A Hot Topic: Control Over Thermostat A Key Cause Of Family Fights

MINNEAPOLIS, May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Although familial harmony reigns in most U.S. households, a recent survey conducted for Honeywell (NYSE: HON) finds that Americans in 12 states are more likely to argue over home temperature than who controls the television remote. The result? One in three people will change the temperature when no one is looking.

Conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of Honeywell, the survey shows that home discomfort is a key cause of discord among a majority of American households in the following 12 states: New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Arizona and California.

According to the survey, 30% of respondents can never agree when it comes to the temperature of the home, and 27% admit to changing the temperature setting when no one looking, compared to 16% who battle for the TV remote. The discord is greatest among younger Americans aged 18-34, among whom 37% never agree about the home temperature, 39% of whom will change the temperature when no one is looking, and 27% of whom will battle for the remote.

Other causes of household conflict: getting chores done and listening:

• More than 40% of women feel forced to remind those they live with to help accomplish household chores;
• Men (18%) are significantly more likely than women (14%) to say that they are in a constant battle for the TV remote;
• Couples with children are more likely to never agree on the home's temperature (34% vs. 28%), change the thermostat when no one is looking (35% vs. 24%), and always battle for possession of the TV remote (26% vs. 12%); and
• 16% of Americans admit they have "pretended not to hear when being asked to do a household chore", with men twice as likely as women to do so.

"We don't have a solution for getting people to listen, but Honeywell's new Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control may be a good way for families to reduce disagreements over home comfort," said Tony Uttley, general manager of Home Comfort and Energy Systems at Honeywell. "In addition to changing the temperature with your smartphone or tablet, you can simply tell your thermostat what to do. You'll always be listened to, and, you can even lock the controls to prevent others from making changes."

The Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control is a first-of-its-kind device that provides a seamless voice user interface and transforms legacy programming to a rapid, one-step interaction. Using advanced far-field voice-control technology, homeowners are allowed to make their homes warmer or cooler by simply asking the thermostat to "make it four degrees warmer" or "make it much cooler", even from another room in the house.

About the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control
The Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control allows users to control their home's temperature in three ways; touch via the device screen, by speech commands or by smartphone/tablet. With Wi-Fi connectivity homeowners can control their energy usage and home comfort through their smartphone/tablet using Honeywell's top-rated Total Connect Comfort app. And, because this thermostat is connected through the cloud, it gets smarter with time, adding more commands based on its interactions with homeowners.

There are also multiple methods of voice command control available for users to personalize and optimize the temperature in their home. Homeowners can choose to modify their comfort in real time, at a specific time in the current day, a time in a future day, or adjust comfort against their programmed schedule. 

About the Survey
The Ipsos poll was conducted on behalf of Honeywell from April 7 to April 17, 2014. For the survey, a sample of 4,648 American adults was interviewed online in the following states: New York n=381, Massachusetts n=358, Pennsylvania n=363, Washington n=351, North Carolina n=350, Georgia n=352, Michigan n=366, Illinois n=390, Missouri n=352, Texas n=393, Arizona n=350 and California n=642. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's age/sex composition reflects that of the actual U.S population according to Census information. The precision of Ipsos online polls are calculated using a credibility interval, with a poll of  4,648 considered accurate to +/- 1.6 percentage points, 300 accurate to 6.5 percentage points and 600 accurate to 4.6 percentage points. For more information on the Ipsos use of credibility intervals, please visit the Ipsos website.

About Honeywell
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell's shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywellnow.com.

Media Contact:
Tammy Benker Swanson
Honeywell
763-954-4917
[email protected] 

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SOURCE Honeywell