Apple Launches Smart Thermostats With LG, Schneider Electric

Apple is entering the smart thermostat market with two new models, made with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, arriving in December as part of a new "Apple Home Collection" of smart home gear. Both thermostats work through Apple's Home app and use a feature called Adaptive Temperature, which relies on your iPhone to sense when someone's home, asleep, or away, and adjusts heating and cooling without you setting a schedule. Optional room sensors can feed in temperature and humidity readings from different parts of the house. The LG model has a round display and is built to work with furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, boilers, and fan coil units, plus add-ons like humidifiers. The Schneider Electric model is designed for most standard residential systems. Both are DIY-installable, set up by tapping an iPhone, and work with Matter and Thread, two connectivity standards also used by Google, Amazon, and Samsung smart home devices.

A feature called Clean Energy Guidance can shift your heating and cooling to run when electricity is cleaner and cheaper, though it's only available in the contiguous U.S. and requires a compatible utility plan. The Home app will also show you energy use over time and peak versus off-peak rates if you link your utility account. Since heating and cooling make up roughly 40% of a typical home's energy use, this could matter more as utilities move toward pricing that charges different rates depending on time of day. The thermostats are also designed to work with other new Apple Home devices, like door locks and cameras, coordinating routines such as locking up and adjusting temperature automatically when you leave or return.