This new smart thermostat from Meross works with Matter

Smart home company Meross announced its first Matter-certified smart thermostat and its first to work with North American whole-home heating and cooling systems. The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat costs $99.99, works over Wi-Fi, and features a white glass panel with a touch screen, smart scheduling, and can track system usage through the Meross app.

The thermostat requires a C-Wire, and Meross says it’s compatible with 95 percent of heating and cooling systems. It also appears it will work with Meross’ smart temperature and humidity sensors, which are Matter-compatible. They cost $30 each, although you’ll need a Meross hub to use them.

Matter compatibility means the thermostat can integrate with platforms such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings locally over your Wi-Fi network without requiring a cloud connection. You should also be able to set up and use the thermostat directly on those platforms without requiring the Meross app.

Image: Meross

Surprisingly, despite the popularity of smart thermostats — which take a lot of the pain out of programming your heating and cooling system and can use their smarts to help save you energy — there are only two Matter-compatible smart thermostats for US HVAC systems. Those are the Nest Thermostat ($129.99) and the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) ($279.99) — both from Google. Other popular brands in the space, such as Ecobee, Amazon, and Honeywell Home, have not added Matter support to their thermostats.

This means that if you’re interested in using a Matter device to control your HVAC, Meross’ new thermostat is now your least expensive option. While it doesn’t come with the Nest Thermostat’s smarts that will automatically adjust your schedule, it is the only thermostat with Matter-compatible room sensors. The Nest Learning Thermostat has room sensors, but they’re not compatible with Matter.

One reason for the lack of support for more thermostats in Matter could be the limited controls Matter allows for. Currently, you can only adjust the temperature and change the mode on compatible platforms. However, the most recent spec release for Matter (1.4) added support for scheduling and preset modes such as home / away and vacation settings. This addition means that once a platform supports 1.4, it will be easier to set up and use a Matter smart thermostat directly in your smart home platform of choice and not need to use the manufacturer’s app.

The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat costs $99.99 and is available now, with a launch price of $69.99 from the Meross store.