Nest is proud to present the next generation in environmental control. Recently purchased by Google, Nest is quickly becoming the industry leader in home automation. This thermostat is the core product offering (and best seller) right now.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is the natural progression to simplifying your home management. No more need to muss and fuss with complicated procedures to heat and cool your home.
Working perfectly with your homes existing system, The Nest Learning Thermostat adapts to your lifestyle, with a stylish and sleek design. The software follows in step with the sleek look, and takes the home climate control to the next level.
This is most easily shown with the connectivity to mobile devises for mobile management. In this article, we’ll break down the Hardware and Software components in this comprehensive Nest Learning thermostat review.
Hardware
The Nest Learning Thermostat is as simple to install as it can get. It can work the old 3 wire thermostat wiring and the complicated 12 lead wire set ups. In fact, it can work with over 95% of the systems out there.
With a perfectly organized wiring guide and fastening plate built into the wall mount, you won’t have to sweet over the installation. The easy grip system for holding the wires connected ensures a secure hold on the wires, and allows easy organization.
No more jumper wires, and cluster balls of wires to deal with. All you have to do is match the wires to their proper position and fasten them in place with a single release of a button.
When the wires are in and clean, all you have to do is snap on the display. You can even order a custom installation guide for your convenience.
After the hard ware is installed, the software has a self guided start up. It will automatically prompt you for the information it needs to get the nest working properly.
No need to go through burdensome and confusing programming guides. With as little as 7 days of experience, The Nest will begin to manage your environment in an energy efficient, convenient and comfortable way.
Sleek and stylish, that matches your style no mater what it is. The finish on the nest is reflective metallic and reflects the wall that it is mounted on.
So whether you’re going for a simple white wall feel, or a tie-dye explosion or maybe an elegant dark color fusion or a homey and cozy wood paneling, Nest adapts to your walls, and blends almost seamlessly into your home decor.
Another great feature that the Nest provides are “extra large” mounting boards which will ensure that here are no ugly holes to contend with once you make the upgrade. If you have a unique wall color, and are worried about residual holes, Nest has you covered.
Software
The Nest Sense is the unique brain behind the beautiful body of this devise. The software is as unique and impressive as the hardware looks.
Only where the hardware is designed to fit the style of your home, the software intends to learn from your home experience to provide a lower cost home environmental control.
The first very unique piece of software is the Auto Scheduling. It actually learns from your activities what temperature to keep your home at and when to keep it at that temperature. It’s as simple as giving it minor input when ever it isn’t too your liking.
It will store that information and learn from it. After about a week it will create a schedule. That schedule will continue to learn and adapt and eventually even predict your needs.
After approximately a year, you Nest will have a full profile, which will require almost no adaptation or input from you.
Auto Away is another impressive concept. Nest senses when you have left the house and doesn’t needlessly heat or cool an empty home. This feature alone saves a large amount of money. Also, this information is added to the Auto Scheduling and further customizes your climate control.
Something that never before has been possible is called a time to temp feature. Before when you turned on the heating or cooling you had to guess and hope that it won’t be too long. Now, when you turn on the heat or cool, or if the auto schedule turns it on for you, then you know how long till the temp is perfect.
Air wave is another energy saving tool, which keeps the fan on, after the heater or AC already turned off.
This might sound counter intuitive, but it makes sure that the flow of air is present in your home, allowing the distribution of warmth or cool evenly. This means that all of your home will be exactly how you want them.
If your thermostat is positioned where direct sun light hits it, the Nest adapts to that as well. It adjusts the sensors to make sure it doesn’t needlessly run the heater or cooler.
Cool to Dry is a tool that was inspired by the humble defogger of your car. To prevent fogging of your windows, the AC is used to dehumidify your car and ensure the visibility of your home.
That same principle applies here with your heater acting as a dehumidifier. This is especially helpful during the winter months when the outside is colder then the inside and there is condensation around exposed walls and windows.
Because Nest is a WiFi devise, it can be accessed by the mobile apps and ensures that you can always have the ability to change the environment in your home in advance of you coming home.
This also comes in handy to make sure you did turn off the heater or AC before you left on that vacation. The Nest is accessible from any point in the world, provided you have internet in that corner.
The final innovation is the leaf. It’s your personal money saver. It monitors all the function of your environment control and makes sure that they run efficiently.
This provides a reduced foot print of your home, both in the ozone and in your wallet. With time, this feature pays for the thermostats initial expense.
Pros of the Nest
The Nest answers all the needs for a smart way to control the environment in your home. It is adaptive and can be used with virtually any system out there.
There isn’t a long wait for the pay off to begin and with time, it will actually be paying money into your assets in the form of savings. It can easily be installed and does not require a great degree of skill to operate.
The Nest is also backed/owned by Google, meaning it has some of the best resources/minds actively working on improving it and invested in its success. Overall, its a very solid product, that provides for all the needs of home environment control.
Cons of the Nest
The initial cost is some what more expensive then a simpler model. It does have some reduction in features, though in fairness those features are replaced by a better feature. The only major draw back is the need for an internet connection.
As with everything that has an IP address, the Nest is “hackable” to one degree or another, even though the degree of damage some one can do by learning what your home temperature is set to would be minimal. This isn’t a specific “con” for the Nest, but just a word of warning in general.
Wireless Thermostat Product comparison
We have chosen to show you a side by side of features so that we can demonstrate how the Nest compares. Check it out below:
| The Nest | Ecobee3 | Venstar T580 | Honeywell touchscreen 7 day programmable | |
| Price | $$ | $$$ | $$$ | $ |
| Body | Stainless Steel | Plastic | Plastic | Plastic |
| Type of program | Full automation, self learning | Programmable by cycles | Programmable by cycles | Programmable by days |
| Display | Color | Color | Color | Green scale |
| Controls | Turn dial + app | Touch screen | Touch screen | Touch screen |
| Internet? | Full control through app and for sensor information | Full control through app. Allows forecast and weather information streaming | Full control through app | No access |
For detailed specific head-to-head analysis, you can see the following product comparisons below:
- Ecobee vs Nest: Read the comparison here
- Honeywell Lyric vs Nest: Read the full analysis here
UPDATE: Nest recently released their 3rd Generation device. While much was expected, there weren’t a whole lot of ground-breaking improvements. The screen features an updated interface with a slightly better resolution and display size. For me, the size really wasn’t an issue to begin with.
The biggest improvement was the introduction of the FarSight technology. This essentially extends the range of the Nest to detect human activity at long range.
In practice, this is is only marginally beneficial. If you are about 20 feet away, the Nest can now detect you and show you relevant information (depending on your settings).
This is helpful – for example – if you want to check the Nest at a glance without having to go up and touch it. It’s definitely a small convenience boost, but not a game-changer overall.
Otherwise, the only side benefit is that the Nest Gen 2 is now on sale. The generation 3 retails for a decent price here (where the 2nd Gen used to be).
Conclusion: Is it Worth It
The short answer? Absolutely. With the ease of installing and operating the Nest Learning Thermostats, it really is a step forward in automation of the home.
With the true simplification of your life, this smart technology is a must for future homes and home improvement upgrades. It’s also one of the market leaders, at the forefront of pushing the smart thermostat industry forward. It’s basically the bar to which other smart thermostats are judged.
Further read, Nest Learning Thermostat vs. Honeywell 9000: Which is Best?
Leave a Reply