ACHR The NEWS Publisher Mike Murphy stopped by one of the ecobee Road Trip events in Bedford Heights, OH to get the inside scoop on our latest products, our cross-country tour and to find out what HVAC Contractors and Distributors are saying about ecobee.

ecobee Thermostats Go on the Road

BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Almost everyone, including distributors, contractors, and consumers, believe that programmable thermostats will save energy when used properly. That being true, why is it that so many people tend to manually  override the programmable features and potentially lose energy-saving benefits?

According to Brad Overholt, Overholt Heating & Air Conditioning, “They don’t tend to be a good user experience.” Overholt, a contractor from Wickliffe, Ohio, was one of many to visit Wolf Brothers Supply Inc. in Bedford Heights for an ecobee™ Road Trip exhibit in the parking lot of the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing wholesaler on June 11.

Read the full article here.

The past few months have been a busy, yet extremely exciting time for us here in the hive.

With the launch of ecobee’s newest residential product, the Smart Si, and our incredible 7-week-long ecobee Road Trip across the U.S. (and every now and again we don’t mind tooting our own horns!) ecobee’s been making some serious waves in the news over the past few weeks. Bloggers, radio personalities and HVAC trade publications alike have had lots to say about what we’ve been up to lately.

Click on the articles listed below to get the full scoop:

“ecobee Thermostats Go on the Road”, by Mike Murphy, Publisher, ACHR The NEWS

ACHR NEWSMakers Podcast: Interview on ecobee’s Road Trip with ecobee CEO Stuart Lombard and Kyle Gargaro, Editor-in-Chief of ACHR NEWS

“ecobee Smart Si Thermostat Review”, by Chris Kaiser, Mapawatt

“Greener Thermostats”: Gillingham Cabinets records a 55% energy savings with ecobee, exceeding their expectations!

“The Smart Thermostat Evolves with ecobee’s Si”, by Earth Techling

New to Lou Smart Si Review: Radio Spot by Lou Manfredini on ecobee’s new Smart Si thermostat

At ecobee, we’re not just all about thermostats — we’re about energy solutions. That’s why we’ve manufactured our very own Smart Plugs, to give you another way to understand, manage, and reduce your energy use.

Did you know that by adding a ZigBee® module to your ecobee Smart Thermostat and purchasing an ecobee Smart Plug, you can monitor and manage your home appliances, lighting, electronics and more via your existing ecobee Web Portal?

Lights on, lights off.  Entertainment system on, entertainment system off.   All with the click of a button—from anywhere!

Want to get more out of your Smart Plug? Try connecting it to a power bar!

Using the Zigbee® HA profile (a wireless protocol that provides highly-efficient connectivity), the Smart Plug measures the exact amount of energy consumed by the appliance or device that’s plugged into it on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It will even show you how much it’s costing you to run that appliance or device.

Install it yourself — it’s easy!

Installing your Smart Plugs couldn’t be simpler. Just add the Zigbee® module to your Smart Thermostat, plug it into your wall outlet, follow the simple configuration then plug in your device or appliance.  Note that only one Zigbee® Module is required per thermostat and can be connected to an unlimited number of Smart Plugs within range.

Keep Your Software Current

In order to use your Smart Plug you will need to be running the latest ecobee software version 2.4.0.339. This update should happen automatically if you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, but if for some reason you are running an earlier version you may need to contact support@ecobee.com  to upgrade.

Click here to learn more, or buy one right now, right from our website!

We’re hittin’ the road for a cross-country Road Trip to kick off the launch of our latest energy-saving residential product–the new ecobee Smart Si and to preview our latest commercial product–the ecobee EMS Si.

The ecobee Smart Si–Great Features. Great Price.  A thermostat for every installation.

Some of the great features include:

• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Cool mobile apps
• Easy to use, secure ecobee Web Portal
• Live weather
• Color screen

Follow along and bee a part of all the action!

Traveling ‘in-style’, in an ecobee-branded RV, members of the ecobee team will stop at Distributor locations and local attractions across the USA to give live product demos, product training for Contractors, and more.  The ecobee Road Trip is jam-packed with exciting events, contests, prizes and more.

Beginning on May 17^th in Seattle, Washington, members of the ecobee team will be hoppin’ into an ecobee-branded RV and taking off on an exciting cross-country Road Trip around the USA to showcase our newest products—the ecobee Smart Si and EMS Si.  With over 50 scheduled stops at ecobee Distributor locations over a 7-week period, it’s the perfect opportunity to demo our latest energy-saving products to our Contractor partners—in person.  (Not to mention the fun we will have along the way!)

Classic continental breakfasts and afternoon BBQ’s for Contractors alongside the ecobee RV, combined with informative and interactive training sessions in 26 cities across the US is surely a recipe for success.  Did we mention there will be tons of swag giveaways, and contests for great prizes?  Check out the official ecobee Road Trip website for more details.

Along the way we will be taking to our ecobee Road Trip blog, Twitter and Facebook pages to keep you posted on our progress, and to share funny stories, entertaining videos and amusing photos from our much-anticipated events.

ecobee Customers–we’ll also be stopping at some great local attractions and events, so be sure to come up and say “hi”, and Tweet your ecobee RV photos for your chance to win the New Apple iPad!  For full contest details click here.

Visit our Road Trip website, “like” us on Facebook, “Follow” us on Twitter—and you won’t miss a thing!

SUPERVALU^®, the 3^rd largest food wholesaler in the United States moved into an astounding 1.7 million square foot warehouse and office space located in Denver, Pennsylvania in 1999.  The facility acts as the redistribution hub for SUPERVALU^®’s banner stores and several independent retail stores in the North Eastern United States.  The immense building—often referred to as a “campus” by facilities staff—employs approximately 1000 people in the warehouse, transportation garage and business office areas of the building.  Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, the facility has 8 giant 4-million BTU furnace units that have the capacity to control a space up to a staggering 825,000 square feet.  In addition the building boasts 214 loading docks, electrically actuated vents and 102 industrial-sized exhaust fans throughout the facility.

With an outdated HVAC control system that even SUPERVALU^®’s own HVAC technicians had difficulty deciphering, and after years of complaints from employees about their discomfort in the space, Eric Strunk, SUPERVALU^®’s Facility Maintenance Supervisor began researching alternatives.

Enter ecobee.

Read the full case study by clicking here.

Toronto, April 16, 2012: ecobee Inc., makers of the award-winning Smart thermostat, Smart Si thermostat and EMS (Energy Management System), were awarded a prestigious Green Toronto Award in the Energy Conservation category on Friday April 13^th, 2012.

The City of Toronto in partnership with Green Living Enterprises announced the winners at a ceremony in Toronto on Friday evening.  The City’s environmental awards of excellence recognize the individuals, organizations, and companies helping to lead the way to a cleaner, greener Toronto.

ecobee’s President and CEO, Stuart Lombard was there to accept the award on behalf of ecobee.  “We are honored to receive this distinguished award, and we’d like to thank The City of Toronto and Green Living Enterprises for recognizing ecobee’s ongoing commitment to energy conservation and environmental leadership. We’re thrilled that our products continue to help our customers significantly reduce their environmental impact and save money,” said Lombard.  He continued, “We were certainly in good company, and were very impressed by the outstanding accomplishments of the other esteemed nominees and award winners.”

ecobee’s mission is to help their customers conserve energy, save money and reduce their environmental impact.  Thanks to ecobee’s innovative, user-friendly Wi-Fi-enabled smart thermostats, more than 80% of ecobee customers run an energy saving program on their thermostat, in contrast to the North American average of 23%.  The result is that the average ecobee customer achieves an impressive annual energy savings of 26%.

Click the PDF symbol below to download the full press release.

Here’s a sneak peek of our latest case study describing the installation of 32 ecobee EMS thermostats in an occupied 100,000sq/ft church in Springfield, Missouri:

“I got the sense that ecobee was forward-thinking—like we are—but they still understood the value of personal service.  You don’t find that with many technology companies these days.  Anytime I contacted ecobee’s Technical Support I got a real, knowledgeable person on the phone that was able to answer my questions within minutes.  I knew there was going to be service after the sale—we just felt more comfortable with ecobee,” said Chris Talburt, Facilities Manager at High Street Baptist Church.  He continued, “Even after the units had been installed, Jay (ecobee’s Regional Sales Manager) showed up to see how the installation went and he gave us pointers on how to make things run more efficiently, and maximize our energy savings.  That’s when I knew we had made the right choice.”

Click here to read the full article.

Officially rolled out on March 28, 2012, the ecobee software development team has been busy in the hive ensuring that our customers’ ecobee experience is the best it can be. Now all of the great features of the Smart thermostat Web Portal work with the touch interface of tablets!

Product enhancements like this one demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing our customers with the tools to ensure they are comfortable while they’re home, and save money (and energy!) when they’re away.

We always welcome your feedback at support@ecobee.com

The ecobee Team

Lately, ecobee EMS success stories have just been pouring in.  We are so thrilled that our commercial customers are seeing such amazing energy savings, and enjoying a better quality of life with the ecobee EMS product.  Last week, we shared stories from some of our very happy ecobee EMS customers—and as promised, we are back this week to share a few more.  Enjoy!

“We installed 32 ecobee EMS thermostats in our 100,000sq/ft church, and within weeks of the installation we’ve seen a significant amount of energy savings.  I can control all 32 thermostats right from my iPad, and I receive Alerts right away if there is an issue with our HVAC equipment so there are no surprises when I get in to work.  I can honestly say that ecobee has improved my quality of life.”

–Chris Talburt, Facilities Manager, High Street Baptist Church.

“We recently completed the installation of 48 ecobee EMS thermostats at each of our 40 Midwest Cellular retail locations.  Our stores are located across 3 states, so we used to have to send someone out to each location twice a year to ensure there were no issues with the HVAC equipment.  With the ecobee EMS thermostats, we can control all of our retail locations right from the secure ecobee Web Portal.  Now, we know we are always saving the most amount of energy possible –and that’s a great feeling.”

– Terry Claypool, Midwest Cellular

“We opted for the ecobee EMS thermostats as opposed to a Building Automation System in our 11,000 sq/ft 2-storey church due to the significant cost savings we were able to realize with ecobee.  The ability to control our facility’s heating and cooling system anytime, from anywhere, and the superior customer service we received was icing on the cake.   The installation couldn’t have been smoother—it took our HVAC contractor less than half a day to install all 8 EMS thermostats in our facility.  We highly recommend the ecobee EMS product for other churches and religious facilities like ours.”

–Larry Conrad, Trinity Lutheran Church

“We currently have 18 ecobee EMS thermostats installed at a number of our commercial properties in several locations.  Because our properties are located across 5 states, we especially love the remote connectivity and the fact that we can group together and control multiple thermostats right from the Web Portal.  One thing that really sets ecobee apart from the rest is their superior customer service.  Not once did we ever have to wait on hold, and we were really impressed by the level of HVAC and product knowledge the Customer Support Representatives have.  As an analyst, I personally love the fact that I can monitor the HVAC reports online and export them to an excel spreadsheet to share with my colleagues.   We’re very happy with our decision to go with ecobee.”

–Andrew Spilseth, Elevate Property Management