Controlling your Smart Thermostat with a Smart Speaker
Voice-controlled smart speakers are a popular technology in the contemporary home, with most recent figures by Statista suggesting 1 in 4 Canadian homes now utilize one. A smart speaker is more than just a clever way to play music or listen to the radio; it uses an in-built ‘voice assistant’, also known as a virtual assistant, to help organize your schedule, search the internet and facilitate the control of your home’s other smart devices with just the sound of your voice, including your Warmup Smart Thermostat.
Can I control my Underfloor Heating System with a Smart Speaker?
Warmup’s range of electric underfloor heating systems can be voice-activated with selected smart speakers when the system is controlled by our 4iE Smart WiFi Thermostat. The 4iE is our most advanced floor heating thermostat and packed full of unique features that enhance the energy-efficiency of your floor heater. The ability of the 4iE to be controlled using your Smart speaker makes heating your home an intuitive and hands-free experience that simplifies and streamlines your life and personalizes your heating to your exact requirements. You can simply ask your voice assistant to turn up your underfloor heating by a few degrees or turn it off completely.
Effective Zoned Heating
The zoning functionality of an underfloor heating system, whereby the system is split into different ‘zones’ which can be controlled independently of one another by a zone-specific thermostat, also provides a more bespoke heating solution when used with a smart speaker. You can command the voice assistant to control a specific zone’s heating, rather than your whole home. The compatibility of the 4iE and a Smart speaker also means your heating can work in tandem with other technology in your home, for true home automation. For instance, you can set your floor heater to come on at the same time as your lighting or your heating could be lowered as soon as you close a WiFi-connected door.
Which Voice Assistants are Compatible with a Warmup Smart Thermostat?
There are an array of smart speakers featuring several different voice assistants on the market and we know it can get a bit complicated deciding on which one is best for your home. If you’re looking for a speaker that can work in unison with your Warmup Smart Thermostat and heating system, let’s review which speaker is right for you.
Amazon’s Echo – Alexa
Amazon’s Alexa is a popular assistant used in a variety of Smart speakers, most specifically Amazon’s own ‘Echo’ range and the Sonos collection. Controlling your floor heating using Alexa couldn’t be easier, simply download the Warmup 4iE Alexa Skill and use it in conjunction with Warmup’s MyHeating app and enjoy the benefits of voice-controlled heating.
Google Home
The Google Assistant software is primarily utilized in the Google Home range of smart speakers but also features in speakers such as the Panasonic SC-GA10, the LG ThinQ and the Sony LF-S50G. To control your Warmup underfloor heating with the Google Assistant, we recommend using the IFTTT platform which can create connections and links between all your smart home devices. Using IFTTT with a Warmup Smart Thermostat also provides compatibility with Microsoft’s Cortana assistant.
Managing your Heating System using Alexa
The Warmup 4iE Alexa Skill makes controlling your heating as simple as saying “Alexa, set Bedroom Thermostat to 70 degrees”. Using Alexa with your underfloor heating system also allows you to group different smart devices, such as lights and thermostats, to create a ‘Routine’ for a fully automated, voice-controlled home. For instance, you could link your bedroom lighting to your floor heater and radio as part of a ‘Morning Routine’ so that when you wake up, you can say “Alexa, good morning” and your light’s will come on along with the radio and your floor heating will start to warm up for a cozy, hassle-free start to the day.
Follow the steps below to use Alexa with your Warmup Smart Thermostat
- Download the MyHeating by Warmup app to your iOS or Android smartphone
- Register an account and set up your Warmup Smart Thermostat as instructed
- Download the Warmup 4iE Alexa Skill in the Alexa app
- Open the Skill
- Log in with your Warmup account details
Once you log in to the Warmup Skill, your thermostats will be shown in the Alexa app within the ‘Smart Home’ section – your thermostats will be automatically named with the same names that you set in the MyHeating app but they can also be changed from within the Alexa Skill app.
You can now command Alexa to operate your heating system, for instance saying “Alexa, turn up the [name of thermostat] thermostat to 75 degrees”.
Creating an IFTTT Applet to control your Floor Heater
The IFTTT platform allows you to forge connections between your Smart home devices. Using IFTTT, you can link a Warmup Smart Thermostat to your Google Assistant or Cortana-powered Smart speaker and enjoy the benefits of automated heating in your home. IFTTT uses ‘Applets’ to facilitate synergy with your Smart home technology, wherein you create a ‘Trigger’ to result in an ‘Action’, for instance asking your Smart speaker (the ‘trigger’) to lower the temperature of your heating (the ‘action’). You can also connect to other Applets such as a Weather Applet to do things such as turning up your underfloor heating when it’s raining outside or sending your smartphone a notification when the temperature of your home drops below a certain level.
To start using IFTTT with your Warmup Smart Thermostat, follow these steps:
- Download the MyHeating by Warmup app to your iOS or Android smartphone
- Register an account and set up your Warmup Smart Thermostat as instructed
- Go to ifttt.com and register your free account
- Search for the ‘Warmup’ Channel
- You will be prompted to login to the Warmup channel with your Warmup account
- Log in with your Warmup account details
- Once you log in to the Warmup channel, you can start setting up applets with other services
You can get started with some of the pre-made applets on the Warmup channel or make your own to suit the requirements of your home.
Making your Heating part of your Smart Home Ecosystem
The ability to control your home’s heating system using just your voice is a great step towards a truly automated home and our range of Smart Thermostats are packed full of innovative features that work with all kinds of other Smart technology in your life.
For more information on the features of our Smart Thermostats, read our blog on Smart Thermostats and their Smart Home compatibilities.
Getting the most out of your Smart Thermostat with the MyHeating app
To get the most out of a Warmup Smart Thermostat, we recommend using it with our MyHeating app for iOS and Android smartphones which offers remote access, automatic heating and energy-saving functionality for your home’s heating system.
Warmup Smart Thermos tats and Building Management Systems
If you’re commissioning the heating solution for a large-scale project, such as a hotel or a commercial development, our Smart Thermostats are also compatible with several Building Management Systems. Warmup can provide software drivers for Control 4 and Crestron Installers to load inside these systems, allowing Warmup Smart Thermostats to appear and be individually controlled from within the interface.
Heated Floors
Floor heating is the modern heating solution – creating the perfect temperature, making you feel warm and comfortable from the moment you enter the room.