Is a Honeywell T6 Smart Thermostat a cheaper alternative to a Nest or Hive? Coming in at around a third cheaper than the market leader, a Honeywell in the hand could be worth two in the Nest.
You just try and shake a stick at all the smart thermostats currently available on the market.
Some have almost futuristic features and others are closer to Tamagotchi's.
For the price point, we think the Honeywell T6 is…alright actually.
The founder of the Honeywell T6 smart thermostat is thought to have conjured up the idea after falling into a well of honey in a desperate bid to uncover a way to save money on his energy bills. After 4 savage days trapped at the bottom of the honey well, fending off bees and contemplating the problem as well as his seemingly imminent death, he was rescued. He surfaced, hellbent on creating a new smart thermostat.
Honeywell T6 Features
Features | Honeywell T6 | Hive | Nest |
Compatible with Google Home | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Compatible with Amazon Alexa | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Compatible with Apple HomeKit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Smart phone/tablet friendly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Backlit touch screen | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Control from anywhere on mobile/tablet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Hot water tank control (for regular/system boilers) | No (Yes for the Honeywell EvoHome) | Yes | Yes |
Smoke/carbon monoxide alerts | No | No | Yes |
Batteries required | No | Yes(included) | Yes(included) |
Thermostat dimensions (h d w cm) | 10.3 x 2.8 x 10.3 | 10.0 x 4.8 x 10.0 | 8.4 x 3.2 x 8.4 |
Thermostat weight (g) | 200 | 212 | 220 |
So the Honeywell T6 doesn't look too shabby next to its two rivals, albeit with Nest clearly coming out on top.
In truth, the Nest has a bunch of features that put it head and shoulders above the competition, including a far superior mobile app that not only makes monitoring energy usage in detail super easy but encourages you to do so, too.
So the Honeywell might not be the thermostat of choice for the tech/energy saving geek but should be for the bargain hunter. It's still arguably the 2nd best on the market, including the Hive which it's also got beaten on price.
Our favourite Honeywell T6 feature
Honeywell have poured dozens of pounds worth of research into UK homeowners, arriving at the astute conclusion that when you get home from work, the gym, or prison - there's no way you'll have remembered to pop the timer on the boiler and even less chance that once you walk through that door you're going to want to manually switch the boiler on. What if it’s upstairs? Unthinkable.
Fear not though, because Honeywell have put this issue to bed once and for all.
Through the geo-location on your smart phone, the Honeywell will track your progress on your commute home and switch the boiler on to your ideal temperature, all whilst you're still hurling abuse at cyclists.
Honeywell T6 Cost
Smart thermostat | Cost (Amazon.co.uk) |
Honeywell T6 | £135.99 |
Hive | £163.00 |
Nest | £193.28 |
Three of the best selling thermostats, all with a loose connection to bees. Very suspicious.
Installation cost
You can install the Honeywell by yourself and it will come with instructions on how to do so. The difficulty of this is probably similar to that of rewiring a plug socket.
So if that's something you're comfortable doing and you're good at following instructions, save yourself the extra cash and have a go yourself.
If not though, the installation price on Amazon is listed at an additional £90 - which seems wildly overpriced.
You can choose to add on a smart thermostat when ordering your new boiler with Heatable. We’ll include fitting within the price.
If you're looking for installation from an expert, we'd recommend just outsourcing a local electrician who is probably going to a charge you a third of that amount, if that.
Related thermostat guides:
Aesthetics - how does the Honeywell measure up on looks?
Honeywell
A wallflower of smart thermostats, the Honeywell unit won't turn many heads for attractiveness but won't have you throwing up either.
It looks exactly how you'd expect a smart thermostat to look, no worse and not much better. It'll blend in perfectly well in any home. Colour-wise, you can have the Honeywell in any colour you want, as long as it's black.
Hive
The least attractive of all these thermostats. Not too dissimilar from the Honeywell in terms of size and shape but it's centrally placed turning dial means it's just littered with backlights rather than most of the unit space being the screen itself.
Nest
It's hard to make a case against Nest for the best looking of every available thermostat, never mind just the other Hive & Nest.
It's the proud owner of Beyoncé like curves that go on for days and its stainless steel finish is akin to the skin of a Mediterranean swimwear model.
For around an extra £30 or so, you can upgrade the stainless steel to a white, bronze or an all black finish. Beware of the time you can lose just staring into the hypnotizing gaze of the all-black model.
