Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

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CherylHall
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:33 pm

Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by CherylHall »

Hi all, thinking of getting a Nest to save on heating and cooling bills. I currently have a thermometer that does have 4 daily settings for morning, day, evening nite and I have it set for what I think is good energy conservation. I have a 2000 sq foot house and its only me here so I only have to satisfy me and my dog with the temperature.

There are offers from the electric company for a 24 month contract and a gift card and a free Nest. I am generally suspicious of these offers but my bill is so convoluted its hard to make an evaluation.

https://nest.com/thermostat/saving-energy/
stevemoore99
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:57 am

Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by stevemoore99 »

I'm not 100% clear on what your question is Cheryl.

We have a Nest thermostat and multiple Nest protects and we love them. However, there are much less expensive products out there. which perform similar functions... though if your utility company is offering the thermostat free, that would be a hard deal to pass up!

Let me try and explain what I mean.

I think I can safely say the average home thermostat is set at a comfortable temperate and is seldom to never touched after that. If this were describing your situation, it would be pretty easy to achieve some savings with the Nest.

Their products all communicate with each other as well as your wireless home network. The thermostat and Nest protects all can sense when someone walks near them, in addition to knowing the time and day of the week. Even if you failed to program them, they would eventually "learn" what times and days of the week you are typically gone from the house and they would adjust the temperature set points accordingly.

My utility company doesn't do this, but the devices even have the capability of being adjusted by the power company... Lets say you live in a hot climate and need lots of cooling in the mid to late afternoon. Because of the increased demand, the power company may be forced to buy power or turn on additional generators to be able to supply that peak demand. As a result, if they were able to slightly adjust upward that afternoon temp setting on your Nest, they might give you a slightly lower electrical rate.

Since you already have a programmable thermostat, you are already doing better than the average user who NEVER adjusts their thermostat.
However, it is still possible the Nest could save you an additional small amount of money, depending on if your power company is one of those who will give you a break for the load shedding I mentioned above.

The Nest also have apps which can go on your computer or smart phone that allows you to monitor and adjust temperature inside your house while you are away. There are actually a brand of garage door openers who also can be set up to talk to your Nest device. Your garage door going down in the morning is a signal to the Nest that it can go to AWAY mode and when you open that same garage door in the late afternoon, the Nest now knows you are home and will adjust the temperature accordingly.

Anyway... my point is, it is impossible for anyone to tell you if this a good deal for you or not. There are simply too many variables and unknowns here for anyone to answer. However, this is the type of stuff the Nest will do. Talk to the power company and ask them if you get some sort of break on power rates if you have this sort of device.
Dr. No
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Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 11:30 am
Location: Green Bay, WI

Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by Dr. No »

Hi

Yes, we have three Nest thermostats in our home and love them...go for it!

D.
Jeff Albertson
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by Jeff Albertson »

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LAlearning
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by LAlearning »

I know nothing!
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AAA
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by AAA »

I just checked out this item on Amazon and it costs $249, if it's the one you mean.

Unless you have unusually large heating bills, I would imagine it would take a very long time to recoup the cost of this thermostat, especially compared to the simpler one you are already using.
stevemoore99
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by stevemoore99 »

Just a quick note on the link someone above provided...

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 8#p1905948

A couple of the "issues" noted there are wrong...

First, the comment on their unit running longer... Well, if the person had actually read the documentation, it is their fan which is running longer and that is something that is entirely adjustable within the Nest. The idea is that this setting is to allow the user to wring every last bit of heat (or coolness) out of their unit.

The other issue I have is the comment on how sloppy the actual temperature was. It seemed to vary all over the place.

Mine is rock solid and I'm an electrical engineer and I'm know the design of the unit. It certainly is always possible that they may have gotten a faulty unit. However, the temperature sensor it uses is rock steady and has no where near the variability in its temperature ready they suggested. Mounting a thermostat on a wall that sometimes gets sun and sometimes doesn't, is also a possible explanation for the problem.
stevemoore99
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by stevemoore99 »

AAA wrote:I just checked out this item on Amazon and it costs $249, if it's the one you mean.

Unless you have unusually large heating bills, I would imagine it would take a very long time to recoup the cost of this thermostat, especially compared to the simpler one you are already using.
Yes, you are right, but their original post said their power company was offering it free... which is a hard deal to pass up!
MDfive21
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by MDfive21 »

be careful signing a contract like that. i got a promo recently offering a free nest and the increase in electricity price would have made up for the (likely discounted) cost of the nest paid by the electric company.

it's a win for the electric company. they charge you more per unit of electricity and you use less of it, so they get the same $$ from you each month for providing less energy.

do the math before signing.
marc in merrimack
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Location: Massachusetts

Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by marc in merrimack »

CherylHall wrote:Hi all, thinking of getting a Nest to save on heating and cooling bills. I currently have a thermometer that does have 4 daily settings for morning, day, evening nite and I have it set for what I think is good energy conservation. I have a 2000 sq foot house and its only me here so I only have to satisfy me and my dog with the temperature.

There are offers from the electric company for a 24 month contract and a gift card and a free Nest. I am generally suspicious of these offers but my bill is so convoluted its hard to make an evaluation.

https://nest.com/thermostat/saving-energy/
You already have a programmable thermostat that appears to be serving you adequately. I suggest that you ignore this offer - whatever it is.
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FelixTheCat
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by FelixTheCat »

I use a programmable thermostat. I base the heating/cooling around my work schedule.
Felix is a wonderful, wonderful cat.
ctreada
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by ctreada »

I got a nest last June. It has been fantastic. I highly recommend.

I did some rough calculations on the difference in electricity usage, and found that it paid for itself in our situation in 13 months.

I have become a bit of a skeptic re: gadget purchases, but this one pays you back better than solar panels.
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Swamproot
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by Swamproot »

1. There are cheaper programmable thermostats, and cheaper units that connect to the internet.

2. I love mine. Even though it is simple as heck, my wife (somewhat of a Luddite) is too intimidated by it to mess with it, unlike our previous thermostat. The old one she would actually open up the cover and change it from the programmed schedule to the run at constant temp setting despite the ability to just push the dang buttons on the front to temporarily deviate the settings to a cooler temperature.

Since she was a teacher and home during the summer, I would discover, usually after she had been away for several days that she decided the house needed to be a constant 69 degrees whether she was there or not, much to my chagrin. She doesn't touch the Nest, which I have of course named HAL_9000, a joke which makes more sense in winter, when I installed it. Plus, I can monitor and change it on my cell phone, bwahahahahaha.
jstrazzere
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by jstrazzere »

I have a Nest, but perhaps for a different reason than you are proposing.

I installed one in my weekend/vacation home. That way I can remotely monitor the temperature, and set it remotely so that it will reach the desired temperature by the time we get there.

While there were less expensive solutions, I also wanted an internet-connected thermostat that would operate on a 2-wire setup. Nest works that way, while most others would not.

I've been very happy so far.

It's difficult to believe that in your current situation you could save much more off of your energy bill by substituting a Nest for your current setup.
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Ice-9
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by Ice-9 »

I was tempted to get the Nest when they first came out a couple of years ago, but then my electric company made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They would come out and install a free programmable (and web-programmable) thermostat if I signed up to get $6/off each summer month for allowing them to cycle my cooling on the four worst weekday afternoons of summer. I actually could have gotten a bigger discount, but opted for the least amount of "cycling" of three options, and only a $6/mo discount.

My free thermostat doesn't have the same "cool" factor as the Nest, but it gets the job done. The heating or cooling takes it easy while I'm at work. At one point last year, I graphed my KwH per day average for each bill before and after switching, and the reduction is huge. On vacations, I can still log in on my phone before I head on a several-hour trip back home to switch the temperature back to normal before I get there. The only two things it doesn't do that Nest does as far as I can tell is (1) learn my habits and (2) look cool. :D

So, I suggest checking to see if your electric company has any similar sort of offering before committing to a $250 thermostat, if only just to be aware of all your options.
wander
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by wander »

We installed the Nest a year ago in our home. I don't actually see any money saving comparing to our much cheaper programmable thermostat. This one looks cool and is easy to program.
trees
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by trees »

I have one and really like it. I have a fairly similar use case - only myslef (and cats) to satisfy, had programmable thermostat that was already set reasonably (cooler when gone, etc). I was happily surprised by the savings I saw - in the 10-20% range depending on the month. I installed it late February, so had ~4 months of history before the summer (don't have air conditioning, but heating goes to 0).

The thing that had the most impact for me was the auto-away feature. On weekends, I usually had the heat set fairly evenly throughout the day, since I was around at unpredictable times, but I also am fairly regularly gone for significant portions of the day or all weekend. With auto-away, weekends went from the days with the largest heating consumption / always on to in line with weekdays or lower.
wander
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by wander »

trees wrote: The thing that had the most impact for me was the auto-away feature. On weekends, I usually had the heat set fairly evenly throughout the day, since I was around at unpredictable times, but I also am fairly regularly gone for significant portions of the day or all weekend. With auto-away, weekends went from the days with the largest heating consumption / always on to in line with weekdays or lower.
It seems auto-away only works daytime. If you are not at home, it switches to auto-away during day-time and then switches to home at night thinking you are sleeping at night.
miles monroe
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by miles monroe »

i'm going to comment on the plan from your electric company with 24 month contract, but i can tell you that clark howard is a big fan of the nest and every time someone has called in about it he recommends they purchase it.
TO
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Re: Anyone have a Nest learning thermostat?

Post by TO »

Consider an ecobee thermostat as an alternative to Nest. We have one, and I recommend it unconditionally. Wifi connectivity and data analytics capability without the A.I. issues some have reported with Nest units. A simple Amazon search will allow you to compare and contrast.
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