The Honeywell Home T9, Resideo’s first consumer thermostat to support remote temperature sensors, has finally brought a long-promised feature to its users: HomeKit.
The brand, which is licensed by Resideo and spun out of Honeywell in 2018, already has support for Apple’s smart home system in its T5 thermostat, also known as Lyric T5, but that device doesn’t have external sensors. Sensors can help make sure you’re comfortable in the room you’re in, rather than just maintaining the desired temperature where the thermostat is.
As Verge editor Dan Seifert wrote in his review of the Honeywell T9, its sensors are very good and able to measure humidity in addition to temperature, something neither Nest nor Ecobee’s remote sensors can do. They can also sense motion and presence and will adjust the system to rooms where it detects people. The T9 costs $199 and comes with one remote sensor in the box, with support for up to 20.
According to Resideo, with the HomeKit integration, users can control their Honeywell Home T9 smart thermostat using Siri or with the Apple Home app. Once connected, you can use automations to adjust the temperature or ask Siri to do it for you. Unlike with the Ecobee SmartThermostat, there is no built-in voice assistant, so you need to use a HomePod Mini, iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch to invoke the assistant. Resideo didn’t specify if you’ll be able to use temperature or motion from the sensors to trigger routines in the Home app. The Honeywell Home T9 already has support for Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Whether this really matters, considering smart thermostats are in the first Matter specification (the new smart home standard that promises to unify connected devices in our home), remains to be seen. Resideo is on the board of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which oversees Matter, so it seems likely its thermostats will become Matter-enabled when the standard launches next year. This should mean users can control their thermostat with any smart home ecosystem of their choice, as long as it supports Matter.
But in the meantime, T9 owners will be able to keep their toes toasty this holiday season with just a few words to their Apple voice assistant.
