Written By: Chris Kaiser
You can read the whole post on Mapawatt.

I recently wrote a post about internet enabled smart thermostats and thanks to that post an Ecobee programmable smart thermostat arrived at my door last week. I finally got a chance to get it installed and I am very impressed! Not only does the touchscreen thermostat look pretty cool and is easy to interface with, but the personalized web portal is amazing. This post will just be on my initial thoughts on installing and interfacing with the unit and web portal as I have only had a day or two to play with it. See my 1.5 minute YouTube video of me adjusting the Ecobee thermostat with my iPhone (but not the Ecobee iPhone app that is yet to be released).

Disclosure: The Ecobee people did send this unit to me and did arrange to have it installed in order for me to review it. They did not require anything of me, they are not paying me, and I am not holding back anything in my review. You can purchase the Ecobee Smart Thermostat on their website and it currently is listing for $469.
Hardware:

The package itself only consisted of three pieces of hardware and product literature:

* a smart thermostat (this is the touchscreen unit) and small battery
* an equipment interface unit (this resides next to my furnace and is the go between with the furnace and smart thermostat
* a 12-Volt DC power adapter (which powers the equipment interface unit)
* product literature – this includes a quick start guide, a user manual and an installation manual

Unlike a lot of electronic products, the literature is very clear and has nice pictures. You know how sometimes you get instruction manuals and you know the person writing them didn’t speak English. Luckily this isn’t one of those times. I like how they split up the installation manual and user manual as two separate pieces.

If you don’t care about the installation steps I went through, and it is a pretty long section, skip to the Using the Ecobee section.
Installation:

***If you want to install the Ecobee smart thermostat yourself, go ahead, but dont use this blog as a reference because I dont want to be held liable for you blowing something up or shocking yourself. It is probably worth the time and piece of mind to ensure a professional installs this. All I am trying to do is relate the steps that took place when my unit was installed, but I have been known to get things wrong (I got something wrong once back in 1987, but I was only 4 so it was excusable. I haven’t been wrong since).

Belly of EI

Belly of EI

While I’m not an electrician, I probably could have figured out how to install the Ecobee programmable thermostat myself because the Installation Manual is pretty thorough and includes wiring diagrams. However, I’m not very familiar with wiring furnaces (mine controls my central heat and AC) and I didn’t want to risk shorting out my AC, resulting in a repair headache and my house getting hot while I wait on a technician and me getting in trouble with my wife because she’s stuck in a hot house because I tried to “fix” something again. If you are familiar with low voltage wiring and furnace control, you will probably be ok….

Luckily the people at Ecobee put me in touch with Commercial Controls of Georgia who is an installer and distributor of Ecobee and they sent Ed, a controls systems specialist, out to install the thermostat.

My town-home is three levels and I have a thermostat on each level. My wife and I probably spend the most time upstairs (office and sleeping) so this is where we installed the Ecobee thermostat. My furnace for upstairs is in my attic.

The first installation step was to install the Equipment Interface (EI) unit that resides between the Smart Thermostat (ST) and furnace. The EI unit is powered by a 12 VDC AC power adapter which is supplied. You have to have an outlet within 5 feet of the EI because that is how long the power adapter’s cord is. You will probably want to mount the EI to something as it is not meant to stand by itself. We just screwed mine through the insulation into the sheet metal on the air return side of the furnace. It might be nice if in future units the EI is meant to standalone as some homeowners might not like to permanently mount the EI.

The next step is important: Turn off power to your furnace!

Next, wire up the EI to the furnace. Chances are your current thermostat is wired directly to the furnace and does not have something like the Equipment Interface in between. This means that you will probably need some thermostat wire due to the extra piece of equipment! If I had installed this myself I would have been on the way to the hardware store for the first time to pick up some wire at this point. I’m not going to cover the actual wiring because a) I didn’t do it – Ed did, b) I would probably tell you to do it wrong, c) the installation manual covers this. Don’t put the cover to the EI back on after wiring it because you still need to wire the programmable thermostat.

Don’t hook up any power yet. Next, hook up the Ecobee Smart Thermostat.

backplate and face of smart thermostat

backplate and face of smart thermostat

We removed my existing digital Honeywell programmable thermostat and the mounting bracket from the wall. The Ecobee smart thermostat consists of a front cover (the screen) and backplate. Remove the front cover from the backplate. Ed had to get a few screws out of his truck as the backplate couldn’t use the previous screws that the Honeywell unit used. The Installation Manual does call out that the mounting holes require a #6 pan-head screw and suggests using drywall plugs or other screw anchors, but these are not included (if I had to supply the screws this would have resulted in my second trip to the hardware store. See my comment about an expert installer being “worth the time and piece of mind” at the beginning of this section).

The wires that were coming directly from the furnace(which will now be wired to the EI) hook into the terminal blocks on the backplate. One thing I will note is that the footprint of the Ecobee thermostat is a little smaller than what I was using, so I did have to do a little repainting. Thankfully my painting skills are slightly better than my HVAC wiring skills. Don’t install the front cover yet, as it is now time to wire the Smart Thermostat to the Equipment Interface.

At this point some readers may say, “What is the point of the Equipment Interface?” To this I would say, ” I’m not really sure, but I’m guessing this is where the magic happens.” All the switching of contacts is done at the Equipment Interface. The Smart Thermostat unit is used for display and communication back to the EI, while the EI does the heavy lifting (turning on/off relays to send signals to the breaker). This was previously all done in my Honeywell thermostat, and I used to hear a click when the thermostat would flip a relay to tell the AC/Heat to turn on. Now this relay switching is done in the EI, which is in the attic.

Equipment Interface: Wired & Powered

Equipment Interface: Wired & Powered

Wire the ST (which is in the bedroom in my case) to the EI (in my attic). Put the battery in the ST. Plug the ST into the backplate. Apply power to the EI (by plugging in 12V DC supply to AC outlet). Finally, turn the power to your furnace back on! We forgot this step initially and spent a few minutes figuring out why the thermostat wasn’t turning the AC on. If I had done this alone, I’d probably still be cussing up in my attic. Luckily Ed is a professional, and professionals remember to flip switches after a maximum of 5 minutes, while amateurs kick and scream and wonder why the damned thing doesn’t work for hours on end.

And Voila, just like that the unit is installed. Ed was able to do all this in about an hour (with my constant nagging distracting him). It probably would have taken me three hours when you factor in the hardware store trips, the time spent going through the instructions, the time to undo all my wrong wiring, the extra trips I would have spent going up and down from my ladder because I didn’t plan efficiently, and the time spent cussing in my attic wondering why the furnace wouldn’t work. If you are a guy then chances are you are like me and don’t like instructions because you “can figure things out yourself.” I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this, but read instructions all the way through before you let your giddy little hands touch the hardware. If you are like me you will probably ignore that last sentence.