That's smart...

As I mentioned earlier, we were selected to receive a 'Smart' thermostat from our power company and it was going to be free. Well, it's been installed and we really like it. It's an Ecobee3 and according to the installer, the best of the three types of thermostats they are installing in this survey to find the best. It's controllable from my phone, laptop, and even my Kindle. It has a remote sensor so that the thermostat knows the temperature in the living room...where we live. We don't live in the hallway where the thermostat is located. If the thermostat cannot detect movement after so many hours, it will shut off the planned comfort levels and go to the levels you set for away/vacation. If we go the lake this month for Thanksgiving. we can use our phone to turn the heat back up and since the lake is about an hour and a half away, the house will be at a comfortable temperature when we arrive.

The thermostat itself is the black object you see. It has a white ring around it is because it had to go where the old thermostat was located. The house has been painted twice in its life time. The white ring conceals the old coat of paint.

This is the remote sensor for the thermostat. It sits on a table in our living room.