Smart Home Device Suggestions (Cortana Compatible)

[Gerowen]

Greetings all.  I believe this is my first real post in these here forums (other than the one where I said hi), though I've been a long time viewer of Linus on YouTube.

 

We recently bought a new house with central heating and air conditioning.  I've actually grown quite fond of Cortana, which I know seems to be blasphemy when I mention it, but personally I think it's pretty cool that I can ask my PC, from across the room, to give me the weather when I'm getting ready for work, or to "ring my phone" and even if the phone is on silent, it'll ring.  Anyway, I saw a headline today stating that Microsoft had partnered with some additional "smart" home providers, and it got me to thinking that I would like to replace the stock thermostat that came with our house with a "smart" one that I can either manipulate manually OR via some sort of web interface.  The thing is, I don't know jack about any of these products which is where you guys come in.  For those of you who own these smart thermostats, how do you like yours in particular?  Is there anything I should know about, shady features you found out about later, quirks, faults, or are they just stinking amazing?  I'm basically just looking for some personal input to go along with my own homework on the matter.

 

I'd like the ability to use Cortana on my phone, or my PC, to make adjustments to the thermostat, or even use a web interface of some kind to do it so that I could use my PC or any other device regardless of whether I have a specific app installed and configured on that device.  It'd be awesome if, when I went to bed, I could just tell my PC to turn the heat down to 68 degrees for me while I'm doing other things, but I'm also looking for a product that functions in such a way that it will still be useful if the company headquarters gets hits by a meteor or they stop supporting their app or something.  The biggest feature I'm looking for, besides the Cortana support, is the ability to connect it to my wifi and browse to a web interface like you would do with your home router.  Are there any good products out there that meet these requirements that you guys have some personal experience with and can comment on?