The smart thermostat business has held promise for quite a while now, with even companies such as Google investing heavily in the technology. Now one of the most popular thermostat makers in the world has entered its own smart thermostat into the running.

Honeywell has announced its new Lyric thermostat, a smart thermostat with programmable capabilities. The device is being marketed as a way for consumers to save money and more accurately control the climate of their homes.

The Lyric can be paired with a smartphone to monitor the comings and goings of a household. This “geofencing” feature uses a smartphone’s location to automatically switch off the Lyric when a house is empty or switch on when the smartphone appears to be returning. The thermostat can also provide alerts for filter changes or when a furnace need to be serviced.

A smartphone using Honeywell’s Lyric app can adjust the thermostat manually from anywhere. The Lyric will also, of course, be fully adjustable via a dial control on the thermostat’s face.

Honeywell also claims that the thermostat has a “Fine Tune” feature that takes into account outdoor weather (including temperature and humidity) when adjusting indoor temperatures.

“Most people don’t have a predictable pattern to how they live their lives; why not have a thermostat that adjusts based on your real-time schedule?” said Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls. “With the Lyric thermostat’s geofencing capability, my house returns to my preferred comfort setting when I’m within a few miles from home. Quite simply, the Lyric thermostat offers me the ability to keep my life in tune – delivering comfort when I’m home and savings when I’m gone.”

Honeywell is pricing the Lyric at $279 – around $30 more expensive than Google’s Nest thermostat. Consumers can install the device in their homes now through contractors, or wait until sometime in August when the device is expected to hit retail stores.

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