How Do Ecobee Room Sensors Work In A Havertown, PA Home?

The room sensors for the ecobee smart thermostat work by taking readings from different parts of your house and using some or all of them to regulate the temperature. You can choose which ones to use at any time using the ecobee app, or let the system decide how best to treat your home. 

This feature is one of the major upgrades that a smart thermostat offers over even the most sophisticated digital models. Until now, a thermostat could only take a reading from one room: The one where you installed it. 

However, with room sensors, you can finally factor in every room of your Havertown, PA house when managing your home comfort.

In this article, we’re diving deep into the ecobee room sensors, including: 

• How Many Ecobee Room Sensors To Use
• How To Pair Room Sensors With Your Thermostat
• Where To Place Ecobee Room Sensors
• Making Ecobee Work With Multiple Zones
• More Room Sensor Features

If you have any questions along the way or are looking for more ways to make your Havertown, PA home more comfortable, read some of our related articles or call or email John Cipollone, Inc for a free consultation. 

How Many Ecobee Room Sensors To Use

You can pair up to 32-ecobee room sensors with a single thermostat, but there’s almost no way you’ll need that many. At most, you would place one in each room and maybe one in each hallway.

They’re small and inconspicuous: Each one is just over 1.5 square inches, and they’re sleek with small, clear stands. Plus, there are no wires! 

These devices use small coin batteries like the ones you see in watches or hearing aids. They’ll work for a year or more before you need to replace them. 

And, the sensors use radio frequencies to communicate instead of wi-fi. That way, they’ll still work even if the internet goes down. 

How To Pair Ecobee Room Sensors

Before installing, you want to pair each ecobee room sensor with the thermostat. Even though they use “old-fashioned” radio waves, you pretty much link these up the same way you would a laptop or Bluetooth device. 

To start, make sure the thermostat is awake. Touch the screen or stand in front of it until the display lights up. 

Then, find the sensor’s unique 4-digit ID on the back of the sensor. You’ll have to pull a plastic tab to find it. Once you do that, the thermostat automatically finds the sensor and asks if you want to pair it. 

Choose “Yes,” and then give it a name and choose the area of the house where you’ll place it. Then, you’re ready to install it! 

Where To Place Ecobee Room Sensors

Ideally, you should place each center about five feet from the ground near an interior wall. There’s a panel on the back of each one with a screw for wall mounting. Or, remove that panel and pop in the stand to place it on a piece of furniture. 

When you’re setting one up, look for a small bee logo. That logo should always be facing upward. Since there aren’t any controls or anything on them, that’s the best way to make sure you’ve got it positioned the right way. 

Also, make sure it’s not in the direct line of a vent and far from any heating or cooling source. This way, the reading doesn’t get thrown off by being in the hottest or coldest part of the room. 

Making Ecobee Work With Multiple Zones

Most forced-air HVAC systems are single-zone. That means you have one heating or cooling system and one thermostat. Even if different parts of your home are hotter or colder than others, every room gets the same treatment. 

That changes with multiple-zone systems, however. Now, you can use different heating or cooling levels in various rooms or sections of your house. 

Radiators, baseboard heating, and ductless mini splits are examples of multiple zones: Instead of one centralized system, you have smaller units working individually. You can even achieve this with forced-air if you install more than one furnace or AC condenser. 

Or, if your home has a conventional single-zone furnace and AC, you can get electronically-controlled dampers that open and close different vents. This process provides different amounts of heating or cooling for each zone. 

It’s not quite as efficient as a setup built to be multi-zone, but it will still increase your comfort. 

While most multiple zone devices have individual thermostats, you can use one ecobee to control them all if you want. To do so, you’ll need room sensors covering every zone in the house. 

From there, you’ll pair them as usual. You can then create different call settings for various zones — 72 degrees upstairs, 68 degrees downstairs, for instance. Or, set them all the same and get even heating and cooling throughout the house. 

More Room Sensor Features

Now that you’re all set up, you can start exploring more of the features each room sensor offers. Here’s a quick overview of what to look for: 

Custom Comfort Settings 

You have the option of using the data from each center to maintain an average temperature across your entire house. Or decide which sensors should drive the settings at different times of the day. 

For instance, when you’re sleeping, your ecobee can make adjustments based on the readings from the bedrooms. Or, switch to the dining room, living room, and kitchen sensors when everyone’s downstairs during the day. 

Smart Home/Away

This feature can override your scheduled settings if the sensors detect people in the house when there is usually no one home or if everybody’s gone when they’re usually still there. That way, you get the best settings even if you’ve programmed the thermostat otherwise. 

Ecobee Smart Thermostats For Havertown, PA Homes

Call or email John Cipollone, Inc if you want more ways to make your home amazingly comfortable while still being energy-efficient. Starting with a free consultation, we can help you make the most of your ecobee smart thermostat or explore more options to create the climate you want while keeping your utility bills under control.