In a world where everything is on the Internet, it was only a matter of time before heating and cooling your home could be done online.

While the technology has been around for several years now in high end home automation installations, the technology has come down in price to the point where internet thermostats are actually cheaper than high end stand alone programmable thermostats from companies like Honeywell and Luxpro.

With IP thermostats, you can go online and securely login to your thermostat and adjust the temperature in your home no matter where you are in the world as long as you can get on the Internet.  (Now if internet enabled coffee makers were cheaper…)

Vacation home owners absolutely love these things and it’s easy to see why.

They can monitor the temperature of your home and send you an alert if the temperature falls outside of a certain range.  For example, if your furnace stops working, it can tell you something’s wrong and you can get someone there to fix it before your pipes burst and you have a major problem on your hands.

It can also get your ski condo warmed up in preparation of your arrival so you don’t have to spend the first couple hours waiting for everything to get warm and comfortable.

However, they’re great for your own home as well.  Let me give you an example.  When I go vacations or travel for work (which I do frequently), my home is empty so I don’t need any air conditioning in the summer and just enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing in the winter.

So I just set and hold my thermostat on an extreme temperature so I’m not wasting energy and money while I’m away.  If I know exactly when I’ll get back, a programmable thermostat could be programmed to have the house at a comfortable temperature when I get back.

However, most of the time I get home because and it’s either way to warm or way too cold because a) it’s a pain to reprogram the thermostat all the time and b) I don’t always know when I’ll be getting back.

However, with the internet controlled thermostat, I don’t have to know when I’ll be get getting home very far in advance.  I can use my Android phone (or Blackberry, iPhone, or any internet enabled smartphone) to pull up the control panel while I’m waiting for my luggage to arrive at the airport and when I get home, the furnace has had a chance to make the house nice and warm again like I never even left.

Heck, companies like Ecobee already have dedicated iPhone apps for their thermostats – expect most companies to follow suit in the very near future.

And they work in the reverse scenario as well.  Have you ever left for a trip and forgotten to turn down the thermostat?  Well, now you can just login and do it remotely without having to turn back around.

Another advantage offered by Ethernet thermostats is that they can get better and more capable over time.  While the hardware will stay the same unless you physical upgrade the unit, upgrading to newer and better software is possible.  With any other thermostat, you’d have to replace the entire unit if you wanted to upgrade.

So who makes these things and where do you get them? I’ve found four major manufacturers for home use and one who makes them for commercial applications.

Manufacturers

• Proliphix
• Aprilaire
• BAYweb
• Ecobee
• Lightstat (commercial an business)

Recommendations

As far as which thermostat to go with, I recommend the Proliphix Nt20e Programmable Internet Thermostat.  It’s highly capable and easy to use once installed.  I do, however, recommend professional installation if you’re not all that tech savvy as some people have reported problems getting the unit online.

I’d say it’s about on par with getting a printer on your network – if you can do that, you can get the thermostat online yourself.  Otherwise, get a pro.

Security

One concern you may have is about security.  After all, since you can control your temperature online, couldn’t someone just hack in?  All IP thermostats are designed with security in mind.  They all use Ethernet cables to plug directly into your network rather than using a wireless connection as it’s more secure.  Also, they all use password protected control panels so as long as you use strong passwords you’ll be the only one who can control the heating and cooling equipment in your home.