A Cambridge-based firm is hoping to take on British Gas’s Hive and Google’s Nest with a smart thermostat that will control more than your heating.
The Cosy connects to your home heating system and to the internet so it can be controlled via a smartphone app.
Green Energy Options plans to start shipping Cosy in May, and has gone on Kickstarter to raise £20,000 to help develop the product further and the app used to control devices via Cosy smart plugs.
Helena Watson, senior creative at Cosy, said that the aim of the firm and its product was to bring high-tech, simple, stylish and intelligent energy management solutions into the home.
“Cosy is the latest innovation in smart home technology and has a unique advantage over its competition: whole-home environment control,” she wrote.
“As an early backer you’ll be helping develop your future home. And you’ll have the chance to tell us what you think we should work on next.”
Cosy pits itself against the likes of Nest (recently bought by Google and launched in the UK last week), Germany’s Tado and British Gas’s Hive.
While these are purely heating controls (Nest also has a smoke and CO detector), Cosy is also aiming to control other devices in the home, such as lighting and other electrical devices like radios and home entertainment systems.
Cosy will also be updated to deal with multi-zone heating systems and control your hot water, as will as tracking temperature and consumption data, and learning features that will set up heating and other device schedules without your input.
As usual with Kickstarter, there are rewards for contributing: donating £10 will get a T-shirt; backers with £169 will get the basic kit of the hub, thermostat and wireless switch; for £199, you get the basic kit plus a smart plug to control another device in the home.
Pitching up £249 will earn you all of that, plus a tour of Cosy’s offices and a ‘slap-up lunch’ with Simon Anderson, chief strategy officer.
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