I purchased the Ecobee Smart Thermostat last summer for a vacation home I have 3K miles from my residence so we could control the temperature in the house remotely.
First, I have to say the folks at Ecobee are really nice and very helpful, but their service is limited by the products they sell.
ECOBEE IS THE GATEKEEPER
Controlling remotely over the internet, the smart thermostat device is a bit slow and clunky as it is runs through Ecobee’s servers, then to my house, and there is NOT an option for a direct connection using my Dynamic DNS service. This is one of the the biggest disappointments with this device that I didn’t discover until after purchased. Case in point, Ecobee had a significant outage last month and I could not control my device during the critical cold weather and snow storms that we were experiencing. I was really afraid of my pipes bursting in the house due to the cold temps. My other concern with having to depend on my connection running through Ecobee's servers is that at any point they can start charging a toll for access to my thermostat. Following their mass e-mail apology after the outage month, I inquired about a direct connection option and was advised a direct connection was not their business model. ** BE FOREWARNED OF THIS FACT BEFORE CONSIDERING PURCHASE OF THIS DEVICE **
LCD THERMOSTAT SCREEN ISSUES
In addition, the wall thermostat’s touch screen device is not ready for prime time. The touch functions on the LCD screen jump all over the place when trying to pin down the exact point where to push on the screen. Ecobee replaced the first device in an effort to resolve the issue, but the 2nd device yielded no better results.
Another issue is that the thermostat’s LCD screen touch points for each function are too small for the average adult to do by finger, thus we have to use a pencil eraser to make device changes via the touch screen.
Given my experience and knowledge, at this point I would not purchase an Ecobee device, but rather opt for a smart thermostat system that integrates into a whole-home smart system that had an option for direct connection remote control via the internet.