The Nest Thermostat

[Jsf721]

Anyone have any experience with these? Seems like a thermostat that can be adjusted via an app on a smart phone. I have a few questions the on line tutorial does not cover if anyone knows:

1. Can you have more than 1 in the house?
2. If I have 2 at home and 1 in the office are they just "named" differently
for adjustment purposes?
3. Are you happy with yours?


I would love to be able to adjust/verify the temperature setting without being in the house/office. Many nights I wonder if I programmed the thermostat correctly in the office and if the heat actually drops down at night and up in the AM simply becasue I see no differeence in the heating bill.

At home it would be nice not to have to walk my lazy a$$ to the thermostat when the wife it hot/cold!


Thanks all!

 

[allinon72]

Want one real bad, but couldn't find any hard evidence that it will actually save enough money to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time (or at all).

 

[shoot summ]

Anyone have any experience with these? Seems like a thermostat that can be adjusted via an app on a smart phone. I have a few questions the on line tutorial does not cover if anyone knows:

1. Can you have more than 1 in the house?

Yes, I have 2

2. If I have 2 at home and 1 in the office are they just "named" differently
for adjustment purposes?

Yes, mine are "Nest Bedrooms" and "Nest Living Room", you can call them what you want.

3. Are you happy with yours?

VERY


I would love to be able to adjust/verify the temperature setting without being in the house/office. Many nights I wonder if I programmed the thermostat correctly in the office and if the heat actually drops down at night and up in the AM simply becasue I see no differeence in the heating bill.

At home it would be nice not to have to walk my lazy a$$ to the thermostat when the wife it hot/cold!


Thanks all!

Another advantage at least where I am is the ability to set temp ranges, we can fluctuate radically temp wise, so the Nest will cool if it gets above the cooling threshold, or heat if it gets below the heating threshold.

I have been having an issue with an occasional low battery, I need to run a dedicated ground from my unit, that is why you see a ? on the bedroom Nest, I need to charge it.

 

[shoot summ]

Want one real bad, but couldn't find any hard evidence that it will actually save enough money to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time (or at all).

You wont justify one with ROI...

They are very useful, lots of good data from them usage wise, and easy to program.

 

[Falcon67]

What he said - too much $ for too fancy a t-stat, no payback IMHO. We have a Filtrete WiFi and once the program is set, it's pretty much who cares. It will do hot/cold/auto. It also uses a iPhone app that we can use to change things should be be gone or coming home early. Paid a whopping $99. Spend your money tightening up the house, you'll get a much better payback on that. Want to drop $300 on energy management, get a full on blower door/duct work leak test/energy survey.

 

[franksgiants]

What he said - too much $ for too fancy a t-stat, no payback IMHO. We have a Filtrete WiFi and once the program is set, it's pretty much who cares. It will do hot/cold/auto. It also uses a iPhone app that we can use to change things should be be gone or coming home early. Paid a whopping $99. Spend your money tightening up the house, you'll get a much better payback on that. Want to drop $300 on energy management, get a full on blower door/duct work leak test/energy survey.

I agree with Falcon.I installed the $99 filtrete in my school gym and love it!I can check it from my phone app anywhere!

 

[shoot summ]

What he said - too much $ for too fancy a t-stat, no payback IMHO. We have a Filtrete WiFi and once the program is set, it's pretty much who cares. It will do hot/cold/auto. It also uses a iPhone app that we can use to change things should be be gone or coming home early. Paid a whopping $99. Spend your money tightening up the house, you'll get a much better payback on that. Want to drop $300 on energy management, get a full on blower door/duct work leak test/energy survey.

I agree with Falcon.I installed the $99 filtrete in my school gym and love it!I can check it from my phone app anywhere!

But using the same logic from you guys why did you waste $99? That is still way more than you had to spend. A basic digital is about $20. We all buy things that are sometimes more than we need.

The Filtrete unit will do all of the T-Stat functions that the nest will. It does not give you energy usage reports, nor does it automatically learn your temps, and honestly it looks like every other ugly T-stat out there.

It all depends on what you want...

 

[Big-Foot]

I was in the market for one of these in the last few weeks and got turned off by the the +/- 4 degrees variations in temp that I read about in a number of reviews.
Instead, I got the Honeywell RTH8580WF and have been very happy with it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094X6VUW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I would like a cheaper verssion though that was maybe not programmable but had Internet WiFi control. That way I could send a signal to the thermostat out in my shop to turn up or down depending on my needs. IE - would be nice to be able to turn it up remotely so it was warm out there when I got there after work.

 

[RKA]

Yes yes and yes. My first one lasted almost a year before I got a stuck pixel on the screen. One quick phone call was answered by someone right away, sent them a pic of what I was looking at, and in a few days I had a new replacement unit with a prepaid shipping label. Swapped them out and sent the broken one back. They handled that perfectly.

As to the thermostat operation, it's been pretty flawless for me. It does scale back the temps if the occupancy sensor doesn't detect anyone (and I'm always forgetting to turn it back when I leave the house). You can program the outer bounds for that set back temp (high and low). Changing the schedule is super easy on your phone/ipad. I will go through the effort if I know our schedule will vary over the coming days. On the traditional $20 programmable in the second zone, I won't even bother because I hate the 40 button presses it requires (and then again to reprogram the original schedule back in). Eventually the 2nd zone will get one too, but it's hard to justify as that only controls the bedrooms and the schedule there tends not to vary much (conditioned at night, set back during the day) or require remote access/control. There it's strictly convenience and aesthetics.

I do also like the history feature which shows how many hours and when the heat or AC was running for the last 7-10 days. It helps me get a visual of when it's been running most and when I make a change to the schedule (assuming ambient temps are constant) I can get a sense of the impact relatively quickly. If it wasn't there I certainly wouldn't miss it, but it's interesting to look at the usage patterns.

 

[SMKS]

Want one real bad, but couldn't find any hard evidence that it will actually save enough money to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time (or at all).

+1

A neat trinket, but not worth it to me. I looked into getting one.

I ended up getting a free programmable thermostat from the electricity company. Supposedly I can log into a website to adjust it remotely, but I've never tried.

 

[shaun oriold1]

I've got two as well. One for our house, and one at our office. I love them. Others have mentioned the homeywell units. I had a nest already at home, and when we did the office, we got a HW as it was cheaper. We probably spent 1.5 hours screwing around with it. Our wiring on a new furnace was not "right" for the unit. I had to watch videos on their site to learn how to fix it. In the end we ripped it out and pony'd up more money for the next. The install is dead simple! the interface is dead simple too.

It also looks way cooler!

Oh, as well we were not able to change the Honey well from Celsius to Fahrenheit -or maybe it was vice versa.

 

[ishiboo]

Nest is top-notch. I have had one in my home for over a year now, installed one at the girlfriends parents house a couple months ago, and I'll be putting a gen2 in upstairs when I get it finished.

The hardware quality, interface, etc. is fantastic... it's designed by the original designer of the iPod, and overall has an Apple quality to how well everything works.

I work from home so I thought I would not save too much money, but I've actually been able to reduce our costs by about 20% as well so I think it's actually paid for itself in 2 winters.

A+ in my book!

 

[Jsf721]

Thanks, can you explain how they have saved you money? Is it the learn feature?

I am looking to replace 1 broken thermo in the office and possibly another 2 in the house.

Nest is top-notch. I have had one in my home for over a year now, installed one at the girlfriends parents house a couple months ago, and I'll be putting a gen2 in upstairs when I get it finished.

The hardware quality, interface, etc. is fantastic... it's designed by the original designer of the iPod, and overall has an Apple quality to how well everything works.

I work from home so I thought I would not save too much money, but I've actually been able to reduce our costs by about 20% as well so I think it's actually paid for itself in 2 winters.

A+ in my book!

 

[gatchel]

You can save money with a $25 Hunter 5+2 day programmable from walmart.

If you want a thermostat that makes you look trendy or that has an app then that is a whole different story.

 

[Falcon67]

But using the same logic from you guys why did you waste $99? That is still way more than you had to spend. A basic digital is about $20. We all buy things that are sometimes more than we need.

The Filtrete unit will do all of the T-Stat functions that the nest will. It does not give you energy usage reports, nor does it automatically learn your temps, and honestly it looks like every other ugly T-stat out there.

It all depends on what you want...

1) For the multiple set programs and minimal control features provided by the WiFi connection to the house network.

2) There is nothing to "learn" about our temps - For heat, it's 68F when people are there, 65 when we're not. On the weekends, it's 68F. We don't bump unless the little one comes to stay a while, then it's 70 on hold. Summer same deal - 77F home, 80F gone. We can also program vacation schedules and flip to them remotely.

3) We have an intelligent meter on the house and I can extract monthly, weekly and up to 4 days by hour of energy use from it through the utility. That's how you tell energy usage. The thermostat cannot do that. The Nest hooks up just like the Filtrete. So the Nest has no more idea whether the heater has one, two or three of the elements going because that's controlled internal to the furnace. We're pulling anywhere from 5kW to 13.5kW depending on how the furnace thinks it ought to run. So the Nest can no more track the energy usage of the furnace than I can with a stop watch.

And I'm sure you've seen the article about the $249 Nest having $69 worth of parts in it. So to flip it around, I got a high tech t-stat and saved a bunch of $.
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/01/28/t-ts-nest-teardown.cnnmoney/

 

[shoot summ]

1) For the multiple set programs and minimal control features provided by the WiFi connection to the house network.

2) There is nothing to "learn" about our temps - For heat, it's 68F when people are there, 65 when we're not. On the weekends, it's 68F. We don't bump unless the little one comes to stay a while, then it's 70 on hold. Summer same deal - 77F home, 80F gone. We can also program vacation schedules and flip to them remotely.

3) We have an intelligent meter on the house and I can extract monthly, weekly and up to 4 days by hour of energy use from it through the utility. That's how you tell energy usage. The thermostat cannot do that. The Nest hooks up just like the Filtrete. So the Nest has no more idea whether the heater has one, two or three of the elements going because that's controlled internal to the furnace. We're pulling anywhere from 5kW to 13.5kW depending on how the furnace thinks it ought to run. So the Nest can no more track the energy usage of the furnace than I can with a stop watch.

And I'm sure you've seen the article about the $249 Nest having $69 worth of parts in it. So to flip it around, I got a high tech t-stat and saved a bunch of $.
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/01/28/t-ts-nest-teardown.cnnmoney/

Not a surprise on the $69 at all, no companies sell their product for what the material costs, hard to stay in business that way. Glad you have a device that you like and works for you, I do too. The OP was asking for experience with the Nest, glad you helped answer his question.

 

[winmck]

Had ours for about 4 months and love it! A programmable t-stat is a must for our family and I've been through a bunch of them. So far the Nest is the best and easily worth the extra $$. I've been monitoring the usage and I think it will pay for itself in a about a year.

 

[KPSquared]

They look cool and I love gizmos. . .I may just have to get one. Still wouldnt buy a robo-reel. . .

 

[Rockcam]

Nest has a nice white paper on their website, detailing energy savings in different cities across the country. IIRC, they document average savings of $173 annually.

According to their study, 92% of people with programmable thermostats never program them.

Their capability to self program is another appealing feature.

 

[ChargedUp!]

I just bought 3 for our new house the wife and I are building. There's 1 for each zone in the house that is the gen2 and a gen1 for the garage. I bought them due to positive reviews as well as the look frankly. We had a nice programmable one in our last house but the wife kept overriding the set temps. I would come home from work with no one there and it would be 72 in the house when I programmed it to be 62 while we were working. Same with when we would be sleeping. Occasionally, I'd wake up to go to the can and find the temp jacked back up. Now, I have a better opportunity to keep temps in check remotely. Did I mention I like the look? . A normal thermostat just looks blah to me. The nest is just cool looking.

 

[Greatbear]

I have a Nest thermostat and it has been working well. The set and reading temps are right on the money, I like the auto setback on away feature, the detailed energy use reporting and of course the ability to control it remotely. It is an extremely well made device, it has a number of internal features that can be activated in the future with firmware changes. The latest revision can control more sophisticated HVAC system and has been redesigned to be even smaller. It's an expensive thing, but I feel it's pretty much future proof and definitely much simpler to use in day-to-day operation. Anyone can use it,

 

[Jsf721]

Thank you very much for sharinging your experience with the Nest. I think I will be picking one of these up over the weekend as the stat in my office is clicking away like crazy when it is trying to make temperature after being on low all night.

My only remaining issue I need to come to terms with is this.........

If the power goes out the nest can survive on internal battery power for 7-10hours depending on where you look. OK if the power is out I know my furnace and AC will also be inoperable. However when the power is restored after being out more than 7-10 hours the Nest will not immediatley come back to life like a normal T-Stat. It requires charging to a level to be able to operate. Mounted on the wall, how long will that take??? I was told by the 1800 number that you can take it off the wall and plug into a USB to charge.
If left on the wall, how long until it recovers enough to function? Will it retain all my settings or do they forget when fully discharged?

We were without power for 12+ days recently so this is a real issue for me but thankfully it does not happen very often!

Thanks

Another advantage at least where I am is the ability to set temp ranges, we can fluctuate radically temp wise, so the Nest will cool if it gets above the cooling threshold, or heat if it gets below the heating threshold.

I have been having an issue with an occasional low battery, I need to run a dedicated ground from my unit, that is why you see a ? on the bedroom Nest, I need to charge it.

Yes yes and yes. My first one lasted almost a year before I got a stuck pixel on the screen. One quick phone call was answered by someone right away, sent them a pic of what I was looking at, and in a few days I had a new replacement unit with a prepaid shipping label. Swapped them out and sent the broken one back. They handled that perfectly.

As to the thermostat operation, it's been pretty flawless for me. It does scale back the temps if the occupancy sensor doesn't detect anyone (and I'm always forgetting to turn it back when I leave the house). You can program the outer bounds for that set back temp (high and low). Changing the schedule is super easy on your phone/ipad. I will go through the effort if I know our schedule will vary over the coming days. On the traditional $20 programmable in the second zone, I won't even bother because I hate the 40 button presses it requires (and then again to reprogram the original schedule back in). Eventually the 2nd zone will get one too, but it's hard to justify as that only controls the bedrooms and the schedule there tends not to vary much (conditioned at night, set back during the day) or require remote access/control. There it's strictly convenience and aesthetics.

I do also like the history feature which shows how many hours and when the heat or AC was running for the last 7-10 days. It helps me get a visual of when it's been running most and when I make a change to the schedule (assuming ambient temps are constant) I can get a sense of the impact relatively quickly. If it wasn't there I certainly wouldn't miss it, but it's interesting to look at the usage patterns.

I've got two as well. One for our house, and one at our office. I love them. Others have mentioned the homeywell units. I had a nest already at home, and when we did the office, we got a HW as it was cheaper. We probably spent 1.5 hours screwing around with it. Our wiring on a new furnace was not "right" for the unit. I had to watch videos on their site to learn how to fix it. In the end we ripped it out and pony'd up more money for the next. The install is dead simple! the interface is dead simple too.

It also looks way cooler!

Oh, as well we were not able to change the Honey well from Celsius to Fahrenheit -or maybe it was vice versa.

Nest is top-notch. I have had one in my home for over a year now, installed one at the girlfriends parents house a couple months ago, and I'll be putting a gen2 in upstairs when I get it finished.

The hardware quality, interface, etc. is fantastic... it's designed by the original designer of the iPod, and overall has an Apple quality to how well everything works.

I work from home so I thought I would not save too much money, but I've actually been able to reduce our costs by about 20% as well so I think it's actually paid for itself in 2 winters.

A+ in my book!

Had ours for about 4 months and love it! A programmable t-stat is a must for our family and I've been through a bunch of them. So far the Nest is the best and easily worth the extra $$. I've been monitoring the usage and I think it will pay for itself in a about a year.

I just bought 3 for our new house the wife and I are building. There's 1 for each zone in the house that is the gen2 and a gen1 for the garage. I bought them due to positive reviews as well as the look frankly. We had a nice programmable one in our last house but the wife kept overriding the set temps. I would come home from work with no one there and it would be 72 in the house when I programmed it to be 62 while we were working. Same with when we would be sleeping. Occasionally, I'd wake up to go to the can and find the temp jacked back up. Now, I have a better opportunity to keep temps in check remotely. Did I mention I like the look? . A normal thermostat just looks blah to me. The nest is just cool looking.

I have a Nest thermostat and it has been working well. The set and reading temps are right on the money, I like the auto setback on away feature, the detailed energy use reporting and of course the ability to control it remotely. It is an extremely well made device, it has a number of internal features that can be activated in the future with firmware changes. The latest revision can control more sophisticated HVAC system and has been redesigned to be even smaller. It's an expensive thing, but I feel it's pretty much future proof and definitely much simpler to use in day-to-day operation. Anyone can use it,

I've been monitoring the usage and I think it will pay for itself in a about a year.

 

[shoot summ]

Here is my understanding of how it operates.

The battery is for all of the additional features(wifi, etc) of the Nest. I've noticed that as soon as the battery gets low it will disconnect from Wifi to conserve the battery, that's why you see ? in my screenshot, the battery was low due to my ground wire issue. So as soon as power is restored, and the Nest gets power from the unit, it should function as a thermostat and start charging the battery. So there should be no delay in the unit operating, just a delay in getting everything back online to the app.

Thank you very much for sharinging your experience with the Nest. I think I will be picking one of these up over the weekend as the stat in my office is clicking away like crazy when it is trying to make temperature after being on low all night.

My only remaining issue I need to come to terms with is this.........

If the power goes out the nest can survive on internal battery power for 7-10hours depending on where you look. OK if the power is out I know my furnace and AC will also be inoperable. However when the power is restored after being out more than 7-10 hours the Nest will not immediatley come back to life like a normal T-Stat. It requires charging to a level to be able to operate. Mounted on the wall, how long will that take??? I was told by the 1800 number that you can take it off the wall and plug into a USB to charge.
If left on the wall, how long until it recovers enough to function? Will it retain all my settings or do they forget when fully discharged?

We were without power for 12+ days recently so this is a real issue for me but thankfully it does not happen very often!

Thanks

 

[Jsf721]

Thanks, if that is indeed the case, I am sold on the rest of the benefits. Thanks. Have you ever seen a red dot blinking on the display and nothing else? If so, from what I have read it means the battery is too low to activate teh display. If you know, does the Nest allowing the unit to Heat/Cool at that time? Thanks

Here is my understanding of how it operates.

The battery is for all of the additional features(wifi, etc) of the Nest. I've noticed that as soon as the battery gets low it will disconnect from Wifi to conserve the battery, that's why you see ? in my screenshot, the battery was low due to my ground wire issue. So as soon as power is restored, and the Nest gets power from the unit, it should function as a thermostat and start charging the battery. So there should be no delay in the unit operating, just a delay in getting everything back online to the app.

 

[P0234]

I looked at the Nest but the price was a put off and I read mixed reviews about the proximity sensor.

I ended up going with the 3m-50. The big thing that sold me on it was the open and well documented API. Already have them reporting usage data to a MySQL db. Next step is to integrate with the home security system. Alarm on-> HVAC in cheapskate mode.

Also can't believe how many gear heads there are here that can't run an additional wire to their tstat for power. Come on guys....

 

[FXDawg]

oh man, I toiled over the purchase. I thought it was WAY too expensive. However a guy at work here got one and he loved it. so, I kept researching and reading and I ended up buying one. I had a $25 best buy gift card and then, best buy sent me a $25 promo code on anything over $150. So, I bit. It installed very easily and I have definitely seen some payback. I've used 120 less gals of fuel over this period last year. Now I'm not saying it was all because of this thermostat but say even 1/4 of it was because of the nest, that's 30 gals at nearly $4 a gallon! there's $120 back on a $200 purchase. Say it was 10%, that's 12 gals at $4/gal, there is $48! this thing will most definitely pay for itself inside of 2 years.

I think the big thing for me was letting it turn down the thermostat when we sleep and the auto away. I think, if you have people home all day you won't see as big a result because it won't go into auto away but, you'll still be able to program to save you some money. If you have a family member that likes to crank the heat when you aren't at home you can keep a leash on that too. That was what the guy at work found out. His kid was cranking the heat up to like 80 while he was at work. so he just cranks it right back down! lol

I have it turn up the temp to 68 for waking up. So the house heats up for a couple hours. we leave, it goes into away mode and if it isn't a horribly cold day outside the thing doesn't kick on at all until I get home.

I'm going to buy another one for the downstairs zone. I really recommend this thermostat.

 

[FXDawg]

Thanks, if that is indeed the case, I am sold on the rest of the benefits. Thanks. Have you ever seen a red dot blinking on the display and nothing else? If so, from what I have read it means the battery is too low to activate teh display. If you know, does the Nest allowing the unit to Heat/Cool at that time? Thanks

the nest runs off low voltage from your heater, i.e. boiler, fancoil, furnace. So, if those have power, the nest has power, if you battery is dying you may need to check your wiring. I'd also call Nest and get their advice if you are having low battery issues.

 

[Jsf721]

I don't own the unit yet. i just want it to work as soon as the power get restored.

the nest runs off low voltage from your heater, i.e. boiler, fancoil, furnace. So, if those have power, the nest has power, if you battery is dying you may need to check your wiring. I'd also call Nest and get their advice if you are having low battery issues.

 

[shoot summ]

Thanks, if that is indeed the case, I am sold on the rest of the benefits. Thanks. Have you ever seen a red dot blinking on the display and nothing else? If so, from what I have read it means the battery is too low to activate teh display. If you know, does the Nest allowing the unit to Heat/Cool at that time? Thanks

I haven't seen that, I honestly don't know that it will run the unit, I'm assuming that it will.

We lost power for 13 days in 2007, I understand your concern, for us that was a very isolated incident. I've since set up our house to run the forced heat off of a generator if I have to.

 

[Jsf721]

Thanks, With all the $ poured into the design and functionality I only wish they had a space for 2 AA battereis that would allow the unit to fuction after and extended power outage drained the internal battery. Why force the Nest User to wait 1 hour for the internal battery to charge enough to control the HVAC System? Granted it is a rare occurrence but after being without power for 12+ days the thought of waiting another hours to begin to re-heat a cold house seems dumb to me. I bet they add this to the 3rd gen.


Such a simple easy to add feature like a normal battery to back up the internal.

If the unit goes stone dead, does it retain the settings?

Most likely getting one anyway!

Thanks again.

I haven't seen that, I honestly don't know that it will run the unit, I'm assuming that it will.

We lost power for 13 days in 2007, I understand your concern, for us that was a very isolated incident. I've since set up our house to run the forced heat off of a generator if I have to.

 

[Greatbear]

All the Nest settings are retained if the power has been removed for a long period, the settings are retained in flash memory that doesn't need continuous power. The Nest seems to have power management that goes in stages, from what I gather it can spring back to normal operation after at least a week of power failure.

 

[RKA]

I don't believe this is an issue. I haven't read their documentation thoroughly, but I can tell you in the wake of Sandy, I was without power for 36 hours until I got cold and fed up. I connected the generator to the furnace and she lit up immediately (less than a minute delay).

My guess...if the nest was running on battery power for some time, it probably shut itself off before it went below some threshold (not good for an Li-on battery anyway), and as soon as it regained power, it lit up and started recharging it's internal battery. Whatever the case, the Nest was the last thing on my mind and thankfully it didn't give me a reason to be in the forefront of my thoughts either. Oh, and the program settings were all retained as well. How long it can sustain that...I don't know (goes to your question about stone dead).

The 2 AA's would make this thing a brick, like every other thermostat. The internal rechargable seems to work fine. I forgot how long they said it would be good for, but I recall it was long enough to satisfy me.

 

[Jsf721]

I thank you for sharing you thoughts and experiences. I picked up the Nest (Gen2) lunch time and will install tomorrow. I just need to bring in the wire stripper in case the exposed wires are not long enough.

Thanks again!

All the Nest settings are retained if the power has been removed for a long period, the settings are retained in flash memory that doesn't need continuous power. The Nest seems to have power management that goes in stages, from what I gather it can spring back to normal operation after at least a week of power failure.

I don't believe this is an issue. I haven't read their documentation thoroughly, but I can tell you in the wake of Sandy, I was without power for 36 hours until I got cold and fed up. I connected the generator to the furnace and she lit up immediately (less than a minute delay).

My guess...if the nest was running on battery power for some time, it probably shut itself off before it went below some threshold (not good for an Li-on battery anyway), and as soon as it regained power, it lit up and started recharging it's internal battery. Whatever the case, the Nest was the last thing on my mind and thankfully it didn't give me a reason to be in the forefront of my thoughts either. Oh, and the program settings were all retained as well. How long it can sustain that...I don't know (goes to your question about stone dead).

The 2 AA's would make this thing a brick, like every other thermostat. The internal rechargable seems to work fine. I forgot how long they said it would be good for, but I recall it was long enough to satisfy me.

 

[STANIMAL]

Just installed one in a friends house , they love it . Very easy to use and looks great . Its the iphone of thermostats , very intuitive.

 

[Jsf721]

From what I am reading I should not program it but just dial the temp I want when I want it and inside of 2 weeks it will remember what I want. That sound right?

Just installed one in a friends house , they love it . Very easy to use and looks great . Its the iphone of thermostats , very intuitive.

 

[STANIMAL]

From what I am reading I should not program it but just dial the temp I want when I want it and inside of 2 weeks it will remember what I want. That sound right?

I didnt do the whole setup , but it will take into account the amount of times and when a person walks by to build a schedule. Keep in mind that you are in control of the settings , remotely and you know better when someone is home or not . Might be just as easy to program your own preferences.

 

[FXDawg]

From what I am reading I should not program it but just dial the temp I want when I want it and inside of 2 weeks it will remember what I want. That sound right?

I just went on line and programmed mine. I didn't want to wait a week...LOL

 

[Jsf721]

I was wondering if I must shut off the breaker before installing the nest?

Here is a shot of the wiring. The computer servers are on the same breaker so it's a pita to shut down

 

[Angelfire]

Also can't believe how many gear heads there are here that can't run an additional wire to their tstat for power. Come on guys....

For me to run additional wires, I'd either have to cut though about 40 lf of drywall or head up through the roof. No thanks!

 

[HunterWare]

The most telling thing for me is the lack of people with a Nest saying they wish they had something else (or hadn't switched in the first place). I got two of them, orginally the hardware design and ecosystem sold me (really nice phone/tablet app, equally nice website control, great monthly status emails). I was intrigued by the self-programming but a) I'm a geek and can program my own stuff and b) I wasn't sure they'd get it right. I'll admit that I still do tweak the programming (it's fine, but I can't help myself), but they definitely got it right. The auto-away feature is really nice too, and the feature that all the units in your house self-organize and coordinate their auto-away "thoughts" works really well (When the basement nest still sees/hears you, the rest of them know the house isn't empty).

All in all, I loved mine and my fiancé loved it (non geek) loved it even more. I liked it so much that 4 other people have them now and they (and spouses) love them too. I tried a couple other smart thermostats (one in my previous house, one in my small office, and had one in my house before the nest) and they all were fine. They did their jobs as advertised... But the nest really does take it to a new level: from the small bubble level imbedded in the base to help you make sure it's installed level... to the informative and comprehensive email I get every month. Start to finish, everything is thought out and well done. Side note: that email also compares my usage to others in the area, and breaks down the differences and causes (system, weather, temp programming, amount of away time) to really help me understand my system and where my money goes.

Like a previous poster, I noticed an immediate decrease in my usage with the nest. I bought it right after getting a new house because the house had a very old Trane unit. The nest definitely did a good job of making it easy to run my system less without a noticeable change in comfort. I loved it so much that I kept the nest when getting a new system after the Trane died a year later. The other thermostats I used worked fine, and they are certainly less expensive. The nest, however, does provide a lot of value for the cost and for me it was well worth it.

The only thing I miss is some kind of interval recirculation mode. I can only assume there is a patent on the idea as they know about the request, it would be easy, and they have added plenty of other features since launch (the auto-update rocks). In spite of that, the fan control is auto/on only.