In Frost & Sullivan’s survey of 1,013 U.S. homeowners, 646 owned programmable thermostats and rated various brands on several specific points. Homeowners using Honeywell programmable thermostats rate their thermostats higher than users of any other major brand. “Honeywell users appreciate the features offered by its brand – 33 percent cite that having the ‘best features’ is their main reason for using Honeywell, compared to nine percent among users of other brands stating the same,” said Christina Alfaro Research Analyst with Frost & Sullivan’s Customer Research Team. “Supporting Honeywell’s overall best rating is that it rated well for other factors too, such as ease-of-use, energy efficiency, and cost savings.”

Honeywell conducts extensive – and on-going – customer research to ensure the products they develop are simple-to-install and are easy-to-use. For instance, their Prestige™ programmable thermostat incorporates a patented, interview-based interface that walks a homeowner through the set-up process by asking a series of questions, such as “what time does the first person wake-up in the morning?” or “what time do you go to sleep at night?” The answers help the thermostat program itself – no owner’s manual is needed. The graphic user interface displays information in an easy-to-understand format, the on-board user’s manual provides definitions and directions for each display screen and can be customized to display in English, French or Spanish.