just right when you pull into your driveway, but you don't have the increased utility bills that normally come with maintaining a steady temperature all day. EverSense's media streaming works using a wireless technology akin to DLNA to pull tunes from your handset -- when we prodded Allure's reps for more info, all they'd tell us is that it's "proprietary" tech. We got to see the device and the companion app, but couldn't do a full demo of their capabilities as custom software still has some bugs and isn't quite ready for prime time. The good news is, there's plenty of time for Allure to fix it: EverSense is scheduled for a Q2 release, when it can be yours for $349. Zach Lutz contributed to this report.
