Tony Fadell, the former Apple designer best known among the creative minds accountable for its iPod, burst onto the smart home scene with the Nest Thermostat.
A simple, sleek, round apparatus made from glass and aluminum.
The sales pitch to Nest is straightforward:
1) A thermostat may be both beautiful and easy to use
2) It enhances home power efficiency by leveraging available, relevant data, artificial intelligence, and also the power of the internet.
Since its first release, the Nest Thermostat has evolved, improved, and ultimately become the single most popular thermostat in the world. Indeed, Google affirmed Nest's success when it obtained Nest Labs, Inc. in 2014 for $3.2 billion in cash.
In 2018, the issue for customers isn't whether the Nest Thermostat functions as advertised (it does). Instead, prospective purchasers should think about whether its $250 retail price tag is well worth it over traditional disconnected thermostats that begin at one-quarter of the cost. Nest addressed a few of those concerns when it published the Nest Thermostat E in 2017, which offers most of the qualities of the conventional Nest Thermostat at a half percent lower retail cost.
The following is a summary of why you might wish to think about that Nest Thermostat, and why millions of customers have chosen to replace their aging, disconnected thermostats using a Nest.
Connectivity
One of the hallmark features of this Nest Thermostat is its connectivity. By linking it to your own home wifi network and temperature detectors, the Nest Thermostat offers a lot of invaluable features for its end-users.
Remote Control
During initial setup, users will be asked to download the Nest Home app out of their various app markets and link it with their Nest Thermostat. Once done, the program can control home temperatures, create and modify programs, control holiday mode, and much more. Gone are the days of wondering if you turned down or up the temperature in your house to save money during a protracted period off.
As users begin to use the Nest Thermostat, it will start automatically adjusting temperatures up and down, based on the information it's receiving from its sensors and the net. The Nest Thermostat then expects the homeowner to begin adjusting the temperature throughout the day, whether to raise comfort or energy efficiency.
As time passes, the thermostat begins to learn a user's preference and will make similar alterations throughout the day. In a few weeks, the Nest Thermostat includes a fairly accurate comprehension of a household's desired temperature range based on time and day (morning vs. evening, weekday vs. weekend). All this happens behind the scenes and with no user input other than a simple turn of the dial surrounding the thermostat.
Comprehensive Scheduling
For people who want more fine-grain control over temperature, the Nest Thermostat additionally supports scheduling, where owners may control temperatures to the level and from the moment.
After a weekly schedule is defined, it can be copied to future weeks, or altered as necessary as temperatures and seasons change. For any times or days that aren't specifically accounted for in the program, the Nest Thermostat will drop back on it has intelligent adjustments.
Intelligent Home/Away
Along with this fine-tuned control and programming possible on the thermostat itself and the companion mobile program, the Nest Thermostat will also use onboard sensors as well as the location of a user's telephone to determine whether you are home or away.
This allows the thermostat to increase or decrease the temperature as essential to conserve energy whenever you are not in your home.
Nest also works with local power companies to offer discounts to Nest Thermostat users who agree to allow the utility to manually raise or lower temperatures throughout high-use intervals known as"rush hours" in exchange for discounts on their invoices, and rebates on Nest products, or other rewards.
By way of instance, in exchange for registering in Nest Rush Hour Rewards, Arizona electricity and water utility Salt River Project ("SRP") provides $75 rebates on up to two Nest Thermostats, plus $25 in charge credits for every single thermostat at the end of each summer season.
This means that users who are willing to be more energy conscious during the hot Arizona summers will earn $100 for each Nest Thermostat in their first year, and $25 annually after that. This is along with the other energy-saving characteristics of this Nest Thermostat which are very likely to save users money as well.
Smart Home Integration
Nest makes it even easier to interact with its own thermostats by providing integration with both the most popular smart home assistants: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Amazon Alexa
To control a Nest Thermostat with Amazon Alexa, simply launch the Alexa app on a mobile device and add the"Nest Battery ability" by Nest Labs, Inc.. Then request an Alexa device to find the Nest Thermostat on the same wireless network by stating, " Alexa, find my apparatus." Once it finds the thermostat, Alexa is then able to control and provide information related to the thermostat.
For example, Alexa can report a current room's temperature by asking, "Alexa, what's the temperature in the home?", or exactly what the target temperature in the home is by asking, "Alexa, what temperature is my [thermostat name] place too?" Alexa can also set the warmth of a Nest Thermostat by saying,"Alexa, set the [thermostat name] temperature to _____ degrees."
Google Assistant
To control a Nest Thermostat with Google Assistant, launch the Google Assistant app on a mobile device, access the setting panel, then tap Assistant > Home control. From the"Devices" tab, tap"Insert devices". Harness the sort of device that you need to connect, and then follow the steps.
After the pairing is complete, tap Done. For pairing a Nest Thermostat to Google Assistant via a speaker, like the Google Home, the consumer will need to use the Google Home program.
Once paired, a user may command the Nest Thermostat by stating,"Ok Google, place the heat to 70". Google Assistant also can report the temperature by inquiring, "Hey Google, what is the temperature inside?"
Energy-Saving Habits
While the Nest Thermostat has lots of connected attributes that allow for easy fine-tuning and control of house temperature while at on-the-go and at home, addition, it supplies intuitive diagrams and cues to encourage energy-saving customs.
For example, if a person adjusts their temperature to high or low (based on the time of year and the outside temperature), they're rewarded with a leaf icon at the bottom of the screen, signifying the selected temperature is saving them money. Over time, Nest is hopeful that consumers opt for these high-tech settings more often, which works to reduce overall power-grid usage and save money.
Another illustration is by way of this Nest Thermostat Energy History report, which is available on the thermostat and throughout the program, detailing to day-to-day, basis when users utilize more energy, and when they are energy efficient. These reports are then combined to make a monthly Home Report, which shows the exact same info on a more macro scale, such as energy utilization on weekends vs. weekdays, etc..
Much like using funding helps to minimize unnecessary spending having ready access to daily and yearly reports on energy usage subconsciously encourages users to make better decisions in regards to their heating and cooling system.
Why the Nest Thermostat is Worth the Money
Nest claims that its subtle, habit-changing features, when coupled with its intelligent learning over time, lead to an average energy savings of $131-145 per year. This implies that by simply using the Nest Thermostat as planned, it is going to pay for itself in less than two years. However, when factoring in relatively common discounts on the Nest Thermostats and rebates provided by many power companies, the return on investment delta may happen even faster.
To illustrate, the average cost of the Nest Thermostat on Amazon as of this writing is between $205 and $220, depending on color, seller, etc.. Assuming you live in Tempe, Arizona, or another place where the power supplier offers Rush Hour Rewards, you can expect to receive a $75 rebate plus a $25 bill credit in the first year. Combined with the average energy savings of ~$140 per year, your total net cost after one year may be as low as $35. You made $35 by buying the Nest Thermostat!
Conclusion
The connected thermostat marketplace is, admittedly, a crowded market in 2018. But after seven years, the Nest Thermostat continues to be the clear market leader because of its simplicity, strong controllers, house integration and partnerships with local utilities, and artificial intelligence that makes energy-saving habits a breeze (pun intended). Having used a Nest Thermostat for years, I wholeheartedly recommend this purchase. And, in case your regional utility provider provides rebates and discounts such as the one highlighted above, it's a no-brainer.
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