What is it? The Evohome is a smart, multi-zonal thermostat from Honeywell suitable for larger homes
Category: Smart heating control
Money-saving features:
- Mobile control
- Hands-free controls
- Program modes
- Optimisation
- Zone control
- Compatible with smart TRVs
- Boost function
- Frost protection and weather responsive
It has the following ease-of-use features:
1. Mobile control:
- Can be controlled via the Honeywell Total Connect Comfort app (for Android and IOS).
- Can be controlled via a web browser
2. Hands-free features
- Voice-control works with Amazon’s Alex, Google Assistant, Siri and IFTTT when paired with a smart speaker
3. Visual features
- The Evohome controller has large colour LCD display with backlight
- The current room temperatures are displayed in medium-large text and different colours are used to distinguish different zones without your home
- You can change between day-mode and night-mode to alter the colour contrast and screen brightness (day mode has a bright white background with a full-colour screen and high screen brightness and night-mode has a light-blue background with blue tone menus and reduced screen brightness and glare)
4. Audio output
- There is no audio output on the device itself,but audio verification is available for basic features when paired with a smart speaker or smart assistant
- The Honeywell Total Comfort app works reasonably well with Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader, and most buttons are clearly labelled
5. Dexterity features
- A large touch-screen interface makes it easy to change settings on the device
6. Simplicity
- Generally, the thermostat and app are easy to use and basic tasks asks as adjusting the temperature, programming a schedule and overriding the schedule are all straightforward.
- Setting up the more advanced features is more complex
Is there anything I should watch out for?
- The Evohome Controller has a touch-screen interface and has no tactile features or in-built audio output
- Because the Evohome is a multi-zonal system it is more suitable for larger homes - this does make it more complex to set-up, and it means you will need to purchase compatible TRVs and room thermostats, making it an expensive option.
Who might want to buy it?
We think the Evohome Controller would be great for people who already use some smart tech (e.g. a smart phone), would like a very visual smart control, have a larger house and want lots of control over their heating and hot-water
Our consumer panel told us…
- The touchscreen interface and lack of tactile features on the device doesn’t make it very accessible for many visually impaired people, but the voice-control features and screen-reader compatibility could mitigate this for people who already use smart tech or accessibility tools.
- The large colour screen displays information clearly for people with cognitive impairments
- The basic controls are reasonably intuitive, but the advanced features could be problematic for people with cognitive or memory impairments
To find out more about the Honeywell Evohome check out these links:
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smart-thermostats/honeywell-evohome
https://getconnected.honeywellhome.com/en/evohome