Sinope TH1123WF Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat Review

We’ve reviewed lots of low-voltage thermostats for gas- and oil-fueled heating systems, but the Sinope TH1123WF ($114.95) is a line voltage smart thermostat exclusively for electric heating systems. It lets you control your home heating using your phone, or with your voice via Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri voice commands. It integrates seamlessly with Apple HomeKit and SmartThings home automation ecosystems, is relatively painless to install (although you do need to work a bit with wiring), and generates power usage and cost-per-kWh reports. It’s an excellent choice if you heat your house with electric baseboards, but if you have a typical gas or oil heating system, check out our Editors’ Choice winner for smart thermostats, the Nest Thermostat ($129.99), instead.

Lots of Smart Integrations

The TH1123WF is compatible with short-cycle baseboard heaters, short-cycle convector heaters, long-cycle fan-forced convector heaters, and radiant ceiling heaters. It has a maximum (resistive) load of 3,000 watts at 240VAC, with a temperature set point range of 41 degrees (F) to 86 degrees (F). If your electric heating system draws more than 3,000 watts, the Sinope TH1124WF ($129.95) provides a maximum load rating of 4,000 watts.

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The thermostat's white enclosure measures 5.0 by 3.4 by 1.0 inches (HWD) and has a 2-inch LCD on the right side that displays the ambient room temperature, the set point and outdoor temperatures, the current time, and Wi-Fi signal strength. Below the display are up and down buttons for setting the temperature. On the left, a removable panel hides the mounting holes. The rear of the thermostat has two wires for connecting the thermostat to your heater’s electrical junction box. It uses a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio to connect to your home network.

The TH1123WF responds to Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri voice commands, plus it works seamlessly with HomeKit and SmartThings home automation systems. It also supports geofencing; the thermostat can use your phone’s location to switch between Home and Away status.

App Options

The thermostat uses Sinope’s Neviweb mobile app (available for Android and iOS). Other Sinope smart devices including lights, water protection products, and smart plugs work with the same app. The app's home screen shows the current status of your home (Home or Away) and the local outdoor temperature. This section also shows buttons for activating saved Scenes and a Consumption History button; tap the latter to view charts of energy usage by kWh or by cost per kWh. Use the Geofencing button to enable geofencing, set a perimeter, and assign a tracking device. The Connected Platforms button offers information for linking the thermostat to Alexa, Google, HomeKit, and SmartThings accounts.

At the very bottom of the screen are Home, Devices, and Scenes icons, as well as a three-bar icon. Tapping the Home icon takes you back to the home screen. Tapping the Scenes icon lets you create easily accessible presets (Scenes). For example, you can set the thermostat so that the temperature changes when you tap the Scene button or when you use Alexa, Google, or Siri voice commands to activate the Scene. 

Select the three-bar icon to edit account settings, add locations, and define geofencing parameters. The Devices icon opens a screen that shows tiles for all of your Sinope devices by room or by type. Tap the thermostat tile to make manual changes to the device or to enact a schedule. This screen displays the current and set point temperatures; it has up and down arrows for adjusting the temperature. Here you can also rename the device, configure the time and temperature format, and change the Away set point. Your Consumption History details are available here, too. Finally, the Schedule button enables you to create custom heating schedules for every day of the week.

Requires Some Work With Wires

As with most smart thermostats, the TH1123WF is fairly easy to install. However, it uses the wiring from your heating system’s power source instead of low-voltage thermostat wiring. You can typically find the wires in question inside an electrical junction box that is attached to the heating system, or close by in a power switch. If you’re not comfortable working with electrical wiring, you should hire a pro to do the physical installation.

Start by turning off the breaker for your heating system circuit at your main electrical panel. Then, remove the cover of the thermostat and the plate on the front of the junction box that provides power to the system. If you see two wires (black and white) at the junction box, connect one of the thermostat wires to the black wire and the other to the white wire and secure them with the included wire nuts. If there are four wires at the box (two black and two white), connect the two white wires and then connect a thermostat wire to each of the black wires. Secure the thermostat to the junction box using the included screws and reattach the cover before restoring power to the circuit. 

Once you install the thermostat, download the Neviweb app and create an account. The app asks for your home name, zip code, and the cost of electric power in the kWh-per-cent format (from your utility bill). To add the thermostat to your home, tap the three-bar icon at the bottom right corner of the My Home section, then choose Add Device. Select the TH123WF from the list of Wi-Fi thermostats, make sure the thermostat has power, and tap Next. Press both of the thermostat buttons at the same time to activation configuration mode; when the Wi-Fi symbol shows up on the screen, tap Next to scan for the device. Allow the thermostat to join your home, select your Wi-Fi SSID when the list appears, and enter your Wi-Fi password. After a few seconds, the TH1123WF will join your network. Tap Finish to complete the installation.

To add the thermostat to HomeKit, open the Home app on your phone, tap the plus icon in the upper right corner, and select Add Accessory. Use your phone to scan the HomeKit code on the side of the thermostat, tap Add to Home, give the device a name, and add it to any room to finish the pairing. 

The TH1123WF did an excellent job of controlling electric baseboard heating in our tests. It responded quickly to app commands to reset heat points and put the system into Standby mode; it also followed my schedules to a tee. Alexa and Siri voice commands to change the set point temperature worked as intended, as did a HomeKit automation to set the heat to 70 degrees Fahrenheit when an Eve camera detected motion.

An Affordable Option for Electric Heating Systems

The reasonably priced Sinope TH1123WF Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat is an excellent choice for controlling your electric heating system. It offers plenty of features including embedded Wi-Fi; Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri voice support; HomeKit and SmartThings home automation integrations; and geofencing location control. It can also tell you how much power you use to heat your home and how much doing so costs. The TH1123WF doesn’t work with low-voltage gas- and oil-fueled systems, however. If you need a thermostat that does, consider the Nest Thermostat, which is similarly affordable, easy to install, and works with Alexa and Google voice assistants.