We all know that ecobee’s line of Wi-Fi enabled thermostats are pretty darn smart (hence the name!). But have you ever wondered how ecobee always knows the current weather conditions at your home?

Here’s how it works:

When connected to your Wi-Fi network, the weather forecast and current weather displayed on your ecobee thermostat is determined by the address you used when you first registered it. With that information, your ecobee determines the latitude and longitude for the exact location of your home.

ecobee’s weather service provider maintains tens of thousands of weather stations across North America—so the ecobee uses your coordinates to find the closest weather stations to your home. The ecobee then uses an algorithm to interpolate the data, based on geography, to derive weather for your (very specific) location!

So, say you live in Houston,  weather.com may give you the weather at the local airport. But the ecobee goes even further.  It will take several of the closest weather stations based on your home’s coordinates, run an algorithm, estimate the weather at your house, and it instantaneously appears on ecobee’s  full color screen display!

But how does ‘knowing the weather outside’ help save me money?

Aside from being a convenient feature for our ecobee customers (you’ll always know when you need a jacket!), there’s a more important reason why ecobee needs to know what the weather is like outside your home.

ecobee thermostats have built-in scientifically proven algorithms that take into account elements including the weather, your equipment’s historical performance, size of your home, number of family members and type of HVAC system to make intelligent heating and cooling decisions on your behalf. That way, you can rest assured that you are always saving the most energy possible, every day!

How smart is that?!