Ecobee Haven Home Monitoring System Debuts With Alexa SmartCamera

Ecobee has launched a home monitoring system, adding the Ecobee SmartCamera to its new Haven line-up. Following the path of smart home rivals like Nest and Ring, Ecobee's platform combine its connected thermostat with contact sensors, motion sensors, and a new connected security camera.

Priced at $179, the SmartCamera captures at 1080p Full HD resolution, and has a 180-degree wide-angle lens. There's a night mode for low-light situations too, as well as two-way audio so that you can hear what's going on in the room as well as speak to people there from the app.

Ecobee will include a stand as well as a wall-mounting kit. What's unusual in the segment, though, is that the SmartCamera also acts as a smart speaker, with access to Amazon Alexa.

The new SmartSensors, meanwhile, will be priced at $79 for a pair. They'll track whether a door or window has opened, as you'd expect, but also work as motion sensors too. That tracks if there's activity in the room. While the SmartCamera is mains-powered, the SmartSensors run on a battery, with Ecobee suggesting you'll get three years use before you need to replace them. Ecobee will also have a standalone SmartSensor which does motion detection but not door/window monitoring.

What Haven won't have is a dedicated control panel. Where other DIY home security systems have stuck with the traditional keypad interface for arming and disarming with a PIN, Ecobee has opted to bypass that. Instead, it relies on the app for manual control over the system's status, as well as automatic home/away using geofencing and more.

Also absent is any sort of siren. The speaker in the SmartCamera is able to double as an alarm, but there's no standalone siren box as we've seen other companies offer.

As you'd expect, Haven does come with a subscription fee. There'll be two different plans, depending on how many cameras you have. Either way, both plans support unlimited non-camera Ecobee devices, entry-detection with contact sensors, family arrival notifications, and automatic monitoring.

The Haven Essential plan is $5 per month, and supports a single camera with 14 days of video history. The Haven Extended plan, meanwhile, is $10 per month, but increases that to supporting an unlimited number of cameras. Ecobee is also offering a month's free trial to new subscribers.

What there isn't, at least for now, is any sort of professional monitoring option. We've seen Ring and others offer that for its uses with an extra fee, tying their security systems into 24/7 remote monitoring services that can respond if the alarm is triggered.

Ecobee is offering two bundles for those wanting to get started straight away. A Home Security Bundle is $279, and comes with a SmartCamera, two SmartSensors for doors and windows, and two regular SmartSensors. A Total Home Comfort and Security Bundle, meanwhile, is $499, and adds Ecobee's latest SmartThermostat.