Make your Thermostat more Accessible with Voice Commands!

Vision Forward's Tech Connect

Welcome one and all to another exciting episode of Tech Connect! Today Cory will be demonstrating how you can operate and program essential Smart Home technology like a Smart Thermostat using either an app or Voice Controls through any smart speaker such as the Amazon Alexa. Although we are specifically showcasing the EcoBee today, Cory's advice applies to most similar devices. Join us today and learn everything you need to know to get started. Soon enough you'll have full control over your comfort as we warm into the summer months!   0:00 Start 0:40 EcoBee with Alexa and smart home devices in general 2:45 Smartphone App display and example overview 4:10 Changing various settings within the app 6:40 Fan specific control 7:56 Controlling your EcoBee thermostat via Amazon Alexa 10:45 Wrap Up Review of the EcoBee and smart home tech generally  13:45 Upcoming Videos, Resources and free on-demand ACVREP Credits  We at Vision Forward would be happy to answer any questions that you still have about the EcoBee Thermostat or other smart home devices down in the comments.   Contact Vision Forward Association:  Call us: (414-615-0103)  Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org  Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org   Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store  Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.    Want more Tech Connect in your life? Try us Live! Be sure to join us for the upcoming YouTube Live! show on May 22nd at 11am CST.   Looking for the full playlist? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc   Catch-up with our most recent Tech Connect Livestreams!   Odyssey By HumanWare with Rachel Ramos! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnnkDtGWTY   Hable Easy with Freek van Welsenis!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIUdBKLg2mU   EMVI App for Visual Assistance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aSyIJewz4Q   Sign up for free on our LMS and you'll get access to full webinars eligible for free on demand ACVREP credits! https://techconnect.vision-forward.org/login/index.php   Webinar Teaser: "Dictation And Screen Reader use in Windows 11" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad9_4pCvYYs   #assistivetechnology #lowvision #OpticalCharacterRecognition #apple #technology #blindness #blindtech #lowvision #vision #sightloss #blind #smartwatch #accessibility #tipsandtricks #blindtech #lowvision #iphone #applevisionpro #apple #magnifier #assistivetechnology #CCTV #free #audiodescription  #accesible #accessibility #magnifcation  #Blind #iphone #ios #bluetooth #mobility #eyesight #wearable #technology #maculardegeneration #lowvision #visuallyimpaired #glaucoma #legallyblind #blind #technology #assistivetechnology #sight #vision #funny #disability #scanner #ocr #howto #tech

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Cory Ballard, Chief Meteorologist here at Channel Vision Forward, and we are standing in front of our Vision Forward weather map, and we've got a lot of weather going on.

00:12We've got cold fronts up here in the north, we've got warm fronts down here in the south, and they're going to tech connect right here in the Midwest and cause us some crazy weather that we experience in the spring.

00:25Stick to this channel for any important weather alerts.

00:29Now back to you, Cory.

00:40Thanks, Cory.

00:41Welcome all back to another tech connect today.

00:44We are taking a look at a way to make your thermostat smarter.

00:49Well, I should not say your thermostat.

00:51We're actually looking at the Ecobee line of smart thermostats.

00:55That's going to allow you to be able to use either your smartphone or an Alexa to be able to control all of the things that you'd want to be able to control on a thermostat.

01:06Stick with us, and let's take a look.

01:08For those that are familiar with our channel, you know that I love smart home technology, and you might think, oh, that's kind of complicated.

01:19I don't want to get into that, but stick with me today because I think you're going to enjoy learning about smart thermostats and how they can make your life easier and more accessible.

01:31As I mentioned in the intro, we are looking at the Ecobee line of thermostats.

01:35There is a number of smart thermostats out there, and really, at the end of the day, what you want to make sure is that it works with Alexa.

01:44That's going to be your biggest thing that you're going to want to make sure.

01:47So, the Ecobee line of thermostats, they've got a few different ones, but really, at the end of the day, we are looking at a thermostat that will replace the thermostat you currently have.

01:59Now, this is where you might want to get some assistance to have this thermostat installed.

02:06Typically, people who are comfortable with some basic electrical work or a handyman or even having somebody come over that does heating and cooling can absolutely install that thermostat for you.

02:21No issues.

02:23Once that thermostat is set up and installed, you can then get it configured.

02:27So, now, it's going to work via a smartphone app and Alexa, and we're going to be looking at both of those today.

02:35So, some of that first part is a little bit complicated, but once that's all done, you're hands off at that point, and you don't have to worry about any of that complicated stuff.

02:48Let's first take a look at the smartphone access.

02:51I'm going to be using an iPhone here with voiceover.

02:56That is my preference, but it is accessible on Android with TalkBack, so no worries there.

03:04Launch Ecobee.

03:08Ecobee.

03:10Reports.

03:11Tap.

03:11Two of three.

03:12Humidity, 60%.

03:13All right, I've now got the main Ecobee app open here, and on this main screen, I'm going to get a number of important pieces of information that's going to allow me to get more information about my thermostat and how my house is.

03:30So, let's just kind of swipe through and see what we get.

03:33Humidity, 60%.

03:34First of all, I can see that it's 61% humidity in my house.

03:38Cool.

03:39Button.

03:39Pop-up button.

03:40My current mode is cool.

03:4272 degrees.

03:44That's telling me that it's currently 72 degrees in my house.

03:49Desire temperature, 76 degrees.

03:51And then I can see what my desired temperature or what my thermostat is set to, 76 degrees.

03:58So, here on this main screen, I get all that kind of information that allows me to better make decisions on what I'd like to do to control the temperature in my home.

04:10Woo-hoo.

04:12All right, now we've got information, but now we want to make some changes.

04:17I think that it is currently too cold in my house, and I want to bring that temperature up a little bit.

04:25Or maybe I want to change it and just turn the air off altogether.

04:28First, let's look at changing the mode of our thermostat.

04:32I'm going to swipe until I hear that cool button.

04:36Humidity, 60%, cool button, pop-up button.

04:39All right.

04:40So, we hear voiceover saying it's a pop-up button.

04:43That means we've got some options.

04:44So, let's go in and take a look at them.

04:46Heat button.

04:48I can change it to heat.

04:50Selected.

04:51Cool button.

04:52I already see that cool is selected.

04:55Selected.

04:55Dismiss context menu.

04:56Dismiss context menu.

04:57All right.

04:58That was the last.

04:59So, there must have been something before heat.

05:01So, let's swipe back and take a look.

05:03Off button.

05:03Ah, there's that off button.

05:05I'm going to go ahead and double tap.

05:07All right.

05:08Now, let's check and make sure that it turned off the thermostat.

05:13Humidity, 60%.

05:14Current mode off.

05:15Button.

05:15Perfect.

05:16So, now we've been able to change our thermostat.

05:19Now, we're going to need to put our thermostat back on because, obviously, if we want to change

05:24the temperature, there's nothing to change now because we have our mode set to off.

05:29So, I'm going to go back in and set this to cool so we can actually change the thermostat

05:33temperature.

05:35Heat button.

05:35Cool button.

05:3672 degrees.

05:39Humidity, 60%.

05:40All right.

05:41Now that we've got our thermostat back into cool mode, let's go and check two things.

05:47Number one, what's the current temperature?

05:48And number two, let's change that desired temperature of the house.

05:53Cool button.

05:5472 degrees.

05:55All right.

05:56So, we know it's 72.

05:57Desire temperature, 76 degrees.

05:59And let's make this 78.

06:03Button.

06:04Back.

06:04So, I went ahead and double tapped.

06:06Now, I'm going to swipe over to the temperature.

06:09Cooling to 76 degrees.

06:10Adjustable.

06:11And I'm going to swipe up because it's adjustable to make it warmer.

06:15Swipe down to make it cooler.

06:17Since we want to go to 78, let's swipe up.

06:2077 degrees.

06:2278 degrees.

06:23There we go.

06:23We're set to 78.

06:24And now, I'll just swipe back to the left of the back button.

06:27Button.

06:27Back.

06:30Button.

06:30Person.

06:31Perfect.

06:32Now, we've changed our temperature in the home to 78 degrees.

06:36There's one last thing you might want to be able to control.

06:40And that is the fan.

06:41Sometimes, you might have your thermostat set to off, but you want to get some airflow going.

06:47And so, you want to turn on that fan.

06:50The way we do that is, first, we're going to swipe on this main screen to the name of our thermostat.

06:55Mine's called Thermostat.

06:57Button.

06:58First, my home.

06:59Button.

06:59Off.

06:59Thermostat.

07:00And I'll double tap.

07:0272 degrees.

07:03Now, this has opened up some more options.

07:06I'm looking for the quick changes.

07:08Humidity 60.

07:09Desire temperature.

07:10Set duration until 9 p.m.

07:11Cancel.

07:11Current hold.

07:12Weather sunny.

07:13But current mode cool.

07:14Button.

07:14Quick changes.

07:15Button.

07:15Double tap.

07:16Quick changes.

07:17Adding.

07:18And let's look for fan.

07:19Button.

07:20Close.

07:20Comfort setting hold.

07:21At comfort setting.

07:23Set manual hold.

07:24Fan settings.

07:25Adding.

07:25Fan.

07:26Auto.

07:27Zero minutes slash HR.

07:29Set fan hold.

07:30Button.

07:30And I'll double tap.

07:3215 minutes.

07:33Button.

07:33Now, on this screen, I can decide how long I want the fan to go for.

07:37There's a number of options.

07:3815 minutes, 30 minutes, two hours, and so forth.

07:42Let's choose indefinite.

07:43Indefinite.

07:44Button.

07:44Double tap.

07:45Now, our fan is on.

07:47And it's on until I go back into that same area and turn it to off.

07:55All right.

07:56Now, you might be thinking to yourself, hey, Corey, this looks really cool.

07:59But to be honest, I don't want to mess around with a smartphone.

08:03No worries.

08:04Because your Amazon Echo, or your A, I don't want to say it in case ours is listening, it

08:10can do everything, well, pretty much everything that I just showed on that smartphone app.

08:16Which means you could have somebody set it up for you on their smartphone, especially if

08:21they're already in your home.

08:22And then you can just use your Amazon Echo to do most of the things you'd want to do

08:27with a thermostat to make it even more simple.

08:30First, let's find out what the current temperature in my home is.

08:35Now, we can do this in a couple of ways.

08:37Number one, we can say, Alexa, what's the temperature inside?

08:40The average temperature of the home is 73 degrees.

08:46Now, you hear mine say the average temperature.

08:49Hold on to the outro today because you'll learn why it's saying average.

08:54But if I know the name of my thermostat, which mine just happens to be thermostat, I could also

09:00say, Alexa, what's the thermostat set to?

09:02The AC is set to 78.

09:06Now, this tells us two different things, right?

09:09First, we found out what the temperature is inside.

09:13But then we said, what is the thermostat set to to find out what it's currently set to?

09:19Those are two different things.

09:20Now, if I want to change the thermostat, let's say it's 78 right now.

09:25My wife may be home from work in a little while.

09:27She probably doesn't want it 78 degrees.

09:30Let's bring it back down to 75.

09:33Alexa, set the thermostat to 75 degrees.

09:38The AC is set to 75.

09:40Now, we're also hearing that the AC, so that is telling us what mode it's currently in as

09:46well.

09:47If the mode was set to heat, then it obviously would have said the heat is set to 75 degrees.

09:53So with my voice, I'm able to set that thermostat.

09:57Let's say I decide I want to change the mode.

09:59I don't want it in AC anymore.

10:02I want it off.

10:03I could say, Alexa, set the thermostat mode to off.

10:08It's off.

10:10Now it's changed my mode to off.

10:12Now I better make it back to cool.

10:14Again, I don't think my wife would be very happy to come home to a hot house.

10:18Alexa, set the thermostat mode to cool.

10:23It's set to cool.

10:24So now with my voice, I'm able to switch it right back into air conditioned mode.

10:29So again, if you're not comfortable with a smartphone or if you're like me, sometimes

10:33you just don't want to pull out your smartphone, but you've got an Amazon Echo device near you.

10:38You're able to use your voice to change and make your home nice and comfortable.

10:47All right.

10:48This was a smart thermostat.

10:50And I hope from this video, you can see how it could make your life easier and give you access

10:57to a device that you potentially have issues or troubles accessing now.

11:02As I mentioned, we looked at the Ecobee today because that's what I've picked out.

11:07But man, there is a number of different ones out there.

11:12So a smart thermostat can run you anywhere from maybe $75 up to a couple hundred.

11:19Some of that really depends on the brand you get and how many different features they are.

11:24I like Ecobee.

11:26The app is pretty much accessible.

11:29Reliability is great.

11:31So I've stuck with it.

11:32Amazon Basics, they have their own line too, and those are pretty good.

11:37So I'd recommend taking a look at those.

11:40Some of the features we didn't look at today, at least with the Ecobee, are the ability to

11:45add some extra sensors around your house.

11:48Little battery operated thing, little devices you can put in rooms.

11:52And that helps your thermostat get a better idea of what the overall temperature is in

11:57your home to help make decisions.

12:00We also didn't look at some of their comfort settings.

12:03You're able to set comfort settings for heat and cool, for sleep mode.

12:08And that just helps you kind of better use your thermostat.

12:13This thermostat does have scheduling as well, where you can set up a specific schedule.

12:18So that's certain days and times of the day, you can have heat come on cool.

12:23We didn't cover that in here, but if that's something you're interested, please throw it

12:27down in the comments and we can make a more advanced video covering some of those things.

12:33So should you get one?

12:35Well, that is completely up to you, but I can tell you that the investment isn't too bad.

12:41Like I said, $7,500, $75 to a couple hundred dollars to get that thermostat, getting it

12:48installed, it can take somebody absolutely less than an hour to do.

12:53As I mentioned, if somebody's comfortable with some very basic wiring, it's really kind

12:59of matching colors together, they'll be able to get that thermostat in in less than an hour

13:04easily.

13:05So if you think that's worth the investment of what you saw today, then I would definitely

13:11recommend going ahead with it.

13:13We've got a lot going on here at Vision Forward.

13:16I would love to know, are you already using a smart thermostat?

13:20If you are, throw it down in the comment box.

13:23Let me know what brand you're using.

13:25What kind of things are you doing with the thermostat that maybe I didn't cover today?

13:30Make sure the rest of the community gets an idea of how a thermostat could make their

13:34life easier.

13:35Or if there's any other smart home tech you want us to show or highlight, please throw

13:41that down in there too.

13:42If I don't already have it, it might be an excuse for me to get something new.

13:46We've got a live TechConnect that we do every other Thursday.

13:51Our most recent one was on May 22nd, where we sat down with Rachel from Humanware to look

13:58at their new Odyssey device and the AI that they've added to it.

14:02So make sure to go back on our channel and take a look at that.

14:06We'll have some really awesome new TechConnect live videos and new produced videos coming.

14:12So always stay tuned to our channel.

14:14Make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so that you don't miss anything we're doing.

14:21We also have an LMS.

14:23You might say, what the heck is an LMS, Corey?

14:25Well, it is a learning management system.

14:29Really, it's a place for you to go to get free ACVREP credits.

14:34We've got a number of different webinars on that platform that you can access completely

14:39free.

14:40And if you want that ACVREP credit, it's there for you to take.

14:44A shiny little certificate just for you.

14:46We also have a podcast, and that is a podcast audio only of our TechConnect live.

14:52So if you would prefer to just catch those TechConnect lives after the fact, go ahead and open

14:57up your podcast app of choice.

14:59Do a search for Vision Forward TechConnect, and you'll absolutely be able to find that

15:04podcast and go ahead and subscribe.

15:06That would really help us out.

15:08We would appreciate it.

15:09We've got a lot going on, like I said.

15:11So make sure that you stay tuned to our channel because we've got good information coming just

15:15for you.

15:16Hi, I'm Corey Ballard, Chief Meteorologist here at Channel Vision Forward, and you can

15:30see we have got crazy weather going on today.

15:34Oh, I forgot to breathe.

Category

Transcript

Recommended