The thermostat has always occupied an odd place in the HVAC world. Crucial to system performance, yet easily ignored as just another commodity item to the homeowner and financially unremarkable to the contractor.

Resideo Technologies is betting on changing that with the company’s Honeywell Home ElitePRO Smart Thermostat, powered by its Pro-IQ services platform. The company hopes to turn a humble product into the nerve center of a connected home and nurture an on-going business connection with the homeowner and HVAC contractor.

We had a look at the thermostat earlier this year at the 2026 AHR Expo, and to understand the product better, we recently talked with Marty Ellingson, senior director and head of global experience design at Resideo, and Dave Quam, the company’s connected solutions leader.

Smart watch inspiration

The large screen is impossible not to notice. The ElitePRO sports a 5-inch display, Resideo’s largest touchscreen to date. According to Ellingson, the big display is the product’s most immediate statement.

“Aesthetics and user experience were critical to the design from the beginning,” Ellingson explains, “because thermostats are centrally installed in the home — sometimes in dining rooms or family rooms — and can provide critical information into the connected home.”

That logic drove the design team to look beyond traditional HVAC products for inspiration. The conceptual reference point, Ellingson says, was the smartwatch: A device that delivers quick access to information, responds intuitively to touch and feels personalized rather than institutional.

The ElitePRO’s large, customizable touchscreen allows homeowners to easily display five-day weather forecasts, digital clocks, and even IAQ data, in a range of design themes and color combinations.

The result is a product that has already earned design and innovation recognition, a distinction that matters not just aesthetically, but commercially, too.

“From an HVAC contractor standpoint, the look and feel of a premium smart-home device like this matters because homeowners are evaluating products based on usability and appearance alongside heating and cooling performance,” Ellingson adds.

Command center

Beyond its appearance, the ElitePRO is engineered to function as a genuine hub within a smart home ecosystem. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi, integrates with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Home for voice control. The thermostat is also Matter certified, a universal seal of approval issued by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which guarantees that it will seamlessly and securely communicate with other smart devices.

A major feature that impressed us at the 2026 AHR Expo was the thermostat’s ability to stream live video from compatible video doorbells, such as Ring, and serve as a two-way intercom. Homeowners can see who’s at the door and speak with visitors directly from the thermostat display, without touching a phone.

That kind of cross-category integration is precisely what Ellingson had in mind when describing the product’s design philosophy.

“The thermostat is one of the few HVAC touchpoints homeowners see or interact with daily,” he says. “The product was designed to feel less like traditional HVAC equipment and more like a modern smart device that make it more connected to the broader home ecosystem.”

The ability to monitor IAQ is another major benefit. The ElitePRO tracks humidity, monitors volatile organic compounds, estimates carbon dioxide levels and displays the data clearly on the touchscreen. For HVAC contractors, this unlocks expansion opportunities since it is compatible with a broad range of IAQ equipment, and installers can upgrade a home’s air quality systems without running additional wiring, using the equipment interface module.

According to Ellingson, that “design-forward positioning,” changes how the contractor can sell the smart thermostat.

“Instead of treating the thermostat as a basic control,” he explains, “they can position it as a part of the homeowner’s experience that helps improve comfort, simplify control and add a more polished layer to the home. That creates a strong conversation around usability and design instead of focusing only on upfront cost.”

Ongoing partnership

While the thermostat’s benefits to the homeowner are clear to see, behind the scenes, the Pro-IQ services platform that powers the ElitePRO represents  a new business model for HVAC contractors.

“The ElitePRO is not just a hardware upgrade,” Quam says. “It also supports a longer-term contractor growth model centered around ongoing service engagement, customer visibility and stronger retention.”

Pro-IQ is delivered through the Resideo Pro App and Pro Portal and is offered in three subscription tiers — Pro-IQ Install, Pro-IQ Engage, and Pro-IQ Analyze — each designed to help contractors move up the value chain in different ways.

At the installation level, Pro-IQ simplifies and standardizes the setup process. One-touch template configuration in the Pro App enables faster installation, consistent setup across all jobs, and fewer errors. Critically, if modifications are needed after the technician leaves, remote configuration tools in the Pro Portal allow changes to be made without a callback.

“Labor constraints are forcing contractors to think more carefully about how service is delivered,” Quam adds. “The ElitePRO helps reduce installation complexity through familiar hardware like the Honeywell Home wall-mounting plate, installer setup templates, device pre-registration and remote configuration tools designed to reduce setup time and limit repeat visits caused by configuration issues.”

Contractors can also diagnose and adjust certain issues remotely, helping to reduce unnecessary truck rolls and improve technician efficiency.

“Homeowners may never think about labor utilization,” Quam says, “but they are likely to notice faster service, fewer disruptions, and fewer repeat visits than before.”

For the trades, another powerful feature of the ElitePRO is contractor branding. Through Pro-IQ services, contractors can display their company logo and contact information directly on the thermostat’s touchscreen or the company’s First Alert app. That means every time a homeowner adjusts the temperature, checks their IAQ data or views an alert, they see their contractor’s name.

“Together, the ElitePRO and Pro-IQ services give contractors a connected touchpoint in the home and more opportunities to stay engaged after installation,” Quam explains.

Quam compared this to the more traditional leave-behinds contractors have used in the past.

“Stickers, magnets and mailers were designed to keep a contractor’s name in the home, but they can be passive and easy to ignore,” he explains. “The ElitePRO helps improve on that by embedding contractor branding directly into the thermostat and app experience.”

Contractors can also place custom messages in the app or on the thermostat display, such as service reminders or promotions, and enable one-click appointment scheduling for homeowners directly through the interface.

Predictive service

Finally, another major feature of the ElitePRO-plus-Pro-IQ combination is predictive maintenance. The system gives contractors access to real-time system status, runtime trends and performance data — and generates custom alerts when something in a homeowner’s HVAC system warrants attention, before the homeowner knows there’s a problem.

“Predictive maintenance is both a service feature and a business development tool,” Quam says. “The value is not just identifying issues earlier; it is being able to act on those insights before the homeowner experiences a breakdown.”

With this data, contractors can send a message to schedule a tune-up, recommend an airflow adjustment or discuss improvements. As a result, the thermostat turns system data into personalized insights and tailored recommendations that help homeowners improve comfort and efficiency without being buried in technical detail

“Outreach becomes relevant and more actionable,” Quam says. “This can lead to strong service-plan models, recurring revenue opportunities and durable customer relationships built around ongoing support.”

That makes contractors’ recommendations, Quam adds, grounded in actual system data relevant to the homeowner compared with intrusive generic seasonal reminders. 

“Homeowners get an enhanced experience, contractors create additional opportunities to generate revenue, and retention improves because the contractor is delivering value before the homeowner needs to ask for it,” he explains. “In practice, that means leading with what the homeowner is experiencing, such as comfort issues, uneven temperatures, higher runtimes, and using that data to explain what is happening and how to proceed.”

For contractors navigating homeowner conversations about smart thermostat upgrades, the ElitePRO offers a straightforward path to a compelling pitch. Quam’s advice: lead with comfort, not calculations.

“Effective ROI conversations start with outcomes homeowners can feel immediately with better comfort, less guesswork and fewer manual adjustments,” he says.