Nest Thermostat

[Power5]

Not sure how I stumbled upon this thing, but pretty cool little gadget.


http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/nest_thermostat/



I want one.

[r-dub]

soooo 27 seconds ago

all jokes aside, i got my parents one for their birthday and it didnt end up working for their house...even though it said they were compatible.

they are having their HVAC dude come take a gander at it to see if he can make it work

[vdubman1]

I like them, and would love to get one for my house.

Did your parents say why it wouldn't work? I'm an HVAC guy, might be able to give you a pointer or two.

[Sortafast]

I have one. I like it.

I like the "Airwave" feature, which continues running the fan after the A/C shuts off, which pushes a bit more air through the still-cold A/C coils, but saves you energy. Saved me a few bucks this summer.

I am currently using the "Range" feature, which keeps the temp within a certain range. Good for fall with warm days and cool nights.

You can also track your energy usage and set schedules or adjust the thermostat through the Nest website, or using their iPhone app.

[Hostile]

i got my parents one for their birthday and it didnt end up working for their house...even though it said they were compatible.

they are having their HVAC dude come take a gander at it to see if he can make it work

The website says that preorders ship 10/18. How did you get one already?

[vdubman1]

I have one. I like it.

I like the "Airwave" feature, which continues running the fan after the A/C shuts off, which pushes a bit more air through the still-cold A/C coils, but saves you energy. Saved me a few bucks this summer.

Not to burst your bubble but most furnaces/airhandlers nowadays do that for you anyways... Mine runs 4 minutes after. The other stuff is pretty cool though!

[TwoLitreVW]

there's a part in that article where he mentions how incredibly expensive the existing market options are for other, less capable thermostats.

and then i see that this thermostat costs $249.


i'll wait till somebody copies it. even if it's not pretty, it'll likely be significantly cheaper.

[Hostile]

there's a part in that article where he mentions how incredibly expensive the existing market options are for other, less capable thermostats.

and then i see that this thermostat costs $249.


i'll wait till somebody copies it. even if it's not pretty, it'll likely be significantly cheaper.

Lol, $250?? No thanks.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

The website says that preorders ship 10/18. How did you get one already?

That's the second gen model. First gen has been out for a while now.

Lol, $250?? No thanks.

The idea is it will save you money long term.

[Sortafast]

Not to burst your bubble but most furnaces/airhandlers nowadays do that for you anyways... Mine runs 4 minutes after. The other stuff is pretty cool though!

I don't have a HVAC system from "nowadays". My house is 16 years old.

[Sortafast]

The idea is it will save you money long term.

Exactly. Mine saved me some money over the summer on A/C. It will pay for itself over time.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

Exactly. Mine saved me some money over the summer on A/C. It will pay for itself over time.

And at $250 the payoff period should be fairly short.

[Power5]

The site says that only 11% of programable thermostats are running on program. Majority are on hold most of the time.

http://www.google.com/search?client=...=1936&bih=1135

Problem I have with most programable thermostats is how hard they are to program. This one does not need programing. You just set it manually for a few days and it learns. And if you forget to turn it to away you can change settings from your phone. Then you can check the history and make some changes as you see fit. So, tuesday may be a day when you work from home. Most thermostats that are programable treat every weekday the same. So you would have to manually change it when staying home. This thing seems to have the ability to know your preferred temp when people are around and automatically changes to that when people are sensed. The fact that it is cheaper than many of the wifi programable ones on the market says its a good deal to me.

[Hostile]

The idea is it will save you money long term.

I have an in-wall, touchscreen thermostat with 7-day programming that I have set with individual temperatures for morning, day and night. And I paid a whopping $70 for it.

How, exactly, is this $250 thermostat going to save me more money over that?

[TwoLitreVW]

I have an in-wall, touchscreen thermostat with 7-day programming that I have set with individual temperatures for morning, day and night. And I paid a whopping $70 for it.

How, exactly, is this $250 thermostat going to save me more money over that?

same here.

i think i got ours about 2 years ago for around $50. it'll allow me to program daily and by time range. and if i put it on hold, i can set the hold through the next programmed cycle or permanent, so i don't worry if i forget to take the hold off.

this thing would really have to be magical to save me money over what i've got now; particularly because we've got a pretty solid routine.

i'm sure it'll do wonders for most out there that either don't have a routine, or haven't noticed their own patterns, or don't know how to program a thermostat. and it'll even be a bigger hit with the whole foods crowd (as it says in the article) simply because it's pretty and it's a "conversation starter."

i'd rather talk about other things with my guests when entertaining than my expensive thermostat. like the new iphone, for instance.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

I have an in-wall, touchscreen thermostat with 7-day programming that I have set with individual temperatures for morning, day and night. And I paid a whopping $70 for it.

How, exactly, is this $250 thermostat going to save me more money over that?

Do you reprogram it when you go on vacation? What about if your schedule is erratic? Does your thermostat support temperature ranges as opposed to fixed temperatures? Does it have an Auto-Away feature?

Nest has a TON of functionality that other thermostats don't have. I really don't think the price is unreasonable for what you get. I'd buy one in a second if I had central heating but I have stupid electric baseboards.

[TwoLitreVW]

Nest has a TON of functionality that other thermostats don't have. I really don't think the price is unreasonable for what you get. I'd buy one in a second if I had central heating but I have stupid electric baseboards.

i don't think anybody's arguing the features.

i think that the trouble is that for those of us that have relatively fixed schedules and have looked at our energy consumption and have a set up that works, the cost of this unit may not result in the savings that the average user actually sees.

i know that in my case, those added features will not result in any savings, since we've pretty much got it figured out and set up according to our routine.

the ONLY thing about this unit that i could see myself taking advantage of is the WiFi connectivity for remote control; but i can't justify that cost knowing that a wifi unit from another manufacturer can offer the features i'm using now plus wifi for less than half the price of this unit.

again, for the average homeowner who hasn't taken a good look at their energy consumption and doesn't like to fiddle with a thermostat, it's probably a good idea and might work out.

but that's not always the case.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

i think that the trouble is that for those of us that have relatively fixed schedules and have looked at our energy consumption and have a set up that works, the cost of this unit may not result in the savings that the average user actually sees.

i know that in my case, those added features will not result in any savings, since we've pretty much got it figured out and set up according to our routine.

I'm willing to bet that regardless of how fixed your schedule is and how you've programmed your thermostat, there is still room for further savings. Obviously for some people the payoff period will be longer though.

[Hostile]

Do you reprogram it when you go on vacation?

Of course.

What about if your schedule is erratic?

Even if it is, my wife's isn't.

Does your thermostat support temperature ranges as opposed to fixed temperatures?

A range? Not specifically but it "swings".

Does it have an Auto-Away feature?

No, but based on their descriptions it doesn't work all that differently from my thermostat where I set the temps based on the time of day.

Nest has a TON of functionality that other thermostats don't have. I really don't think the price is unreasonable for what you get. I'd buy one in a second if I had central heating but I have stupid electric baseboards.

Well it doesn't have a ton of features that my $70 one doesn't.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

Well it doesn't have a ton of features that my $70 one doesn't.

You sure about that? I was looking through their web site this morning and they have lots of interesting little features that I don't think are common at all.

[Power5]

I dunno I think that the Nest Tstat will have better temperature control for even slightly changing schedules. I find it hard to believe that anyone's schedule is so strict that a person always leaves at exactly 7am and gets home at exactly 6pm. I would at least hate to be in that kind of rut. Last thing I want to do before vacation is program my tstat also. But there probably are cheaper alternatives, but doubtful that there are cheaper ones that are easier to use.

[AZGolf]

Problem I have with most programable thermostats is how hard they are to program.

The problem I have with them is:

1) I want the house roughly the same temperature when I sleep as when I'm awake, especially since I'm not exactly on a preset "bed time"
2) There's no telling what days I may go in to the office, work from home, come home at lunch, when my wife will be in or out of the house, etc

Back when I was single this might have been a lot easier to make work, but married with a family and totally irregular home schedule I have never been able to come up with a pre-defined schedule that works for everyone. Instead we just worked on finding the highest temperature everyone is comfortable with in the summer and the coldest one we can all agree on in the notsummer.

I won't lie though; the geek in me loves the idea of playing with the thermostat from my home office rather than walking to the other end of the house to adjust the temp. On that topic, Anand Tech had a recent review of Wi-Fi controlled thermostats with several alternatives listed. The Home Depot WiFi programmable thermostat is only $100, for example.

[Power5]

The Nest would be pretty good in your position then. It will learn your schedules no matter how erratic and since it can see when you are home or not, it will be able to change to away without any interaction or you could change it via your phone.

Will have to find that review of other options to see how others compare.