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Hello, everyone - I hope that one or more of you can help me, as you have many times in the past! My mother is 95 and, by her own choice, lives in her own home near mine. The thermostat of course, is in the living room, and her bedroom often becomes uncomfortable (either too hot or too cold) at night. I want to get her a Smart thermostat that's operated using the Amazon technology, Echo. That way, right from the comfort of her bed in the middle of the night, she simply has to say: "Alexa, tell the thermostat I'm too hot (or too cold)", and the temperature would be automatically changed. I'd definitely set it up with all proper passwords and precautions, just as I have done with the unit in my own home. You might wonder why I don't simply set her up with one like mine! It's because the manual operation of the one I have would likely not work out well for her, since her eyesight is failing. There are times of course, when she might want to manually adjust the thermostat, during the day for example. Does anyone have experience with one of these relatively new technologies? I'd appreciate some suggestions!

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My thermostat is automatic. During the day I set it for 70 from 8am to 11pm. At 11pm its set for 66 until 8am. When we both worked we could set it to warm the house up before we got up, then lower the temp while we were working and then back up so the house was warm when we got home. Weekends could be adjusted separately when we were home all the time. It helped our heating bill.

Maybe something like that would be better. Then Mom does not have to think or remember. At 70 the less I have to remember the better.
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Don't torture her with trying to learn new technology ;-) It seems simple to us, but to a 95-yr old...unless you want to be her constant tech person as she calls you at all hours because she can't remember how to run it. My mom is almost 91 and lives in her own home, next to mine. She has a simple tablet and a flip phone. Then my son gave us an Alexa and I've had all I can do to teach my mom to use it only for timing food that is cooking. She either doesn't remember to start with "Alexa..." even though I have the name in a bright orange sticky-note, or she doesn't remember that she has to give a very specific command in order for it to work. She gets it right about 50% of the time. She is also starting to forget how to use the oven, which she's used for decades.

If I were in your situation, I might consider a Nest so that I could control it remotely. You could print out the instructions in large, readable type and put it next to the Nest, and maybe that will work. With failing eyesight, I'm not sure what to do....what types of thermostats did blind people use before there was Alexa? Maybe check that out.
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