First introduced in the late 2000s, smart thermostat technology has only recently gained real traction among customers, says Navigant Research. During the last year, the market for communicating and smart thermostats has expanded rapidly, with new offerings from several high-profile providers.

The Thread Group announced that it has opened membership and will begin accepting applications from companies interested in using the Thread protocol in their products. The group was established in July by seven companies to develop Thread, a new IP-based wireless mesh networking protocol designed specifically for the home.

The Wi-Fi-connected ecobee3 thermostat and remote sensors measure temperature and occupancy in multiple locations, resulting in increased comfort when an occupant is home and energy savings when he or she is away. 

As the demand for tech-savvy thermostats continues to increase, we asked our contractor advisory panel to not only identify their go-to thermostats, but tell us why they’d recommend them to customers. Here’s what they had to say.

Yesterday’s thermostats allowed a user to increase or decrease indoor temperature on site. Today’s units are much more sophisticated, allowing operators to adjust temperature, humidity, and a number of other variables from anywhere in the world. Additionally, some devices can intelligently learn a user’s schedule, and more.

When customers install their own thermostats, it often presents a problem to contractors who not lose out on a sale, but could also see an increase in service calls over malfunctioning equipment.

Nest Labs Inc. announced today the addition of Control4, Crestron®, Remote Technologies Inc. (RTI), and Universal Remote Control (URC) — along with Dropcam — to the increasing number of products, apps, and services that work with Nest products.

Through its partnership with Nest, Direct Energy, one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers, announced that it will be extending its Comfort & Control Plan to natural gas customers in Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. The plan includes a Nest Learning Thermostat™ at no cost.