Competition is heating up in the smart-home space – just weeks after Nest’s announcement and subsequent launch in Europe, Netatmo has announced expansion into five new markets (in addition to France & Belgium) – United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. In addition, the connected hardware startup has announced a series of partnerships with key country players like EDF, France’s largest utilities company, as well as Luminus in Belgium. In totaly, Netatmo is now available in 1350 stores around Europe.
While Netatmo’s themostat, designed by Stark, is smartphone-enabled, it isn’t exactly the same as Nest’s Smart Themostat. There is less automation – one of Nest’s core selling points is that it will actually reduce your electricity bill – however, given that Nest’s thermostat only works in homes which have one central heating control (less common in France’s older buildings), not many are able to take advantage of Nest’s smart features currently (in France, at least).
Making up for its lack of autmoation, Netatmo is rolling out Energy Savings Reports starting this fall – monthly reports with recommendation based on your energy consumption. Netatmo is available on Amazon (UK), in FNAC (France), in Conrad (Germany, starting in November) and a variety of other retailers & resellers at a recommended retail price of £149.