“Honeywell today announced its first HomeKit-enabled product, introducing a second-generation Lyric Round Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat with HomeKit support,” Juli Clover reports for MacRumors.
“Designed to compete with existing HomeKit-compatible thermostats like the ecobee3 and the iDevices thermostat, the Honeywell Lyric connects to a home’s Wi-Fi network to allow the thermostat to be controlled via Siri or by using an iOS device and the accompanying app,” Clover reports. “The new HomeKit-enabled Lyric thermostat is identical in design to the original Lyric thermostat, featuring a round body and a 3-inch polished glass face that clearly displays the current temperature and the target temperature.”
Clover report, “With the accompanying app, the Lyric can be controlled with an iPhone either at home or remotely, and with HomeKit integration, it will respond to Siri voice commands and interface with other HomeKit products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, aligning your IoT products with the platform of people who have disposable income and the proven will to spend it will lead to greater success than shackling yourself to a privacy-trampling OS from a search engine/online advertiser that’s slapped into cheap knockoff handsets peddled to ignoramuses and/or cheapskates via endless “Buy One Get One Free” deals.
A Nest is the last smoke alarm you want. You want a quality HomeKit-compatible smoke alarm. — MacDailyNews, July 23, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple HomeKit-compatible thermostat Ecobee closes in on Google’s Nest – September 28, 2015
Apple pulls Google’s Nest thermostat from stores with launch of HomeKit-compatible Ecobee 3 – July 23, 2015
First Apple-certified HomeKit-compliant devices launch – June 2, 2015
Google engineer trashes Tony Fadell’s precious Nest smoke alarm – February 19, 2015
With HomeKit and Honeywell’s Lyric, a Nest acquisition by Apple would have been foolish – June 18, 2014
Will Apple’s Internet of Things vision hurt a beautiful idea? With HomeKit, Apple promises easy home automation – June 6, 2014
Smart thermostat war heats up as Apple-partner Honeywell takes aim at Google’s Nest – June 13, 2014
Honeywell takes dead aim at Google’s Nest with new iPhone-compatible Lyric smart thermostat – June 10, 2014
Google to SEC: We could serve ads on thermostats, refrigerators, car dashboards, and more – May 21, 2014
Dead to me: Apple’s Schiller ‘unfollows’ Tony Fadell and Nest after Google acquisition – January 18, 2014
I have two first generation Nests, and they’ve worked great since I installed them. The iOS app allows for complete control over the thermostats, both locally over WiFi and remotely over cellular. They can be set to follow any schedule you desire, or you can just let it automatically remember settings you make manually, as it builds a schedule based on your actual usage. One of its settings options is to go into Away mode when it fails to record any motion by the thermostat over a two hour period, after which it follows a minimum/maximum setting you select. When you return home, it resumes your normal schedule when it detects your motion by the thermostat, or you can remotely tell it to resume your schedule before you get home.
It’s really the best thermostat I’ve ever owned. If it were HomeKit enabled, I’d be done thinking about thermostats. However, with Google now owning Nest, I’m not comfortable with Google data mining my comings and goings. If it ever fails, I’ll be replacing it with a HomeKit enabled device. If I move, I’m leaving them behind, and installing HomeKit enabled devices in my new home.
You’d think Nest would jump on some form of actually presence sensing based on location of the phone running their app – which I think HomeKit could provide for them. The motion sensor on the front of the NEST for detecting presence was always problematic for me, and the reason I removed NEST and ultimately replaced it with a Zwave Thermostat connected to my SmartThings system.
When I had the flu and was sleeping for multiple hours at a time, Nest would think no one was home and lower the temp for the furnace because no one walked in front of it for a couple of hours – even though I was actually home.
When I work out of my house – in my Office for multiple hours at a time – again not walking in front of the thermostat – Nest would lower the temp on the furnace, or raise the temp on the AC.
Entertaining on my patio in the summer – people would come and go through the house to the Kitchen or Half Bath – but never pass in front of the Thermostat in the process. Again, Nest raises the temp on the AC even though someone was actually home.
If they’d actually use the BT, GPS or WiFi radios available to them in the devices to sense presence, their device would work better, and I might be willing to give them another chance. In all of those instances above, my SmartThings system knows I’m home, and keeps the HVAC system set appropriately, even though I may not have walked in front of the Thermostat for several hours.
BTW – Before I went to a Zwave Thermo I had a Lyric (actually replaced my NEST with a Lyric). Lyric worked great – sometimes was problematic with SmartThings – generally worked great. When I switched from Winter heating to Summer cooling modes – the thermo wouldn’t work. I spent several weeks trying to diagnose the problems with Honeywell, before giving up and replacing it with my current Zwave solution.
We gave up on the Nest as it would go into Away mode whenever we took the dog for a walk. In addition, it wasn’t smart enough to run the fan at low speed when the heating or cooling was not active. The Nest purchase by Google was the final straw. We sold it and bought a Honeywell (The Ecobee was not yet available at the time)
One problem that the Nest or the Zwave solutions or Lyric, these are all for central heating/cooling. For those of us in the North with only baseboards or other individual room line-voltage heating methods there has been no smart thermostat options.
I just found out about a Canadian company called Casa which makes the Caleo line-voltage smart thermostat – check it out https://casaconnect.com/en/caleo/
Note, I am not affiliated with the company in anyway, I just want to see more options for controlling line-voltage heating appliances. The more traffic that Casa gets the more folks who will look into creating smart thermostats for line-voltage appliances. I actually like line-voltage heating. You only have to heat the rooms you are actually using.
What I would like to see one day is a line-voltage solution that monitors room occupancy and heats the individual rooms in accordance, all with control/monitoring from your smartphone. Sweet!
I have a 2nd generation NEST and have been very happy with it so far, but am also concerned with the device now that Alphabet/Google/Whatever owns them.
Obviously Honeywell has had the benefit of being able to back-engineer a NEST and leap-frog them until the next NEST comes out.
Yes, Google is the evil empire and they’re coming to kill your Grandma.
In reality, Google and Apple are blood thirsty capitalist companies who want to to grab your disposable income.
smart thermostat? C’mon.
I have a Honeywell thermostat. It does its job when I’m in my home. When I’m gone, it does another function for when I’m not home. It cost $35.00. How does a $250 thermostat save me money?
IoT is a colossal waste of time.
I have seen a drop in my power bill in the 2 years I’ve had a NEST because of the AWAY feature turning off the air when I’m away. I just wish that the humidity control feature had more settings.
An alarmingly increasing amt. of RF signals permeating your home from more and more RF products poses a clear risk to the healthy development of the unborn child. RF devices are produced by old fogies. I suggest they are out of touch in this regard.