Smart Thermostats + the Trane® Home App = Connected Comfort Solutions

By Anne Fonda

Have you ever left on vacation without setting back the thermostat? Do you wish changing the temperature on your thermostat didn’t involve going downstairs to adjust it? Do you wish you could track your HVAC system usage better to avoid sky-high energy bills? Wish no more.

Trane’s Connected Comfort Solutions is a system of connected HVAC products that work together to provide convenience and monitoring to deliver the ultimate home environment experience.

But just what is a smart thermostat? And why are they so great? Connected smart thermostats bring smart tech features to your home that can help you find the right balance between comfort and energy efficiency. This can lead to reduced energy use, fewer emissions, money saved, and a more comfortable home.

Also known as a Wi-Fi thermostat, a smart thermostat connects to the internet wirelessly or via ethernet. A smart thermostat is a programmable thermostat with various additional features. 

Advanced smart thermostat technology can learn your habits and temperature preferences. It creates a heating and cooling schedule based on when you are home, active, sleeping, or away. Utilizing temperature sensors and humidity sensors, they provide superior home comfort. 

A smart thermostat is a smart choice if you're considering a thermostat replacement. 

Trane smart thermostat technology takes home comfort and energy savings to the next level—which is why they were named a 5-star Smart Thermostat in the 2024 America’s Most Trusted® Smart Thermostat Brand study. This is in addition to Trane earning the America’s Most® Trusted HVAC Brand title for the 10th year in a row.

Trane’s large, user-friendly touchscreens make it easier than ever to program an energy-saving schedule every day of the week. Programming a schedule that raises or lowers the temperature while you’re away or asleep saves energy and money. You can also use one-touch presets for Home, Away, and Sleep, which allows for quick changes to comfort with a single button press.

Finally, you can create a custom schedule by adding periods of the day such as Wake, Away, Afternoon, Evening, Sleep, Weekend, etc. This is ideal for families with kids who come home from school in the afternoon while you’re still at work.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE) setting back the temperature by 7-10 degrees for 8 hours a day can save you up to 10% on your heating and cooling bills. You can save even more if you have a zoned HVAC system where you direct conditioned air to only the rooms where it’s needed, rather than the whole house. 

We warranty our smart thermostats for 5-10 years under the registered warranty. The warranty covers internal functioning parts. 

Get the most out of your high-efficiency air conditioner, heat pump, or furnace. Learn how to choose the right smart thermostat for your home.

To take full advantage of our smart thermostats and take control of your HVAC system anytime, from anywhere, simply download the Trane Home App to your smartphone. 

Get it on Google Play® or Download on the App Store. 

The Trane Home mobile app integrates with our smart thermostats for seamless control, convenience, and comfort. You control your system from the palm of your hand. Use your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC to make changes from anywhere. When using your laptop or PC, you’ll go to the Trane Home Web portal.

Whether you’re at the airport waiting to board your flight for the long-awaited island getaway or you’re sitting on the couch watching the big game, the Home App lets you change the temperature, set the vacation schedule, and more.

If you need to change your heating and cooling schedule when you’re away from home, the app makes that easy. Heading home early from work? Raise or lower the home temperature so it’s just right when you walk in the door. You can also override a schedule - for instance, if you’re working from home or a child is home sick from school.

After linking Google Home or the Alexa app to Trane Home, voice control of your thermostat is easy. If your phone isn’t handy but your voice assistant is, simply say, “Alexa, lower the temperature.” This feature can be especially helpful if you’re hosting a party and don’t want to leave your guests unattended. 

Enter Allergy Clean/Quick Clean cycles to enhance your indoor air quality (IAQ). Or keep it on auto to run whenever the system fan is on.

You can also control your whole-house ventilation system from the app. Replace stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air. Remove pollutants and reduce odors at the same time for enhanced IAQ.

Set the ideal indoor humidity levels for your home. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends- between 30% and 50% for your comfort and to avoid the issues associated with high humidity or low humidity. Your AC unit will naturally dehumidify, but you can also control your whole-house humidifier or dehumidifier from the app or your thermostat. If you have a whole-house humidifier, you may get reminders of when to change the humidifier pad as well.

Regular air filter maintenance is critical to the health of your HVAC system. Never forget to change the filter again. The smart thermostat will display a notification and the app will notify you as well when it’s time to change the air filter. You can also subscribe to regular filter delivery through Trane® Filters powered by FilterTime™ directly from the app so you always have a filter on hand.

Our smart thermostats also have geofencing capability (you can set this up by following these instructions Geofence: Location-Based Automations – Trane Home). Once the thermostat recognizes that you have left home, it can automatically adjust the temperature to the Away settings. It will also automatically adjust the temperature when you reenter the geofencing area.

If you have a Trane XL824,  ComfortLink® II XL850, or ComfortLink® II XL1050 thermostat and you’re using temperature and humidity sensors in a zoned system, you also have access to a feature called RoomIQ™. Room IQ™ can average the readings from the various sensors to keep a consistent temperature throughout your home. 

You can also customize your comfort by changing which sensor is the primary sensor. For example, during the day, you would want the primary sensor to be the one in the main living area. But at night, you could switch the primary sensor to one upstairs so that the bedrooms are at the ideal temperature and humidity for sleep.

All of our smart thermostats come with Trane Diagnostics. You opt-in once via the app and give your Trane HVAC dealer remote monitoring access. Your thermostat transmits usage, scheduling, and system health information to your dealer. They can see what is going on with your system at any given time.

Your dealer will get alerts for routine maintenance and system malfunctions. With your permission, they can run troubleshooting tests remotely to try and diagnose the issue. Remote diagnostics means you can get Trane support before you even notice a problem. 

If your dealer thinks they can solve a problem remotely, without scheduling an in-person HVAC service call, they will request one-time dealer remote access (DRA) to your HVAC system. This request will be through the app. This is separate from your opt-in to Trane Diagnostics.

If you would like to eliminate the need for an on-site service call and the interruptions that means to your schedule, you simply grant access via the app. Once the remote service call is complete, your dealer ends the remote access session. 

If they need to schedule an on-site service call, they’ll do that. The technician will arrive with the knowledge of what’s wrong and have the correct parts. This can save both you and the dealer time and money.

Maintain a high level of cybersecurity/data protection with automatic software updates on the thermostat (when connected to Trane Home). You can also manually update the software. Update the Home App to the latest version when prompted for a seamless experience.  

If you already have a Trane smart thermostat, download the Trane Home App to take control. It’s easy, intuitive, and convenient. Don’t have one of our thermostats but love the idea of all of the benefits of connected comfort solutions? Reach out to your local Trane Comfort Specialist today to set up a consultation.

Anne Fonda

Content Writer, Trane Technologies

LinkedIn

A Content Writer with Trane Technologies, Anne Fonda researches topics and writes for Trane® and associated residential HVAC brands. She works in collaboration with Trane Technologies subject matter experts, offering easy-to-understand, informative content on complex topics. Her goal is to help consumers make informed decisions on the products and services they need.

She has written for HVAC and other service provider websites for over 16 years. Before transitioning to web content writing, Anne had a 14-year stint as an award-winning journalist. She graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.

When she’s not working, Anne enjoys playing word games, reading, gardening, spending time with family, and visiting gardens and museums.

Written in collaboration with Michael Morey, Smart Thermostat Product Manager

Smart Home3min read

How to Choose the Right Smart Thermostat for Your Home

August 2023

HVAC Tips & Tricks3min read

How Do Smart Thermostats Save You Money?

August 2023

Home Improvement1min read

Trane Home App – Home or Away – Set the Stage for the Holidays!

November 2023