this has nothing to do with meh
0the folks here seem fairly technomologically savvy. i mean, i'd trust just about any one of you folks to make my VCR stop flashing "12:00".
anyone here ever use a NEST thermostat? just curious what experience people have had with them.
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I've got 'em, but we ended up turning off the learning feature. It was too annoying for it to ever be wrong.
But being able to adjust stuff on your phone (especially if you go out of town and forget to turn it off, but also just if you're in bed and lazy) is super handy.
excellent. (because i can be super lazy)
I think @shawn @luke and @dave are Nesties. They've had some recent frustration with the fire alarm product but I believe are pleased with the UI of the Nest.
No experience here. The concept of allowing it to learn patterns to help it reduce my usage without ever infringing on my comfort is not believable at all by me. If they make one that interacts with motion detection or other home automation then I'd be interested.
ok, well there you go - see @dave's comment above - I typed too slow.
Apparently it collects data all the time and sends it back to Nest (owned by Google) servers. There's no easy way to turn off or undo this "feature" without hacking the device, which of course voids the warranty. I'm far from a Google hater, but that's just too creepy for me, and I personally wouldn't buy one.
Google has no boundaries, do they. For all we know there's a tiny microphone and camera in the Nest. Walk by it naked at your own risk.
THOSE NSA BASTARDS KNOW MY HOUSE IS A COMFY 77 DEGREES
Or at your own excitement (⚆ ͜ʖ⚆)
I love mine! Auto away saves me the most because my family’s schedule is anything but regular; downside of auto away is remembering to end it when you’re heading home. On the lazy side of things it is great to adjust it from bed. I’ve taken a liking to turning just the fan on for a set time when I go to bed to drown out other sounds in the house. We added a hot tub at the same time as the nest and have never seen a notable increase in the bill. Other great feature is you can lock the extremes out; my wife no longer spins it up to ninety degrees.
interesting about the lock out. my wife routinely cranks it up in the winter to get it warm faster. the problem is, she forgets she did it.
my husband does this with the AC... turns it down to 65 to cool off fast and then forgets about it
@katylava that's a good temperature for it to be.
My dad and I were both planning to buy a bunch of Nests for our respective homes and to give as super cool eco-friendly gifts to friends and relatives for weddings/birthdays/etc. That same week the Google announcement was made, and we decided to wait and see... So far we are not impressed with the direction the company has taken them.
Now I'm far more curious about the Honeywell Lyric... however I need more info as to where (if) my data is going and if I can disable that. I do love the Geofencing option they are promoting - I use that for my home alarm system, where my video cameras engage automatically when I leave the house with my iPhone.
-=C=-
did anybody read the word 'engage' and everything after it in Picard's voice? or am i just the lone weirdo?
http://thepicardsong.ytmnd.com/
the Nest arrived today. gotta say, the install was as easy as it claims in their video. unfortunately, it's summer, so i won't actually be using it at all until winter hits and i need the furnace. (note: it was free so i didn't just blow $250 for no particular reason)
How did you get a free Nest?
@curtise - by checking this from time to time and signing up when open: https://nestbeta.centercode.com/signup/
Yeah, main annoyance for me in install is need to repaint where the old thermostat was.
Cool. I'm guessing if you're in their beta testing thing, you kind of have to give them all your info and let them track everything.
pretty much. but, i don't really care if they know my energy usage habits.
I have had a Nest 2.0 installed since Feb 2013 and have been really happy with it. The quick summary: really happy with it; install is very easy to do on your own.
Wasn't wild about the $250 price tag, but I had a bunch of gift cards at a big box store to pay that down.
Of note: I only have a boiler heating system in my old, old, old house so I can't comment on the A/C experience. Also, my energy provider does not offer rebates on it or participating in the Rush Hour program. (check your provider to see if it does)
Like @dave mentioned, I also turned off the learning feature since it was sometimes too aggressive in turning off the heat in the winter. It does pick up your motion to see when someone is home so have it in a place that does get traffic through the day. I created a schedule for each day of the week with a lot of changes through the day to make up for it not being a learning computer [/Arnold quote]. The interface is really simple to do that online or the device. The schedule really keeps me from forgetting to turn it down overnight or when I leave for work.
My favorite thing is being to turn up/down the heat on my way to/from home when I’m not sticking to the schedule. Also being able to see what temperature it is in the home while you’re away is handy. You do get a report each month detailing how much your system was on heating or cooling which is helpful if you want to track those metrics.
I’d be curious how the Nest thermostat works with the Protect devices now, but I haven’t been persuaded to fork over my money for that yet. Unless Meh finds a way to offer me those…
I haven’t noticed things being different since Google purchased Nest Labs. I wonder if Google really just bought the ability to track people’s energy habits. The energy consumption could be really valuable information in the future when our energy supply is actually in a crisis and not some manufactured one. I’ll get off my soapbox now…