Alarm.com Smart Thermostat Review

If you’re looking for the smartest of smart thermostats, the Alarm.com Smart Thermostat is a strong contender. It’s well designed and feature-rich so you can save energy. You just might have to sign up with a security or smart home dealer to use it.

The first thing to know about Alarm.com: it doesn’t like to sell equipment directly to the user.

If you want an Alarm.com Smart Thermostat (or any other Alarm.com wares), you generally have to go through a third-party security or smart home dealer. That dealer could be a big name, like ADT or Link Interactive, but it could also be a small, local business.

The dealer then decides how much you’ll pay to install and use your Alarm.com Smart Thermostat.

You can also find this thermostat on Amazon. However, our research suggests that you can’t fully use it if you don’t already have an Alarm.com or Alarm.com-compatible security or smart home system in place.

The Alarm.com thermostat is a pristine white, and the display numbers are even whiter. The thermostat also has a glazed sheen that makes it a little more elegant than your typical matte thermostat.

While the interface has buttons for easy use, there’s not a lot you can do with the digital display. You’ll be jumping into your app to take care of the nitty-gritties, like checking the temperature in other rooms. Or, if you’ve hooked up your system to Alexa or Google Assistant, you can use a voice command.

Like the Ecobee SmartThermostat, an Alarm.com Smart Thermostat works with remote temperature sensors. You can place them throughout your house so that you or your thermostat can adjust the temperature setting by room.

Amazon sells the remote sensors separately. They aren’t cheap ($54.63 as we write these words), so be prepared to fork out extra money. If you want multiple sensors, it’ll add up fast.*

Of course, if you don’t care about controlling the exact temperature of each room, you can forego this expense altogether.

The main selling point for this thermostat is it can potentially save you a lot of energy and, therefore, money. Let’s talk about some of the features that make that possible.

Your thermostat uses your phone’s location settings to monitor when you leave the house. It also uses activity sensors to determine whether the building really is empty.

If it is, it won’t worry about keeping your home at the perfect temperature until it sees that you’re heading in the direction of the house. Then bam! Everything goes back to how you like it.

The Smart Thermostat keeps an eye on weather data with real-time, local updates. If the weather tips to an extreme, your thermostat will automatically adjust without you lifting a finger.

If that feels too heavy-handed, you can set an alert for when the temperature goes above or below a certain range. That way, you can wrest control of the system only when you need to.

An Alarm.com thermostat can sync with other devices to create a true smart home. It also offers a high level of remote access.

This thermostat has average home automation capabilities. It works with Amazon Echo and Google Home. It’s also compatible with other Alarm.com and some Z-Wave equipment through the app.

If you have a security provider that uses Alarm.com (like Frontpoint), your security equipment and thermostat can talk to each other. For instance, if your Alarm.com carbon monoxide or smoke detector goes off, your thermostat will turn off the HVAC system to keep the gas/smoke from spreading.

Alarm.com powers apps for many of its dealers, both big and small. It also has a highly-rated standalone app.

We don’t have a way to track down and check every single third-party app Alarm.com has created. But we have looked at the standalone Alarm.com app, and we like it. It’s well organized and looks easy to use. And you can use it on your phone, tablet, Apple Watch, or smart TV.

If you buy the Alarm.com thermostat through a third-party security dealer, that dealer will determine the installation details. If you buy from Amazon, it’s up to you to figure it out.

Generally, a thermostat is more complicated than another smart home device. Unlike a sensor or a smart lock, it has to be connected to your HVAC wiring. We don’t recommend messing with a heating and cooling system unless you know what you’re doing, so we suggest hiring a professional.

(The temperature sensor should be significantly easier to set up, so you might be able to do that one yourself.)

We recommend this ultra-smart thermostat. But because the process for buying, installing, and controlling the thermostat on your own is so unclear, we wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. We think it’s best when you already have a third-party service or are planning to buy one.

Some security system/smart home providers that already use Alarm.com equipment or apps are as follows:

• ADT
• Frontpoint
• Link Interactive