I'm curious what everyone's top choices for a thermostat are. Also curious about budget friendly options so around $100 or less.

Also if anyone has any ideas on how to protect your thermostat, I'd love to hear them. My house recently got struck by lightning, everyone's okay, and it fried my thermostat, thankfully I have a spare, but I'm curious if there was something I should of done so my thermostat would have been fine.