ecobee comfort settings explained
A comfort setting is a named profile, such as Home, Away or Sleep, that stores a heat setpoint, a cool setpoint, a fan behavior and which sensors to read. ecobee builds your schedule by placing comfort settings at chosen times, called activities. Change a comfort setting once and every activity that uses it changes with it.
What is a comfort setting?
It is a saved set of preferences with a name. ecobee's support page says the comfort setting determines the temperature setpoints and fan behavior the thermostat follows. Every ecobee starts with three: Home, Away and Sleep.
On their own, comfort settings do nothing. The schedule decides when each one runs. ecobee calls each block of time an activity: the activity sets the start time and length, and the comfort setting supplies the temperatures for that block. A 7-day ecobee schedule is a row of activities, each pointing to one comfort setting.
This is different from Honeywell's approach, where each schedule period holds its own temperature. On an ecobee, if Home appears four times in your week and you raise Home by a degree, all four activities change at once.
What does each comfort setting control?
| Item | What it does | Where you change it |
|---|---|---|
| Heat and cool setpoints | The temperatures held during that activity | App or thermostat |
| Fan mode | How the fan behaves during that activity | App or thermostat |
| Sensor participation | Which sensors are averaged for the room temperature | App or thermostat |
| "Someone is usually Home" or "Away" | Away adds 1°F (0.6°C) to the differential | Chosen when you create a custom comfort setting in the app |
| Name | Shown in the schedule | Custom comfort settings, in the app |
Sensor participation is the one people overlook. If you have SmartSensors, each comfort setting can include or exclude any sensor, including the thermostat's own built-in sensor. For example, you could have Sleep read only the bedroom sensors and Home read the living areas. ecobee notes that when a sensor starts or stops participating, its reading is phased into or out of the average over a 30-minute transition.
How do you edit a comfort setting?
- ecobee app: tap Home, tap the thermostat, tap Menu, then Comfort Settings. Pick one, adjust the heat and cool setpoints and the fan mode, and tap Save.
- On the thermostat: Main Menu > General > Comfort Settings, then the same steps.
- Smart Thermostat Lite and Essential: Main Menu > Comfort Settings.
Sensor participation is one level deeper: open the comfort setting, then Sensor Participation, and select the sensors.
New comfort settings can only be created in the app. Tap the add icon on the Comfort Settings screen, name it, set its temperatures and fan mode, and choose whether someone is usually Home or Away during it. That last choice decides whether the extra 1°F Away differential applies.
How do comfort settings fit into the schedule?
You place them on the calendar as activities. On the thermostat, go to Main Menu > General > Schedule (Main Menu > Schedule on the Lite and Essential), pick a day, tap the plus icon, choose a comfort setting and a start time, and save. In the app, the same screen also lets you set a "Run Until" time and create a new comfort setting on the spot.
ecobee lists three rules worth knowing:
- The schedule must always contain at least one activity.
- Deleting an activity stretches the one before it to fill the gap.
- Adding a short activity in the middle of a longer one splits the longer one in two. ecobee's example is a 2 hour Away inside a 4 hour Home.
An activity can also change without a schedule edit when eco+ switches the thermostat to Away. If that happens while you are home, see ecobee Smart Away turning on by itself.
What happens when you change the temperature by hand?
The comfort setting is not edited. ecobee places a hold on top of the schedule, and the Hold action preference at Main Menu > General > Preferences > Hold action decides how long it lasts: 2 hours, 4 hours, "Until the Next Scheduled Activity", "Until You Change It", or "Decide at the Time of Change". When the hold ends, the scheduled comfort setting takes over again, which is why a change can seem to undo itself; see thermostat keeps returning to its schedule.
If you find yourself making the same manual change every day, edit the comfort setting instead. It is a permanent fix that also carries over to every activity that uses it.
For other ecobee topics, see the ecobee hub. If you are deciding between a fixed schedule and one that adapts on its own, see learning vs programmable schedules.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I add more comfort settings than Home, Away and Sleep?
- Yes, but only in the ecobee app. Open your thermostat, then Menu, then Comfort Settings, and tap the add icon. You name it, set the heat and cool setpoints and fan mode, and say whether someone is usually home or away during it.
- Why does my ecobee let the house drift more during Away?
- ecobee adds an extra 1°F (0.6°C) to the differential during Away activities, and during custom comfort settings marked "Someone is usually Away". The room has to move a little further from the setpoint before heating or cooling starts, which saves energy.
- Can I delete all the comfort settings and run without a schedule?
- No. ecobee says the schedule cannot be removed and must always contain an activity. To run at one temperature, change the Hold action preference so a manual change lasts until you cancel it.
- Which sensors does an ecobee use during a manual hold?
- During a manual hold, ecobee follows the sensor participation rules of the Home comfort setting. So if you excluded a bedroom sensor from Home, it is excluded during holds too.