My Nest learning thermostat arrived this afternoon. When I arrived home I began the installation process, which took about 10 minutes. Once Nest was installed, I connected it to our wireless network, updated the unit’s software, inputted our zip code, and named the Nest (I chose the rather imaginative, “Hallway”), and set it on its path of learning our heating and energy usage patterns. My initial reaction is quite positive. A full review in another month or two, but for now I’ll share this video about its learning capabilities & features:
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What’s in the box (the item on the left is a Nest screwdriver) –
If you’d like to learn more, visit Nest.com
I watched the video and found it funny that near the end it says you have to manually switch to cooling in the summer. Is that true? I have a thermostat that I consider average yet it doesn’t require me to switch from heating and cooling as the seasons change.
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Kevin Reply:
December 3rd, 2011 at 7:58 AM
Matt: it’s true. 12/30/11 UPDATE: this is not accurate; see my comment below.
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Matt:
The Nest is designed to save energy, the convenience of Auto Cool/Heat will be less efficient.
For example, during the spring and fall months it’s not unusual to have cool mornings and warm afternoons. A thermostat in automatic mode would keep the house warm in the morning (70 Degrees) and quickly start to air condition in the mid afternoon, removing all the heat you put in during the morning cycle.
The best operation is to have the Thermostat set on cooling and let the cool mornings coast at a lower temperature and you may not need any cooling in the afternoon.
Convenience has it’s price in lost efficiency. I hope this helps.
Pete
Nest installed 12/28
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Kevin Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 6:47 AM
To correct my earlier comment, you CAN program both heating and cooling to occur during a single schedule. Nest refers to this as a “Range Schedule;” from the Nest site:
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After a month with Nest, I’m very impressed with the device. It definitely encourages and facilitates energy saving behavior, and its learning mode is remarkable. I’ll wait about six months before writing a full review.
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I got my Nest today, it’s a beautiful piece of engineering. You can see the roots of Apple in this product, right down to the packaging. Piece of cake to install, in fact it took me longer to remove my old thermostat (a z-wave one) that it took to install this one. Setup was a breeze as well. It did seem to take a couple of hours for the temperature to settle – it initially thought it was 77 in the house, when it was really 72, but, that’s all set now.
Extra cool factor – when you walk up to it & it sense you, the display turns on.
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Kevin Reply:
March 6th, 2012 at 9:21 PM
Several months in, LOVE the thing. Neat factor: senses when you’re away, and turns the temp down (or up, depending upon season). iPhone app lets me adjust the temp remotely – anywhere in the world! Should do a full review at some point…..
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I grabbed the Android App as well, it works as it should – simple to change the temp from anywhere as well.
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Chris Reply:
March 15th, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Well – so much for the Android App, not sure what happened (I may have updated it?) but – not it Force Closes whenever I tried to change the temperature. Since that’s all the App does, it has become useless, and, their webpage does not work from teh Android either. It may be going back to them now.
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Kevin Reply:
March 15th, 2012 at 6:38 PM
Bummer. FWIW, the iPhone app still functions as intended.
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