Thanks to Ecobee’s home automation technology, users can enjoy several advanced smart home products. One such product is the Ecobee thermostat, with its sleek exterior design and distinct panel lights. But with so many features and display options, you may get confused looking at the light bar. So, why does Ecobee flash green, and what should you do?
A flashing green light on your Ecobee means you’ve received a notification from Alexa. To listen to the notifications, say, “Alexa, what are my notifications?” Alternatively, you can change your Alexa notification settings or unlink Ecobee from your Alexa account to disable the green light.
While the flashing green light can be agitating, it’s part of the Ecobee thermostat’s normal operation. The device can also flash red, yellow, or blue. Let’s get started so you know what the green light means, what to do when you see it, and how to disable it.
What Does the Flashing Green Light on Ecobee Mean?
A flashing green light on your Ecobee means you’ve received a notification from Alexa. The green light continues to flash until you listen to the notification or dismiss it on the thermostat itself or another Alexa-enabled device.
Since Alexa integrates with the Ecobee thermostat, you can use it the same way as a smart home hub. While all Ecobee thermostats are compatible with Alexa, the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium and Ecobee4 now have Alexa built into them.
With this new feature, Ecobee can take on many functions for which you’d rely on an Echo smart hub, including displaying notifications. The notifications can include essential updates from Amazon or any of your Alexa skills. The most common ones are:
- Weather changes
- Breaking news
- Calendar events
- Amazon deliveries
How to Listen to Ecobee Notifications
When your Ecobee flashes green, you can either listen to or dismiss the notifications. To listen to a notification, say, “Alexa, what are my notifications?” You can also say, “Alexa, notifications.”
Since the release of the Ecobee4, you can say this to the thermostat itself, an Echo Smart speaker, or some other Alexa-enabled device connected to your account.
And provided you have an active subscription to Smart Security; you can access the notifications on a new tab from the Home overview screen of your Ecobee app. Tap on the Activity tab to open the Home Monitoring feed.
From there, you’ll find a record of all critical information your Ecobee Smart Security System has captured. These include:
- Activity alerts
- Camera clips and snapshots
- Door and window openings or closings
- Monitoring state changes
For example, activity alerts will be generated whenever Ecobee detects activity when your home is in Arm mode. The light bar will flash green, and you’ll also receive a notification on your lock screen. You can tap on the notification to open the activity alert on your Ecobee app.
By recording all the data captured by your Ecobee devices and sensors, activity alerts give the context you need in an emergency. Motion and entry alerts are mainly synced with your video history so you can easily view and share the activities.
Dismissing Notifications
When you receive an activity alert, you can listen to it, then, depending on the situation, sound the alarm or request help from emergency services. Otherwise, you can dismiss your Alexa notifications without ever listening to them.
To do so, you only need to say, “Alexa, clear my notifications” or “Alexa, delete all notifications.” Then, the green light will quickly disappear, and your notifications will get deleted on the fly.
Preventing Notifications
You can prevent Alexa notifications from showing on your Ecobee in two ways, but these methods will only disable them on one Ecobee device.
Generally, you want to disable some or all of the notifications across your Alexa devices rather than unlink Ecobee from your Alexa account. This is because Unlinking Ecobee from your Alexa account interferes with some of the thermostat’s smart features.
Change Your Alexa Notification Settings
You can’t just ask Alexa to stop showing all notifications on Ecobee, but you can deactivate some or all of the notification settings on your Alexa app. Follow these simple steps to change your Alexa notification settings:
- First, open the Alexa app and navigate to the More options tab.
- Tap Settings from the list of options.
- Choose Notifications from the Settings menu.
- Finally, toggle off all the items in the Notifications menu.
The yellow light will return once you’ve turned off all the notifications. Please, note, however, that these steps will impact all your Alexa devices. So follow them only if you’re sure you don’t want to see the notifications at all.
Disconnect Your Ecobee from Your Alexa Account
This option lets you stop Alexa notifications from showing on Ecobee without turning them off across your entire Alexa account. First, however, you’ll need to disconnect Ecobee from your Alexa account, which also disables smart home integrations like Alexa routines.
Here’s how to disconnect Ecobee from your Alexa account:
- Open the Ecobee App on your smartphone
- Select the Ecobee thermostat from the list of devices
- Tap the microphone icon
- Tap the Unlink Alexa option and click Unlink to finish up the process
If you’ve tried these two options with no success, it’s time to factory reset your Ecobee thermostat. This will delete your account and all your schedules and preferences.
It also does away with your equipment configuration, meaning you’ll have to set up your Ecobee from scratch when you’re done. Navigate to your device’s Settings menu and select Reset. Tap on Reset All to clear all settings.
What Do the Other Lights on Ecobee Mean?
Besides the flashing green light, your Ecobee also shows other lights to indicate various statuses. They don’t necessarily point to a malfunction in your thermostat. Here’s what to know about the other lights on Ecobee:
Yellow Light
A flashing yellow light on your Ecobee thermostat means you have notifications from the Ecobee app rather than Alexa.
You can go through the notifications in your Ecobee smartphone app. Once you’ve read them all, the flashing yellow light should disappear immediately.
Red Light
A steady or flashing red light on Ecobee means someone has disabled the microphone. It also means the “Always Listening” option is turned off, which is handy if the device is placed in a loud area or near a TV.
Remember, the Ecobee will be waiting for voice commands provided the microphone is activated, which can be annoying if there’s a lot of noise interference. Disabling the microphone is also useful when you want to enjoy some privacy.
Blue Light
If the light bar on your Ecobee displays blue, it means Alexa is actively listening, just like it appears on Echo devices. As such, you can tell Alexa to tweak the temperature, switch on the lights, or read your notifications.
But, of course, this feature only works if you’ve activated the Ecobee4 microphone.