Smart Energy Savings With Vivint Comfort IQ

With rising heating and cooling bills all over the country, many homeowners prioritize appliances with energy efficiency to help them save on utility bills. Energy star-certified smart thermostats and other smart home devices can help, but finding one that combines true comfort with cost savings can be difficult.

Vivint Comfort IQ is a feature on the Vivint Smart Thermostat that automatically adjusts your home's temperature based on whether you're home, away, or asleep. Using Vivint’s proprietary AI, your preferred temperatures, and occupancy signals from your Vivint system, Comfort IQ helps reduce wasted heating and cooling without requiring a set schedule.

The result? A more comfortable, energy-efficient home with the potential to save up to $300 annually on energy costs.*

Key takeaways:

• Save up to $300 per year* on heating and cooling costs with Vivint Comfort IQ
• Comfort IQ delivers approximately 4x greater energy savings than programmable thermostats
• Available to all Vivint Smart Thermostat users
• Comfort IQ uses in-home sensors to determine occupancy and automatically adjusts the thermostat to help save money
• Users can easily override Comfort IQ at any time with just a few taps

Read on to find out how Comfort IQ works, what makes it different from other smart thermostats, and how it can help you save on heating and cooling.

What is Vivint Comfort IQ?

Vivint Comfort IQ is an AI-powered energy management feature of the Vivint Smart Thermostat that uses real-time data from Vivint devices to automatically optimize HVAC usage and reduce energy costs.

Unlike thermostats that rely on a fixed schedule, Comfort IQ uses occupancy signals from your Vivint system to adjust to how your family actually lives. Whether you're traveling away from home, staying up late, or leaving the house early, your home can adapt to help reduce energy waste on heating and cooling.

Comfort IQ also learns your routines over time, continuously fine-tuning performance based on how your home is used.

The result is a learning thermostat that provides both energy saving and comfort. Features include:

• Automatic temperature adjustments: Comfort IQ adjusts based on whether you're home, away, or sleeping to help reduce wasted heating and cooling.
• Personalized comfort: Uses your preferred temperatures to create a heating and cooling schedule that helps keep your home comfortable when you’re there.
• Mobile temperature control and insights: You can always change your home's temperature from anywhere using the Vivint app, or from home on the thermostat itself. In addition to remote access, the app provides insights into your energy use. These energy reports include trends, changes in temperature settings, and more.
• HVAC performance insights: Monitor your HVAC system and receive notifications when potential risks are detected. You can also receive notifications when it’s time to change your filter, helping ensure your heating and cooling systems are properly maintained.
• Professional installation: Vivint includes professional installation and setup on all their smart home devices, ensuring they work as intended.

Comfort IQ works in the background, reducing the need for constant manual adjustments while helping you save energy.

How do smart thermostats generate energy savings?

Traditional thermostats maintain a set temperature until you change it. Smart thermostats (also called learning thermostats) offer features such as programmable schedules, remote access, and automated adjustments to help your HVAC system operate more efficiently.

Here's how smart thermostats can help lower your heating and cooling costs:

Reduce heating and air conditioning when you're away

Heating or cooling an empty home can waste energy and increase utility costs. Smart thermostats help prevent this by adjusting temperatures when you're away and returning to your preferred settings when you're home.

Depending on the model, these adjustments may be based on programmed schedules, geofencing technology or motion sensors.

Adjust temperatures based on your routine

Smart thermostats make it easier to manage your home's temperature around your daily activities and will automatically adjust heating and cooling based on when you typically wake up, leave home, return, and go to bed.

Learning thermostats like this get to know your habits over time, reducing the need for manual adjustments.

Optimize temperatures while you sleep

Your preferred sleeping temperature may differ from the temperature you like during the day. Smart thermostats allow you to schedule nighttime temperature adjustments that help maintain comfort while reducing unnecessary energy use.

Provide insights into energy use

Many smart thermostats provide energy reports and HVAC runtime information—the total time your heating and cooling system actively operates—to help you better understand your home's heating and cooling activity.

These insights can reveal patterns in energy use, show how temperature settings affect HVAC operation, and help you identify opportunities to conserve energy. Some models also provide maintenance reminders and system alerts to help keep your HVAC equipment operating efficiently.

How Is Vivint Smart Thermostat + Comfort IQ different from other smart thermostats?

Most smart thermostats rely on schedules, but Comfort IQ goes further. Here’s how:

Adjusts to occupancy, not just a schedule

Comfort IQ uses occupancy signals from your Vivint security system to help ensure it’s not heating or cooling an empty home.

For example, maybe you need to leave your home earlier than normal. Your motion sensors and smart locks will indicate if you leave earlier than usual or stay out later than expected. Comfort IQ can adjust automatically instead of following a predetermined schedule.

Unline standalone thermostats that primarly rely on single-room sensors or schedules, Comfort IQ uses whole-home occupancy sensing through your connected Vivint security system for more accurate detection.

Connects comfort with your smart home

Comfort IQ is part of Vivint's smart home ecosystem, bringing security, energy, and smart home technology together in one connected system.

With the Vivint app, you can change the temperature, check cameras, lock doors, and manage other compatible smart home devices right from your phone.

Delivers proven energy savings

In an independent study by Tierra Resource Consultants involving approximately 50,000 homes across five major U.S. climate zones, Comfort IQ delivered approximately four times greater HVAC runtime savings than scheduled thermostat operation.

How much can a smart thermostat save on your energy bill?

By design, most smart thermostats and programmable thermostats can help save money over traditional thermostats.

Vivint Comfort IQ can help you save up to $300 annually* in estimated energy costs.

In a year-long independent study by Tierra Resource Consultants involving approximately 50,000 Vivint customer homes across five major U.S. climate zones, Comfort IQ reduced HVAC runtime by an average of 13%, translating to up to $300 each year*.

How does this compare to programmable thermostats? This type of thermostat, which requires manual programming, provides about 3% savings, compared with 13% for Comfort IQ*.

Comfort IQ vs traditional thermostats compared

Whether you use a traditional thermostat, programmable thermostat, or smart thermostat, they all serve the same primary function: controlling your home's temperature. The main difference is how the adjustments are made.

Comfort IQ

• Proprietary AI automatically adjusts temperature throughout the day
• Learns household routines over time
• Monitors HVAC for potential issues
• Sends HVAC filter reminder notifications to Vivint app
• Can still be adjusted manually if needed via the Vivint app, Smart Hub, or Google Assistant
• Best for busy households or people who have variable or busy schedules, want to maximize their energy savings, stay connected to their homes, and receive alerts and notifications to help their HVAC systems run as efficiently as possible

Traditional thermostat

• Require manual changes
• Can’t be programmed to adjust the temperature when you’re away
• Can’t be controlled remotely
• Have few (if any) energy-saving features
• Doesn’t monitor HVAC system
• Best for people who want the lowest upfront cost or a no-frills unit that doesn’t require a Wi-Fi connection

Programmable thermostats

• Follow predetermined schedules
• Can have multiple schedules (such as nighttime or 9-5)
• Typically can’t be controlled remotely
• Energy savings depend on the schedules you set
• Doesn’t monitor HVAC system or send notifications
• Best for people who have consistent schedules who want energy savings without connecting to internet

Tips to maximize your smart thermostat energy savings

Whether you have Comfort IQ or another smart thermostat, energy savings are estimated and still dependent on a wide range of factors. For example, someone who likes their AC set at 68 degrees when they’re home in the summer will not have the same energy savings as someone who prefers a higher temperature.

With that in mind, a few simple steps can help you get more from your smart thermostat and improve your home's overall energy efficiency.

1. Set your preferred temperatures

Choose temperature settings that strike a good balance between comfort and energy efficiency.

Comfort IQ uses your preferences when making automatic adjustments, so you can maintain your preferred home climate while helping reduce energy use when you're away.

2. Let Comfort IQ adapt to your routine

Unlike thermostats that rely on a fixed schedule, Comfort IQ adjusts based on preferences, occupancy signals, and proprietary AI, learning your routines and fine-tuning them as needed.

Trusting these automatic adjustments and allowing the system to make them will help reduce unnecessary heating and cooling without requiring constant changes to your thermostat settings. Even better? You can stop worrying about the temperature and trust that it’s maximizing your energy savings.

3. Review your energy insights

With the Vivint app, you can review energy insights and manage your home's temperature from anywhere.

Understanding your home's heating and cooling activity can help you make more informed decisions about your temperature preferences.

4. Replace HVAC filters regularly

A clean HVAC filter helps maintain healthy airflow and supports efficient system operation.

Comfort IQ provides filter replacement reminders through the Vivint app, making it easier to stay on top of this important maintenance task.

5. Maintain your heating and cooling system

Routine HVAC maintenance can help your system operate as efficiently as possible.

In addition to scheduling regular professional maintenance, pay attention to notifications from Comfort IQ about potential HVAC risks.

6. Improve your home's overall energy efficiency

Reducing unnecessary heating and cooling is just one way to conserve energy.

You can also help your HVAC system operate more efficiently by sealing air leaks around doors and windows, making sure windows and doors are closed when the air conditioning is on, and using window coverings to reduce temperature increases on sunny days.

Combined with Comfort IQ's automatic temperature adjustments, these steps can help reduce your overall energy use.

Comfort IQ Is a smarter way to save energy

With Vivint Comfort IQ, you don't have to choose between a comfortable home and energy efficiency.

Ready to make comfort and savings easier than ever? Visit us online to learn ho Vivint can help you stay comfortable and save energy.