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The Smart Thermostat Test

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – You may have seen them in at a hardware or electronics store. They are called smart thermostats. And they claim to be easy to install and will save you big money, as much as 20 percent off your power bill. So CBS4's David Sutta decided to put it to the test.

It may be the coolest gadget for your home. An air conditioning thermostat you can control with an app on your phone from anywhere. And best of all, these nifty little gadgets say they will save you money.

In February Sutta put the Nest thermostat in my house. His first impression was it's cute and beautifully designed. Installation was fairly straight forward and quick – at least he thought.

While he installed the thermostat in 38 minutes he had problems for days. The house simply wouldn't cool off.  After a couple of calls to customer support, a week later he finally got it working.

CLICK HERE To Watch David Sutta's Report 

Lisa Lee Arneaud is a working mom, always on the go.

She agreed to put a Nest competitor called Ecobee in her home. She's hoping it will help regulate her home.

"Oh, this should be simple. I got this. I got this," she said as she started her installation.

With a clock timing her installation she decided to skip the instructions. Minutes in she was having trouble and questioning whether she could do is.

"Graduated top of my class. Went to college on scholarship. Fairly intelligent person. Multiple careers. Very successful in life," she joked as she looked at all the wires coming from her wall.

Sutta jumped in to try and help. But he was just as lost.

Arneaud dialed Ecobee's customer support. They couldn't help.

Arneaud then Skyped with her dad.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked.

He's right!  Why were they doing this? It's clear the duo needed a professionals help.

Terry Zarling with True Cool Air Conditioning knew exactly what the problem was in seconds. It involved messing with power wires.

"I wouldn't recommend a homeowner doing this unless they are an electrical engineer and even then," Zarling said.

Ecobee's CEO Stuart Lombard told Sutta their goal is to make the installation process painless. He also said they had lot of happy customers who have installed their product on their own. He also claimed their product is one of the highest rated on Amazon.com.

Zarling recommended a different product called Lyric that he said had more features.

It looks similar to the Nest, but has something called Geofencing.

"It will actually know when you are getting close to the house and actually start cooling the house down.  So you walk in and the house is going to be, if it's not right to temperature, it will be close to temperature when you walk in," Zarling explained.

Arneaud was excited about that option – so out with Ecobee, in with Lyric.

Zarling has it installed and running in just 13 minutes.  "I love this!  I love having control!" Lisa exclaimed as she played with the APP on her phone.

Then it was time for a very unscientific test.

For two months Arneaud and Sutta operated there smart thermostats at their houses. With their FPL bills in hand, the two compared how much energy they used the last two months with their smart thermostats with the same two months last year with their "dumb thermometers."

The smart thermostats pledged to be easy to use and save money.

Arneaud loved the ability to control the air from her phone. The thermostat also looks beautiful.  However, it wasn't very practical.

"It takes forever to get down to 72, and I also feel that the 72 with the smart thermostat doesn't feel like the same 72 with manual thermostat," she said.

Aside from the cool APP, Lisa wasn't impressed. And when she looked at her power bill she was shocked.

She didn't save a dime. If anything she spent more. Once installed, her power bill shot up 66 percent.

"So I think we need to take that sucker out. Get rid of it!" she said.

Sutta's Nest was problematic too.

He said the house was constantly warm. And his power bill went up 6 percent. He also said it still takes hours longer to cool down the house.

Sutta was not sure he would recommend it.

Arneaud felt the same way.

"I don't think that I would go and personally purchase it," she said.

It's important to note their test was very unscientific. These were real life experiences that were simply observed and reported.

Both Lyric and Nest have studies that claim when used over a longer period of time these thermostats are effective.

It's also worth noting it got hotter in the months following Sutta and Arneaud's installation, so their air conditioners were on more often.

Still, that doesn't account for a 66 percent increase in the power bill for Lisa.

Honeywell, the maker of Lyric, offered to take a closer look at the issue.

On Monday, they wrote to CBS4 the following:

"Honeywell's Lyric thermostat was designed to deliver maximum comfort when you're home, and maximum savings while you're away, if properly configured. Lyric's features – Fine Tune and Geofencing – play critical roles in delivering stated energy savings if used by the homeowner. While we don't have all the details, the homeowner's experience is not consistent with our own tests nor with feedback we've received from other customers in the Miami area. Estimated annual savings in the southern U.S. range between $31 and $143. We'll gladly talk to both the homeowner and the contractor to help resolve the issue!"

Nest also sent reaction to the test saying the 6 percent result was just not a meaningful measurement.

Between possible new appliances, changes in the amount of time spent at home and temperatures outside being hotter than last year, the numbers could have been skewed.

Nest wrote, "Studies conducted by Nest and independent third parties have shown that the Nest Thermostat saved US customers about 10-12% on their heating bills and about 15% on their cooling bills on average."

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