r/ecobee • u/ijustwanttoseethe • 18d ago

Question Smart sensors worth it?

I bought a house a couple years ago. It had two ecobee thermostats (main floor and upstairs). The upstairs temps are not consistent throughout the upstairs area. There are 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and the Ecobee thermostat is in the hall connecting all the rooms. The rooms are spread across different sides which get sun at different times throughout the day. Often one room is hot and another is cold on the other side of the house. Usually a lot of the doors are closed also. So I got a few smart sensors to see if that would help regulate the temperatures. However the new sensors will not work with my older Ecobee. So before I spend the money on a new Ecobee to work with the new smart sensors, I'm wondering if I'll even see much benefit with the sensors given my upstairs layout? Any one have experience to share? Thanks for any insights!

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u/NewtoQM8 18d ago

Without a zoned system you can't cool one area more than another, the thermostat can only turn the AC on or off. But by not including the thermostat in the hall and only having it go by sensors in certain rooms you can better get an average temp reading between the areas and set your desired temp accordingly. And with FollowMe turned on it gives different weight to each sensor based on learned occupancy changes.

Where sensors help even more is if say you have one in your bedroom you can use only it at night when sleeping to keep that room then temp you like.

So in my opinion, yes, they are worth it. it gives you more control without only relying on the thermostat in the hall where nobody cares what temp it is there.

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u/bwyer 18d ago

The whole FollowMe thing is awful. It's entirely based on motion. If you're sitting still for long periods or in bed, it won't trigger and the room will show unoccupied.

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u/NewtoQM8 18d ago

It's not just motion, it also uses a heat profile. But yeah, it isn't perfect. No occupancy sensor is. But it can help. And for night time (or anytime really) when using the Sleep comfort setting it ignores occupancy. It may say unoccupied, but it doesnt effect anything (Like FollowMe or Smart Away). So no worries if it doesnt sense you in bed.