Ecobee Planning New Smart Thermostat With Built-In Air Quality Sensor

Canadian smart home accessory maker Ecobee appears to be preparing to release a new version of its SmartThermostat with a built-in indoor air quality sensor.

ecobee feature 2
Ecobee released a new version of its iOS app this week that includes a hidden image of a SmartThermostat with an indoor air quality indicator visible on the screen. The updated app also includes descriptions such as "keep your home's air clean with your Smart Thermostat's built-in air quality sensor" and "your sensor is calibrating to your home," according to code changes discovered by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser.

Ecobee has yet to publicly announce the new SmartThermostat, so no additional details or a release date are known at this time, but the sensor will presumably turn on a home's HVAC fans when indoor air quality has fallen below certain thresholds. This would result in air circulating through the HVAC system's filters for improved air quality.

Ecobee thermostats were previously compatible with the third-party Await+ air quality sensor, but this integration was discontinued in 2020.

Ecobee's SmartThermostat supports Apple's smart home platform HomeKit and also gained support for "Hey Siri" voice control last year. The thermostat is regularly priced at $249.99 in the United States, but it is currently on sale for $199.99.

Tag: Ecobee

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory. A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June. The original AirTag was announced...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

rdinterman Avatar
36 months ago
Dumped NEST after they were sold to Google. Love my ecobee, easy to set up in HomeKit and I love the remote temperate & motion sensors. You can also use them for motion automation.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unity451 Avatar
36 months ago
I don't trust air I can't taste.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jclardy Avatar
36 months ago
Just give me an ecobee with a nicer design and charge $50-$100 more. I mean, a nice metal casing, glass front with a laminated display. The current model has a massive air gap, a first generation iPhone level display and cheap plastic housing.

The product itself works great but it is so ugly.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Popple Avatar
36 months ago

This or Nest for Apple users? Who can share their experience?
Nest doesn’t natively support HomeKit. I‘ve not done much research but I believe there are adapters or some other kind of home-network hacks you can do to get it to play nice with HomeKit but it wasn’t worth the trouble for me. I got a Nest for free from my energy company but shelved it and bought my own ecobee so I could have it in HomeKit. But I bought the model (years and years ago by now) that didn’t have a microphone/Alexa. Not sure if you can get ecobees that aren’t Alexa enabled anymore.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
seinman Avatar
36 months ago

Turns on the A/C fan when indoor air quality is low to move the air through the filters, which increases energy consumption, which increases energy production at the power plant, which lowers air quality further. Rinse and repeat.
Two things:

Using the term "A/C fan" is disingenuous because it implies the same power use as running the actual air conditioning unit. It does not. The blower fan draws maybe 200 watts, probably less in modern units. The air is circulated through the filter but not actively cooled in this mode.

Additionally, not all power use "lowers air quality further." Where I live, the majority of my power supply is from nuclear, which burns clean (yes there's an argument to be made about waste, but modern reactor designs largely solve this problem, so instead of having the waste storage discussion we should be having the approve modern reactor permit discussion). The grid is getting cleaner by the day, so over time this will become a moot point. It's basically the whole "electric cars just move pollution" argument; they don't, because the grid doesn't pollute as much as individual vehicles do, and the grid is constantly getting cleaner.

We can't let perfect be the enemy of good. Running your blower fan to filter your household air isn't perfect, but it has more pros than cons, even in our current energy economy.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Popple Avatar
36 months ago

Does Ecobee work well with HomeKit? The only thing I don't like about Ecobee is that it seems to have Alexa built in. Possible to switch that off?
Ha. I just edited my comment. I bought a model that doesn’t even have Alexa/microphone support. Buy one of those if you still can. Otherwise, I’m sure there’s a way to turn it off.

And, yes, it works great with HomeKit. Shows up on the dashboard and you can set the heat/cool mode and control the temperature. As far as I know, it doesn’t support all the fancy “eco” modes directly in HomeKit but 1) I don’t use those and 2) you can control that via the ecobee app if you really need to.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)