Listener Review: Nest Learning Thermostat

We love home automation! Many of our listeners don't necessarily want to install an entire home automation system just to be able to control the temperature of their home while they are away. Whether it be because you forgot to turn off the HVAC System or it could be you want to heat up or cool down your house after being away, having control via the Internet is a very cool thing! When we saw the Nest Learning Thermostat announced last year we thought it would be an easy way to add one aspect of automation to your life pretty easily. The only issue was that we both had a home automation system and weren't about to rip out our Thermostats for a review.

Fortunately for us (and you) a listener to the show, John Langevin, took the time to write a through review of the Nest. We hope you find John's review as insightful as we did!

Nest Learning Thermostat Review

By: John Langevin

 

Unboxing/First Impression:

The Nest was designed by Tony Fadell, one of the geniuses behind the Apple iPod and iPhone.  In pure Apple fashion, the entire packaging and unboxing experience was simple, but elegant.  You open the box and the Nest is immediately starring back at you.  It is very evident that time was put into your first impression with the device.  

Setup/Installation:

Photo Taken From www.nest.com

Installation of the Nest was extremely easy:

• Turn off power (at breaker) for the thermostat
• Remove old thermostat (taking note of what wire is hooked to what)
• Mark two screw locations for Nest base using built in bubble level
• Use included Nest screwdriver to screw in wall anchors
• Place base on wall and screw into wall anchors.  If you desire to have a mounting plate behind the Nest base, it comes with a square and a rectangle mounting plate in case the old thermostat damaged the wall or there are holes you want to cover up
• Leave enough play in order to make last minute level adjustments and tighten
• Press in terminals, push wires into their corresponding locations, and let go
• Push Nest display onto base
• Turn power back on and the Nest will guide you through its setup
  • Enter zip code
  • Max/min temps when away
  • Wi-Fi information
  • Wiring confirmation
  • Furnace/AC/Heat Pump configuration
  • Etc.

Again, in Apple fashion, the only HMI (Human-Machine Interface) is the beautiful stainless steel ring that turns continuously around the display and that pushes inward to select.  This proves to be annoying when you have a long Wi-Fi name and/or password, but not horrible since you only have to do it once.

Once the initial setup is complete, you can also start programming the schedule heat/cool schedule.

Features:

Sensors:

• Temperature and HumidityProximity
• Far-field and Near-field activity
• Ambient light to adjust display to environment (night verses day)

Wireless Internet Access:

• Automatic software/firmware updates
• Complete temperature/schedule control on iPhone and computer anywhere you have internet access

Activity Sensors:

• The Nest has 3 activity sensors in its arsenal.  
• The far-field and near-field activity sensors detect activity in the house and turn off/on the “auto-away” feature in case you forget to turn the heating/cooling off as you leave.  When the sensors detect that there has been no activity in a given period of time, the “auto-away” feature will automatically turn your thermostat to whatever away setpoints you have programed.
• The Proximity sensor turns the display on when you come near enough to make adjustments to the temperature or device and turns it off when you leave.

Schedule:

• Can create a different set point every 15 minutes, 7 days a week.  This means you have the ability to set up to 96 different setpoints a day, or 672 in a week (if so desired).  You can add/modify these setpoints easily on the Nest and on the computer.
• This allows extreme flexibility in how you set your temperatures during the day itself and day-to-day.  You are not limited to 4 setpoints a day for wakeup, leave, arrive, and sleep.
• The Nest schedule is also adaptive.  It will look past an occasional adjustment to the temperature, but if you do it consistently, it will remember and add it to your “stock” weekly schedule.

Learning Features:

• During the first week of use, the Nest learns your habits and the response time of your heating and cooling system.  When you change the temp from 68 to 70, it will tell you “about” how long it will take to arrive at that new temperature.
• The Nest keeps track of your energy history and reports if you have used more or less energy than your “average” and will tell you why you received that score.  For example, we’ve had a very mild winter thus far in MN and have been getting consistent highs in the 30s.  One day last week, it was very sunny out and in the mid-40s.  The report for that day said that I used below-average energy that day because of unseasonably nice/warm weather outside and showed a picture of a sun behind some clouds.  It knows that it was nice outside because it keeps track of the weather forecast for the area and will determine how the outside temperature affects your energy usage.
• With your energy history in mind, every time you make an adjustment to the temperature and or schedule that brings you below your average energy usage, a small green leaf will show up on the display as a simple reminder you are using less energy than usual.

Pros:

Everything listed above!  The Nest is simple, elegant, and smart all at the same time.  It automatically adapts to your fluid weekly schedule and is better than you at remembering to turn itself off!  The more that I play with the Nest, the more little things I find that help make the experience more enjoyable.

Who know a thermostat would be so… cool (no pun attended)!

Cons:

Price… $250 is a hard sale for a thermostat, but the company claims that the learning features of the device will help save up to 20% of your energy bill if programmed “correctly.”  This is a pretty steep claim that I will suspend judgment on until I get more time with the device.  Nest.com has a study on the website that describes how they came up with these figures:

http://www.nest.com/wp-content/themes/nest/static/white_papers/efficiency-simulation-white-paper.pdf

Although simple and elegant, the interface is slow when entering long character strings.  The ability to pair a Bluetooth keyboard would be nice.

I’m not sure if the Nest can be incorporated into any home automation equipment because this is my first entry into at least temperature automation.  With the built-in WiFi, I’m sure it could be possible…

Comments

[Katelynn Langevin]

One other "fun" piece of info...this thermostat is also perfect for husbands at work who want to mess with their wives at home. Since you can control the temp from an iPhone, the heat just magically goes down after I've turned it up. Nothing like starting at a simple circle thinking - why in the world can't I operate this!

[Paul]

It also doesn't work with a two stage cooling system which is ideal in Florida.

[Henry]

Thank you very much for the review, John. I have been very interested in an internet-enabled thermostat, so your review really caught my attention. It looks like an extremely well-made unit with some great features, but to tell you truth your review revealed to me that this thermostat is probably not the right one for my application.

I ended up getting a BAYweb thermostat. They take a different approach in that the control module is installed locally near the furnace/air handler. The touch pad human interface is therefore simpler and does not require a power wire or batteries. Plus the control module accepts a hardwired LAN cable which to me makes for a more robust connection. The installation was super-simple. The biggest job I had was that I needed to install a 120VAC power outlet for the module "wall wart". Other than that everything was a simple as could be. Essentially just cut the thermostat cable at the furnace and splice in the control module. Then remove the old thermostat and install the touch pad in its place.

Setting up an account and getting the unit online was a breeze. At first I was puzzled about how to set up the schedule, but there is an inconspicuous down arrow on the web interface that gives access to all the advanced functionality.

http://www.bayweb.com/mktg/webthermostat.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vPZrCHU3k

[plumbing]

Home security is very important to peace of mind, and many factors go into determining how secure a home will be. The ability to manage your home’s electronic systems from one main control system can make your household run smoother, feel better and save energy. The beauty of an automation system is its ability to tie diverse electronic devices together so they can perform as one unified system.