Honeywell, the leader in managing home comfort and security for 125 years, today launched the Lyric thermostat to put users back in control. The Lyric thermostat knows when you are coming and going, based on smartphone location, to deliver comfort when you’re home and savings when you’re away.
The Lyric thermostat is the first offering in a new family of innovative connected home products from Honeywell, the recognized category leader found in more than 150 million homes globally. The Lyric thermostat is designed for how people really live today:
• Using the location of your iPhone or other smartphone, the geofencing feature automatically turns the Lyric thermostat into energy saving mode when a home is empty, and then senses when you are coming home and heats or cools the house to your preferred temperature.
• The Fine Tune feature factors indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, and weather into its algorithm, enabling it to provide the most comfortable temperature for homeowners. No other do-it-yourself Wi-Fi thermostat on the market does that.
“Most people don’t have a predictable pattern to how they live their lives; why not have a thermostat that adjusts based on your real-time schedule?” says Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls, in a statement. “With the Lyric thermostat’s geofencing capability, my house returns to my preferred comfort setting when I’m within a few miles from home. Quite simply, the Lyric thermostat offers me the ability to keep my life in tune – delivering comfort when I’m home and savings when I’m gone.”
Beyond your iPhone, the temperature can be managed using Honeywell’s familiar round dial control on the thermostat itself. With the Lyric app, homeowners can adjust their home’s temperature to life as it happens, wherever they are. When a homeowner walks up to the Lyric thermostat, a built-in proximity sensor signals the display to turn on and show current temperature and the home’s heating or cooling status. A soft halo of light in orange (heating), blue (cooling), or green (away/energy savings) momentarily illuminates around the thermostat to indicate it is making temperature adjustments. Additionally, touch-sensitive buttons flank the center display – one for accessing current and upcoming weather information, and one for setting back your temperature while you’re away. The Lyric thermostat provides easy-to-understand alerts on when to change a filter, if and when your furnace needs servicing, and even help find a trusted service professional.
The gloss white finish and silver accents of the Lyric thermostat, along with its shallow depth and flush wall mount, add a contemporary appearance to any room. Beyond contemporary design and innovative functionality, it delivers the same reliable control and accuracy for which Honeywell is known since it introduced the iconic ‘Round’ in 1953.
The Lyric thermostat is available now via professional heating and cooling contractors, and will be available at retail beginning in August 2014 for US$279 (MSRP). Consumers who want installation assistance can search for a local contractor at www.lyric.honeywell.com.
Source: Honeywell International Inc.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Hahaha. Hahaha. ehehehe.
Google 3.2 billion dollars down drain for Nest, but Apple buy’s Beats and is actually profitable out the gate, but Apple is one that is doomed? Hmm…..
Sign me up!
This is where Apple has had a pretty profound (and VERY positive) effect on the world.
Every once in a while I see a product that makes me think there was a conscious effort by the design team to ask itself: “What would Apple make?”
They don’t always hit the mark, but you can get a sense when a cousin product to those of Apple emerges and this might just be one of them.
I thought he said, “Let’s be honest, your wife’s not that predictable…”
And I just listened to it another 4 times. I know that’s not what he’s saying but it sounds like it.
And I was hoping the dude at the end of the Lyric commercial walking with his face in the iPhone was going to walk into the lamppost and the lady…
Google/Nest sues Honeywell. They patented the circle.
Honeywell has prior art to 1953.
Actually, Honeywell has several thermostat patents (including dial control) and has already sued Nest.
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/06/the-details-behind-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/
Here’s a link to the 1953 model — a fixture of Industrial design the Smithsonian was compelled to showcase: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_T87
Like I said before, I didn’t think that Apple had to spend $3 BILLION to come up with a decent thermostat–And apparently, neither did Honeywell.
And surely the good thing is that Apple is not going to be a competitor but a facilitator instead in this sector the open alternative to the closed core of Googles alternative offering where other suppliers are always going to be suspicious of Googles direct competition to them. Oh the irony in that.
I believe I posted that Honeywell would move right in and make the Nest purchase look stupid when Google bought them.
I hate saying it but…..I told you so.
Nice, but I wish the design was a little more sophisticated.
I think Honeywell just blew some cold air up Tony Fadell’s ass. And Google, about those ads you were planning to put on the Nest thermostat, that’s probably not going to happen now.
Finally, thank you Honeywell for some old fashioned competition to Nest/Google.
What is very sad is that it took a startup like Nest to get Honeywell to revamp its “smart” thermostats and make them user friendly. This is really nothing more than a Nest Thermostat knock-off.
Totally agree, Biz… I hope Honeywell gets it’s shit together and starts making some good, original stuff, not just knockoffs. Apple is giving them the tools, let’s see what they can do. They’re in danger of becoming another Samsung.
Nest was a really great thing… until they sold out to Google. I don’t care what they say – I don’t trust anything they make.
Until there is some serious rustling in the bushes, these old dogs will continue on with their lazy routine, knowing they will be well fed. The rustling got loud recently with a flurry of Nest ads popping up. Ole Yeller perked up ‘is ears.
Geo fencing takes place on your phone using GPS. I am curious how the thermostat is obtaining that location info from the phone. And since there is this communications aspect I wonder how long before someone driving down a street can capture the comm to determine qhich home has one of these and if the owner is away and the house is unoccupied (energy saving mode)?
It most likely logs into your wifi network for connectivity and then simply obtains the GPS data from your phone when it is nearby (as delivered by the app on your phone).
That is pretty simple. Have the app setup a connection to the thermostat at the crossing of a set perimeter. Is one of the ‘allowed’ background services of iOS. The Dutch Nefit Easy roomthermostat works that way for almost 1 year now…
This is using iBeacon technology to know when you are home?
You can still find those simple round Honeywell thermostats 50+ years old just working like the day they were installed. These were the inspiration for the Nest product. I’d love to see Honeywell take back some well deserved business
The old ones have a vile of mercury in them.
Vile vial.
I am about to throw more money to Apple and Apple stuff!!! I was researching the Nest just before Google bought it. No way was I going to have Google tracking my doings at home, so I dropped that notion fast. Thank you Honeywell! I’m excited!
I was at Apple Store Southdale last Wednesday and noticed all Nest thermostats had been removed or sold. The rack was empty but the label still affixed. I just bought a Honeywell thermostat I can control from my idevices. Do you have to get your dog, cat or fish a iPhone so they don’t get frozen or baked when your gone?
I like it, but this device also works with “other” smart phones. Unless owners have a strict policy of no Android, Windows, etc. connecting to the wifi than there is a potential for these smart devices to cause bodily harm if infected with a virus.
What I would like to see is smart devices that ONLY connect with Apple products.
“honeywell killa bees we on a swarm”
I didn’t know people still used Fahrenheit!
Americans do, it’s not a bad system for colder countries.
Just read it briefly but these T-Stats that change the temp in your house based on time of day (or your location which is even worse) don’t save the energy that you think they do. They may even cost you more in energy consumption. There are a lot of factors that go into making a home comfortable and simply moving the temp up and down can actually be a bad thing especially if you have a heat pump.
Now controlling your settings based on the wet bulb temp would be a VERY large improvement over simply using the dry bulb temp. However, in order to take advantage of it you’d have to have controls and equipment that very, very few homes have.
This isn’t much more than a gimmick to make money, at least at this point.