Sensi thermostat now works with Amazon Alexa
Works with Amazon Alexa! Use voice commands to control your Sensi thermostat.
“Alexa, set my living room thermostat to 72 degrees.”
Welcome to the future of the connected home
We’re proud to be one of the first Alexa thermostats to work directly with Amazon to give our customers an additional layer of ease to control their home comfort. Learn how your Sensi™ Smart Thermostat works with Amazon Alexa and its mobile app.
Is there an Echo in here? Who is this Alexa?
Amazon Alexa is the software and mobile app that powers its futuristic Echo cylinder hardware. It essentially acts as a central hub for the new connected home. Voice-activated trigger words and phrases allow users to play music, turn off lighting and Internet-enabled kitchen gadgets and now, control your Sensi thermostat. While both need to have an internet connection, Alexa and your Sensi thermostat do not have to be on the same Wi-Fi network to enable this control.
What’s in a name?
Before having Amazon Alexa discover your device(s), confirm that you have named your thermostat. It should be something that is easy to remember and discern from your other connected home products. For example, you might have both lighting and your thermostat names set as “bedroom”. Consider using “bedroom thermostat” instead. It’s a name that Alexa can easily understand and that you can also remember easily. Something else to consider when naming your Amazon thermostat is that Alexa does learn accents and particular voice nuances. But she is not particularly fond of numbers or acronyms. You can use numbers in the name, just spell them out. Alexa will phonetically sound out your device name. If you don’t use a location description and prefer using numbers, use “thermostat one” not “thermostat 1”. Finally, since Alexa uses trigger words to activate devices, stay away from command verbs in your Sensi thermostat name.
(Get more information on naming and commands.)
Discover. Connect. Command.
Now that you’ve named your thermostat, you’re just steps away from easily connecting to Amazon Echo using the Alexa app.
(Read full set up instructions.)
Once Alexa has discovered your device, you can control single or multiple thermostat settings using just your voice. You will also be able to ask Alexa the room temperature and the thermostat’s set point. For batch changes, create and name connected home device groups on the Alexa app. For example, you could create a grouping for all home thermostats to adjust the temperature with just one voice command. In the below examples, the thermostat name or grouping is in bold and the command verb is in italics.
“Alexa, set living room thermostat temperature to 68 degrees”
“Alexa, raise first floor thermostat by 2 degrees”
“Alexa, lower home thermostats by 4 degrees”
“Alexa, what is the temperature in living room?
“Alexa, what is first floor set to?”
Alexa Thermostat Schedules and Auto Mode
Are you using schedules in your Sensi app? If so, Alexa will use the room temperature as the base when asked to change the temperature. She will not use the set point in your schedule. Additionally, using Alexa voice control will issue a temporary temperature setting. This will hold for two hours until reverting to your normal schedule. The temporary time change appears on the Sensi app home screen so you will know when your regular schedule resumes.
When using Alexa while your thermostat is in auto mode, Alexa will change your comfort range to one degree above and one degree below your requested temperature. For example, if your current cool set point is 80 degrees and your current heat set point is 60 degrees, you have a 20-degree comfort range with an implied 70-degree midpoint. If you ask Alexa to set your thermostat to 75 degrees, your 20-degree comfort range will change to a three-degree comfort range, and your new cool and heat set points will be 76 degrees and 74 degrees, respectively.
With the help of Sensi thermostat and Alexa, making smart decisions about home comfort and energy use is possible. Not just with the touch of a button, but also with the sound of your voice.
