Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 387 Comments

How To Install A Nest Learning Thermostat

Everywhere we turn these days there are things that need updating. Some just for aesthetic reasons. Some for functional. Some for both.

DSC 7435

Enter our old timey, first floor thermostat in our office. We figured with our new furnace system it’d be a good time to update this to something more energy efficient.

Nest 2 Old School

We made the swap to a programmable thermostat in our first house, so this time around the tech geek in me begged Sherry to let us take this upgrade a step further – especially since so many of you have commented about loving your Nest. To my surprise, she agreed. And that’s how I found myself holding one of these babies.

Nest 3 New School

But let me back up for a second. Nest is a “learning thermostat” that keeps a record of your habits (when you turn the heat or AC up, when you’re home or away, etc) and creates and adjusts a schedule for you. Meaning it can be even more intuitive than a typical programmable thermostat – and therefor can save you more money. It can even sense when you’re home (and turn itself down if you’re not). It was designed by people who helped make the iPhone, so it has a bunch of other cool features I’ll get into later. I’ve wanted one since they came out in 2010, but they’ve been priced fairly high. But with the recent release of their 2nd generation thermostat, prices on the 1st generation dropped…

In fact they dropped so much that I had trouble finding them. I finally found some across town at a Lowe’s about 30 minutes away. So I ran over there with a change of address coupon that we received after we moved.

Nest 5 Coupon

We decided to buy two Nests since we have two systems (one upstairs and one downstairs). So with the reduced sale price, the additional $25 off from my coupon, and the 5% discount that I got for using my Lowe’s credit card (which the cashier was happy to give me despite it not working initially with the coupon) it took our price per unit down to $158. Still a lot for a thermostat, but considering the new ones are $249 it was a we-saved-$180-on-two-of-them victory. And the fact that our downstairs furnace was replaced by our home warranty helped us rationalize spending $300 after we saved around $5,000 on the new furnace.

Update: First generation Nests are now marked down on Amazon, so here’s an affiliate link to the same one we bought for anyone interested. 

As for the installation, I’ll admit it had me a little worried. I’d heard that it’s not compatible with all HVAC systems (and our upstairs unit is pretty old) and generally I worried about breaking this expensive little thermom-o-robot in the process.

Nest 6 Inside Box

I started downstairs. The first step was removing the old unit, which was pretty straight forward. First I pulled off the face. Then (with the power turned off at the breaker!) I unscrewed the inner plate so I could reveal all the wiring behind it. Nest kind of thought of everything, so they even included a small screwdriver that made this easier. (PS: Nest isn’t paying me to gush – they don’t even know we bought these – I’m just kind of in love with this thing).

Nest 8 Small Screwdriver

Here’s the inside of our unit. It looks kind of like you’re about to defuse a bomb. But following the installation instructions eliminated just about any fear that this project was going to blow up in my face.

Nest 9 Wires

In addition to a handy installation video, they have this cool “Compatibility Check” online that helps guide you through how your wiring works (or doesn’t work) with Nest. Admittedly, I probably should’ve done this before I took so much trouble to buy the darn things…

Nest Look At Your Wires

But good news. We were compatible. And not only that, the instructions included a personalized guide for how I should connect my wires to the Nest unit. Seriously. If only all instruction manuals were this easy.

Nest Youre Compatible

Also filed under “thought of everything:” the paper manual that came in the box included these wire labels so you wouldn’t risk confusing which red wire went where once everything was removed from the old unit. I didn’t use them since mine were so straight forward, but this still earned points in my tech-nerd handbook.

Nest 12 Wire Labels

I detached all of my wires and then removed the last bit of the old unit from the wall.

Nest 13 Removing Old Box

Then I just slid the Nest base back in its place.

Nest 14 Adding Nest

I was also crazy for the fact that there was a tiny little level built into the base so you could be sure it was hanging straight on your wall. Genius.

Nest 15 Built In Level

Then, based on my personalized wiring guide, I just popped my wires back in place using the little tabs. Super easy.

Nest 16 No Screws

For the grand finale, I snapped the face into place and…

Nest 17 Snap Into Place

…turned the power back on. There were a few set-up steps to get Nest going, like telling it what type of heating we had and connecting it to our wi-fi. This was perhaps my only gripe with the whole thing – entering in a long alphanumeric password was a bit tedious. #firstworldproblems

Nest 19 Entering Password

The wi-fi is cool because it allows me to access our thermostats from my phone. Nest always touts this as a feature to use when you’re traveling so I didn’t think I’d find much use for it. But on the first night I found myself turning the AC up from bed because it was too hot in our bedroom. Yup. Felt like I was sleeping in my fancypants.

Nest 20 IPhone

It says it takes a couple of weeks to learn your schedule, so we’ve yet to experience the beauty of that. But I’m especially grateful to have it in this house because we’re already finding that temperatures fluctuate a lot in here thanks to the intense afternoon sun we get. Hope you catch on quick, Nest-dog.

Nest 21 Pretty Vignette

Oh, and part of me worried I’d regret not spending the extra dough to the 2nd generation version, but besides working with more HVAC systems (which isn’t an issue for us, luckily) the differences are apparently mostly cosmetic. The newer version is a little slimmer, doesn’t have the small grill at the bottom, and has a shinier side so it better reflects your wall color. Those all sound like nice-to-haves, but not worth the extra $180. So personally I’m glad we got the units we did. Perhaps I’ll bite my tongue when they release the 3rd generation that babysits your kids and folds your laundry too.

Nest 22 From Side

Oh, and before I end this lovefest (lovenest?) I have to share one more anecdote about installing it upstairs, where we had a less ancient thermostat already in place on the wall. I expected it to be the easier install, but when I went through the compatibility check I got this alert. Ruh roh. .

Nest 24 Call Us

But I followed instructions and in like five minutes I was already getting off of the phone with a Nest representative who had looked at the photo I emailed and described how I should hook up my wires. Brilliant.

So I think overall it took me less than an hour to install both units – which is a miracle for any project where I’m also stopping to take blog photos. I couldn’t be happier.

Nest 24 Upstairs

Well, I could be a smidge happier I guess. Apparently a lot of localities offer rebates to reward Nest owners for making an energy efficient choice (Nest has a list of them here). Our area isn’t doing that yet, so after a few phone calls to our electric company and gas company I struck out at getting any sort of money back. Oh well, at least I’ll get a tiny write off for donating our old units to Habitat for Humanity (along with actually saving money by heating/cooling the house more efficiently).

Nest 25 ReStore

Anyone else out there have a Nest? Got any tips for me? Or has anyone else made a tech-y upgrade lately? Wait, maybe forget that last question. Sherry probably doesn’t want you guys giving me any more ideas…

Comments

  1. Jennifer A says

    Welcome to the world of Nest! We have had one for about 18 months and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I esp. love it when I am headed home from work at an odd time, and can turn the heat/air on from the road and know when I get home the house will be a comfortable temperature! We actually tried the “learning” process, but in the end programmed in a schedule and then deviated from that – Esp. for the night time when it would randomly kick on and we ended up sweating in the middle of the night! good luck!

    Reply

    • Teri says

      Pretty much a beta for Nest…we were one of the first after my husband read about them in his other Bible (WSJ). Use it at home and in our cabin–love them, and you will, too!

  2. Natalie C says

    We love our Nest. Just don’t be afraid to play with it! Though it “learns” there are still several setting you can utilize to either maximize comfort OR maximize your “green-ness.” Is green-ness a word?

    Reply

  4. Janelle @ Two Cups of Happy says

    Modern technology blows my mind on a regular basis! We are renting right now, so wiring isn’t really in the cards. Although, maybe the light switch remote you did in your old bedroom would be worth it… My man is notorious for hopping into bed without turning the light off! Do you think he would be insulted if it was his Christmas present? Haha.

    Reply

    • Liz says

      Haha, that is too funny….. Men!

      There’s just some things that my hubby does too that make me go ‘hmmm.’

      Example…. (Sorry John, this one’s for Sherry.)

      Lastnight, when hubby went into the City (next to our Town) I told him to go to Walmart and look for headphones for my oldest son for when he’s online playing (PS3). When he came home he said he didn’t go because, ….. wait for it…. he thought I’d be best if our son went with him to make sure he gets the ones that fit his head, wait! What, Really?

      My hubby should have just said…’you know hun, I took longer then expected at friends house, so therefore I didn’t feel like going to Walmart.’ — Yes, that’s exactly what I thought in my head when he was telling me his version.

      See, things that make me go ‘hmmm.’

      LOL ;)

      P.S. John, us wifies do really love our hubbys.

  5. Dani says

    I absolutely love our Nests. The very best part for me is the email they send you to tell you how you did on energy savings that month. They compare you to other people with similar weather and what not, so you can feel like a smarty-pants-I’m-so-green-I’m-glowing homeowner when you come up in the top 5% :)

    Reply

  6. Katie says

    How fancy! I like that you guys are tackling some of the more difficult, ‘technical’ DIYs lately–things most people might be nervous to attempt. I hope you’ll keep us updated on what your Nest learns about you!

    -Katie at AdventuringAtHome

    Reply

    • Rachel says

      I agree!! I love how you guys make things that I thought were super-duper-scary sound not scary at all! :)

  7. Amy says

    It sounds cool to me and I am not super techy! But who wouldn’t want to be able to turn on the heat by phone when away……..when it’s Fall and suddenly chilly! Great post!

    Reply

  8. Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says

    Our thermostat is set to 68 degrees 24/7 365 days a year, so there’d be nothing to learn at our house. We also know how to program our dumpy Honeywell in case we’re traveling. We’ll leave the fancy ferrari thermostats to everyone else!

    Reply

    • Sarah says

      I could’ve written your post a month ago. Then I caved to my husband wanting a nest (we had a $25 coupon that eased the cost a bit) and I must tell you it is wonderful. It learns your habits and programs accordingly – it even has a motion detector feature if you want so if it doesn’t detect movement for a period of time it automatically go into “away” mode. Anyway. What it comes down to for me is comfort – it adjusts temperature according to humidity level! and energy savings – I’ve never been so excited for a power bill.

    • Jeanne says

      Do you have AC? 68 in the summer is too cool – put that temperature up and save yourself some money.

    • Kitty A. says

      I think I would waste a lot of money doing 68 all year. I tend to do heat around 64 daytime and 58 at night. AC is more like 76 during the day and 74 at night. I heed to look into one of these!

    • Nicole says

      there is someone here @ my house all the time. my husband works nights & he’s here sleeping during the day, my kids & I are here during the evening. I don’t thnk that he or my dogs would like it if it went off during the day while there was no movement. I’m w/ you, there’s nothing to learn here.

    • Christy says

      Seriously? That’s just wasteful. You must have money to burn if you can’t adjust to 65 in the winter and 70 in the summer. If you would let your Nest auto-adjust to when you are away (not just traveling, but even just running errands) and overnight, you would have the $200 paid for in no time. Then again, this is coming from someone whose Nest helped us save $400 last year – and both my husband and I work from home.

  9. CaseyAtterbury says

    We absolutely LOVE our Nest! Its like a little game to us to check our energy usage on the app! We LOVE the days that we show ‘no usage!’

    Reply

  10. Cait says

    Wait til I show my hubby this post…he already loves the Nest and can’t wait to get one. Fellow tech-guy!

    Reply

  11. Allie W says

    We love our Nest too! We’ve had ours for about 18 months as well. One of my favorite features is the monthly updates that you receive from Nest. They let you know how your usage compares to the rest of the country (how many leaves you saved), and then tell you why you saved as many as you did. Could be because of the weather, more hours spent on auto away, etc. It’s great for helping you learn how to save more energy. We probably have saved 10-30% off our monthly bills since switching over!

    Reply

  12. Kim says

    So jealous! I’ve been in love with the nest since I first heard about them. I thought my tech loving hubby would love it too, but he thinks it’s just a silly more expensive programmable thermostat. I’ve tried telling him its much more than that.
    Please give us an update in a few months, once you’ve lived with it and its adjusted to your preferences.

    Reply

  13. Lulu says

    It gets a bit tiring reading your continual justifications for why you spent money on something, or how you only bought it because it was such a good deal. I would much rather read about spending more on something good quality and future proof.

    Reply

    • Sue says

      As someone who hates to pay full price for anything, I’m interested in hearing about the deals. It also sounds like this thermostat is good quality and will last long into the future. Hope you have a better day, Lulu!

    • Angel says

      I love reading about deals and coupons! I am at a point in my life right now (like many people) that I can typically only buy something “quality” if I scout out a good deal. Thanks for posting J&S, I hope there is more!

    • Peggy says

      To each his own, Lulu. Maybe you have more money than others and if you choose to spend for quality…good for you. Doesn’t sound to me like YHL takes the cheap way out. They find quality at bargain prices. Yeah for them. And if you are tired of reading the blog, I say pick and choose.

    • Liz says

      Sometimes help from others like this couple have helped others get amazing deals on items.

      Sometimes it helps to know some of those people too!

      You’d be surprised how much you save by avoiding the retail stores and going directly to the dealers that sell off to those stores (I actually feel sick to my tummy on certain big ticketed items. I’m talking $25,000.00 plus.)…. But, again, that’s when ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’ comes into play.

      Sometimes it just doesn’t hurt a bit to sit and listen or read (in this case) so we too can get an awesome deal.

    • Ammie says

      If there is one thing I’ve learned from YHL, it’s that you should save your pennies and invest in things that are good quality and things that are going to last.

      BTW Lulu, nobody is forcing you to read…close the browser if you don’t like it, unless of course that’s a bit tiring.

    • Lisa says

      I agree with Sue… I hate paying full price for something and I love hearing how as true DIY-ers, you get something done for less. It’s helpful to know your budget breakdown and how you were able to make it work for you. Also, we’re hoping to buy out first home soon, so it’s really helpful for me to read all about the money bleed that happens when you first buy a home.

      As I read this post, I thought again about why I tune in every day- witty writing, helpful and informational, savvy design that is real and accessible. Love me some YHL!!!!

    • Dee says

      I feel I have actually learned the very thing that Lulu is talking about from Sherry & John. Sometimes it’s worth it to spend more on quality or on something that’s important to you.

    • Mandolyn says

      Lulu, if you’d rather read something else, then go somewhere else.

      YHL, I LOVED today’s post. Thanks for all your time and effort to share your experiences with others (like myself) making similar decisions with their homes.

    • Sarah says

      I too am willing to pay full price for something really worth it, but I feel like you guys share when you make those kinds of decisions as well! I love when you post about the deals you get because it reminds me to check for coupons before I hit the store!! Even 5% off on something that is $200 is $10–that’s a frozen yogurt treat for our family of 3!

    • Jess @ Crunchy Hot Mama says

      Wow! Really? Like the others said, go elsewhere if this isn’t your cup of tea. While I miss more of the decorating/kid project posts, I realize this is where they are in their lives. I understand their focus is getting the new house how they want it, which involves updating things that may have nothing to do with me. That said, I do love the way they ‘save their pennies’ and do splurging the smart way.

      Don’t stress over comments like these…you’re obviously doing something right ;)

    • Donita says

      Loved this post and love your blog. THANK YOU, for sharing how you get quality products for great buys. J & S, you rock!!!

    • Liv says

      Except for the fact that it’s not a ‘DIY diary’, it’s a full time job for two people. Normal people don’t go through houses like they’re underwear and have an endless cycle of pillows and knick knacks to move around rooms.

      Normal people also don’t complain about spending huge amounts of money when other people have paid for most of it (roof, furnace, etc).

    • Hillary says

      I agree on this one. I like hearing about what you paid for a project and what deals/coupons you used, but this time (in addition to those things) I got a defensive vibe, like you were justifying the expense to us readers. No need to justify! If you want or need new thermostats, get them at whatever price works for you. The Nests seem really perfect for your situation. Looking forward to an update after you’ve lived with them a while.

    • Kristin says

      I so appreciate these tips and the fact that you are money conscious just like me! Love every single thing about your blog, YHL!!

    • Ryan says

      Lulu, nobody is forcing you to read the blog. Also, not only is Nest “something good quality” it is also quite “future proof.”

      Excerpt from article linked below: the Nest team recognizes that thermostats are not an item that people frequently replace and they continue to make all software updates work on all generations of the thermostat. This “future-proof” methodology helps early adopters avoid the buyer’s remorse that frequently plagues the technophiles. It also means that if your system is compatible with the first generation, there is no reason not to save the $50 or so dollars.

      http://www.gizmoguide.net/the-nest-learning-thermostat/

  14. Riki says

    SO JEALOUS.

    I have wanted a Nest forever but alas, it is not compatible with our system. I almost cried when I realized this (first world problems, I know). We even already have a programmable thermostat but the Nest is just so darn slick.

    Reply

  17. Liz says

    Love it!

    We don’t have one, but I love all the techy stuff too! (Shhhh…..)

    I do have a question thou. What did you mean by, “Oh well, at least I’ll get a tiny write off for donating our old units to Habitat for Humanity”?

    I’m in Ontario, Canada so… don’t know if that would make a difference. I know we do have Habitat for Humanity, in the surrounding Cities around me, but never knew of a write off?

    Maybe a stupid question, or, maybe I’m making myself sound silly. :( (Yes, a sad face for being silly headed.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’m not sure how it works in Canada, but here if you donate things, you get a small write-off on your taxes for those charitable donations – so we just try to keep track of them so we can get credit for all the little drop-offs that we do throughout the year!

      xo
      s

    • Lesley says

      And the answer is…. (I was wondering the exact same thing when I saw the comment)

      Does a personal donation to my ReStore quality for a charitable tax receipt?
      Yes. Making a personal donation to any ReStore may earn the donor a charitable tax receipt. The amount of the tax receipt is dependent on how much the ReStore is able to sell the item for.
      http://www.habitat.ca/en/community/restores

    • rachael says

      Liz, we live in Ontario, as well and I’ve never heard of getting to write off donations in the form of items. Like, if you bring stuff to the Goodwill you don’t get a receipt for it, right? Maybe Habitat for Humanity is different, but I always thought it was a monetary donation for more than $20.00

    • Liz says

      Lesley, Thank you for the link.

      Rachael, Look up the link that Lesley posted. They are currently looking for donations in the Ontario area…. I think I’m gonna be sick to my tummy. I just donated a whole whack of stuff to the Salvation Army, that’s listed on that website.

      They have two locations in London, will have to go and check them out….YAY!!!

  18. Catherine says

    I love the geeky/neediness of it all!!! This is me & my partner all over, except I’m the geek/nerd in our relationship (to the point where he bought me an iPhone a few years ago “to stop me drooling over the ads on tv”!!! I’ve just bought him a snazzy Nokia C2-01 for his birthday to replace his 10 year old phone that he could only take calls on using the speaker. It’s been that way for 6 months. I finally got tired of hearing _all_ his phone calls…)

    Reply

  19. Sarah says

    We’ve had our Nest in our 1 bedroom apartment for just over a year now and its lovely! Its great to be able to adjust the AC/heat from our bed in the middle of the night. I also like to see how many hours it ran each day and what time of day it ran. It even tells you who made the adjustments. I was a bit skeptical when hubby first brought it up because “could it really save us that much? we are just in an apartment.” I honestly couldn’t tell you if we saved a dime but I can tell you, this will be one thing we do take to our new place.

    Reply

  20. heather says

    My buddies have one and love it. While we don’t have any kind of furnace, if we did I would totally want one of those. I asked Andy once if we could get one to put on the wall just so I could have one. It was nixed for obvious reasons haha.

    Reply

    • heather says

      If the “we don’t have a furnace” is confusing to anyone, we removed the giant old oil tank that was in our basement, and never replaced it with another more efficient furnace. We primarily (99.9% of the time) heat with a wood stove (we do have a monitor heater as it’s required to have a backup heating system for insurance, but we don’t use it really).

  21. Rachel says

    Yay! You will LOVE the Nest, we couldn’t be happier with ours! The townhouse we rent had an older, non-programmable thermostat, so we just switched it out for the Nest, packed it away, and we’ll switch it back when we move. My husband is especially obsessed with the little graphs on the phone app that show you when the unit kicked on and off each day, and I love the fact that after it learns your schedule it starts to kick on 30 minutes before you get home, so it can welcome you home after a long day at work with just the right temperature. So thoughtful :)

    Reply

  23. gemma@thesweetestdigs says

    My hubby has been wanting one of these for the last little while, too! I think when we do our big extension/reno (hopefully next spring), we’ll do the switch over. Oh boys and their gadgets! :)

    Reply

  25. Christina says

    Love our Nest! The only issue we had was when we went to kick on the air this summer and for some reason we had to do a little wiring switch – but tech support was awesome! The email energy updates are great and love the fact that we can bump up the heat after being away and the house is nice and toasty when we get home.

    Reply

  26. Kari says

    I thought the Nest was another gadget my husband didn’t need. Man, was I wrong! I don’t even remember the last time I actually walked over to it to change the temp. I love it!

    Reply

  27. bridget b. says

    neat. thanks for breaking down the installation steps. maybe you can give an update after you’ve had it in for a while to convince the rest of us late adopters. :)

    Reply

  28. Liz says

    Wow, the Nest thermostat is so cool! I was at HD on the weekend and I saw the Nest thermostat there for $250 (Canadian dollars), so you guys got a great price on the first gen unit.

    My condo currently has electric baseboard heating (very expensive), and runs on an old Honeywell turn dial switch that literally reads “5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30” – so ancient!

    Do you think you’ll do an updated post in the next couple months to let us know if you’re still liking it? :)

    Reply

    • Kat says

      I’d love to hear an update on the Nest now that it’s cold… I’ve heard mixed reviews and I’ve been wondering how it handles people with unpredictable schedules.
      Thanks!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We LOVE it! It’s awesome to turn it up from bed if we’re cold or turn it to away mode if we’ve left the house (it does that automatically, but it’s nice to be sure). We’re addicted to seeing how much energy/money we’ve saved each month compared to average users. It’s a weird little obsession for us. Haha!

      xo
      s

  29. Dawn says

    Wish I could get one in my townhouse, but we rent! It would be so great to not have to run downstairs to change the temps. Maybe someday…lol. Congrats though, looks like fun :)

    Reply

  31. Laurel says

    Dying to know how these work out for you guys! We recently upgraded our heating and AC systems and decided to go with a Honeywell Pro8000 wifi after hearing not so great things about the Nest from our home performance contractor. He told us if you are not moving around the room, the motion sensor does not activate and it has a tendency to go to a set back mode on the temps because it thinks you are gone, so most people end up turning that feature off. The pro 8000 has the same wifi capability with a phone app and has a 5 year warranty vs 2 years for the Nest. The Honeywells have been great so far, but we still love the Nest purely for aesthetic reasons. Design is important! Enjoy the new thermostats–it’s pretty awesome to be able to adjust the temps from your bed ; )

    Reply

    • Kim B says

      We also have the Honeywell Thermostat and are thrilled with it. So nice to turn heat/ac up or down with our phones or ipad. While vacationing in Jamaica last year we adjusted the heat for our daughter who was coming to stay at our house while we were gone. Our Honeywell also has an outdoor temp sensor which we love.

    • Tamara says

      I’m not sure that it’s as bad as he made out. I sounds like he’s referring to the “auto away” feature. The Nest has sensors that are supposed to have a pretty wide field of view. According to the web site it’s 150 degree field of view and auto away should work for 90% of houses. I think Nest also adjusts the time before auto away kicks in based on the regularity of your schedule and probably how many times you manually turn auto away off. Once it learns, it could be up to two hours of inactivity before it kicks into away mode.

      For the most part, it’s worked for us, though there have been a few false triggers. I work from home, and if I work downstairs at the desk, it is around the corner from the Nest, so if I don’t get up to go to the bathroom or something, it won’t see me. It will depend on where your Nests are.

      Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I wonder if your contractor may be hearing more from the people where it doesn’t work, as opposed to the ones where it does, squeaky wheel and all that.

  32. Susan says

    Those are so cool, I’m sure my hubby will want one someday! He actually does heating and cooling so we have radiant floor heat in our house and a commercial system in our basement to control it. We may have to switch to something like Nest when we are ready to sell so that the next owners can actually run the system…..lol! The only thing I was going to say is to be careful putting a thermostat right above a lamp, that is something he always tells people. I’m not sure where you guys live but we live in upstate NY, and his mom did the same thing, so the heat from the lamp made the thermostat think the living room was warmer than it was, making the rest of the house very cold. Also in turn in the summer, it can make your AC run more than it needs to. However, my mother in law, has still not moved the lamp! :)

    Reply

    • Kim says

      Yup we have actually had this happen with a lamp! We actually did not even realize at first the heating system was not functioning in a mountain house in the dead of winter because when we turned the heat up the temp went up…the light was on. It took about ten minutes to finally realize the whole house was not warming!

  33. Jessica says

    I am so glad you included information about what you did with your old thermostats! We have two that I have been trying to get rid of but after a lot of googling I could not find anywhere that would take them for disposal or recycling because they have mercury in them. Did you have to do anything special to donate them to the ReStore? Do they take the old mercury one? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Leah says

      Call your local dump — most of them have hazardous waste disposal areas that will take mercury if nowhere will take the thermostats for donation. That’s what I did with our old thermostat when we got a programmable (5 years ago, so pre-Nest, I believe).

  34. Sarah W. says

    Wow, we don’t even own a house yet (not for another 4.5 yrs unless this evil Toronto housing market dips a little) but I’m now dreaming of the day when I can have one of these. It’s just so cool! The future is now!

    Reply

  35. rachael says

    We don’t have smart phones and don’t plan on getting one, so would this be completely useless to get?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I don’t think it would be useless (it would still learn your habits and you could control it on the dial itself) but you wouldn’t get all the perks of adjusting it from your phone or checking on your usage with the app, etc.

      xo
      s

    • Lindsay says

      You can log into the Nest website and adjust the temperature, and you would still be able to check your energy usage on the website and in the monthly email.

    • Tom M says

      You’d also still be able to check your usage and make all the adjustments from a browser on a computer.

  36. Lena says

    I installed a nest about a couple of years ago when I also moved the location of the thermostat around the corner from where it was prominently displayed in the middle of our dining wall. Don’t get why they can’t consider the location when they place these things. Ended up having to pull a new wire and connect up to the unit in the attic.

    Also had a mishap when doing it. I had turned off the breaker when I started doing it, but then it got hot so turned it on again to let the house cool off so we could have lunch and then finish putting the thermostat in. Well I forgot about turning the breaker off and ended up blowing a fuse on the Airhandler. Was a very costly holiday visit to have that one replaced. However since then everything has worked great.

    My personal favorite is being able to control the temperature from bed if it feels hotter than normal (like on a very humid day)

    Reply

  38. Amanda says

    Hubby and I have been thinking about getting one of these but we have a boiler and water radiators and have not found any good reviews on how well it works with those. Any nesters on here have any experience???

    Reply

    • Leah says

      In our last apartment (part of a duplex), we had a boiler and water radiators. There was a programmable thermostat installed, and we were using the features. One day, the furnace guy from our place came by (we were having some other issue that I can’t recall), and he said that we shouldn’t use the programming. Something about boilers functioning better when they stay at one set temperature versus being turned off and on. I wouldn’t take it as truth, per se, but definitely make sure you research that.

    • Tamara says

      We use our Nests with a boiler/forced hot water radiator system. Nest actually takes into account what kind of system you have, it’s part of the questions you go through during setup. This link should talk a bit about that part. http://nest.com/inside-and-out/#system-match

      One of those choices is “Radiant”, and it activates a feature called “True Radiant” where Nest targets for that system type. Basically, I think it means that Nest takes into account how long a radiant system can take to come to temperature, so it will try to arrive at the desired temperature at the scheduled time instead of only beginning to kick up the heat at that point. When the thermostat temperature is changed, Nest tells me how long before it thinks it will get the room to that temperature.

      Leah’s comment about keeping a constant temperature is interesting. I haven’t heard that. I would guess that it’s not so much that you should keep the exact same temperature around the clock, but that you may not want a lot of swings up and down during the day. We’re replacing our boiler this year, so I have appointments for quotes from a few people, and I’ll have to try to ask about that.

      I work from home now, so it tends to be a pretty constant temperature during the day, but we do have it scheduled to go down overnight.

    • Amanda says

      Thank you for the responses!! We have not had any luck with a regular programmable thermostat because as soon as the temperature drops it keeps turning on the boiler too often and it ends up overheating and spewing water everywhere in the basement. It also ends up going over temperature because it will keep the boiler turned on until it gets to temp. I am just nervous to drop that much money on a thermostat that might not work well with our system.

    • Jenny says

      We replaced one of our ancient radiator thermostats with a modern one. I asked the tech about programmable but he said roughly what you mention, Amanda — that it wouldn’t work very well for radiant heating. I wasn’t so sure he was right — my impression is that it would just take longer, as another commenter here mentioned. I slightly regret not looking into it more, but just updating has made a big difference in the temp control in our house, since the old one had become a bit wonky. Anyway, that’s not new info but I agree with the advice to check, and the sense that some techs don’t know much about this stuff.

  39. Bailey says

    We live in a deregulated market so one of the electric companies gave us a Nest for free for signing a two year contract (I compare it to cell phone companies). We LOVE it!! Every month, we have a game to see how many leaves we can get! And last month, when we went on vacation, we complained the whole time because we had to get out of bed to change the temp! Definitely first world problems!

    Reply

  40. Kai says

    My husband and I were going to get a Nest, until we starting looking into all the information that it captures. It captures when you are home, when you are gone, what areas of the house you are in and so forth. It sounds really good, until you realize that this information is kept somewhere. Which was just way too creepy for my husband. He is not thrilled with the idea of information on a a random server that tells people when we arn’t home.

    That said, we loved the look of the Nest and I hope it works great for you!

    Reply

    • Susan says

      Agreed. Also, it introduces something to your house that can be hacked and “messed with” by outsiders.

      So, I love the idea of NEST and think it’s super neat, but I’ll stick with my old-fashioned thermostat that’s not connected to the web.

    • Jess @ Crunchy Hot Mama says

      I wondered about that Kai. It sounds awesome and a great way to save money, especially during the summer in Texas, but I’m still paranoid when it comes to all the techy stuff you can do online these days. I know nothing is safe regardless, but it feels like people have more opportunities to hack into your life with all these gadgets coming out. We are looking to solar panels as a way to save money and get kick back from the electric company, so we’ll try that route first.

    • KDWilkins says

      I couldn’t agree more. I have visions of someone downloading your schedule based on your monitored activities and having a field day robbing you. Nothing is private anymore.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I don’t know if it gives anyone peace of mind, but when we’re hanging out in the living room the Nest (which is in our office) might think we’re gone since we’re in the back of the house and the unit’s in the front). It’s no big deal since with the tap of our app we can adjust the temp, but I don’t think a robber would be smart to use the Nest log to bank on when you’re home or not since we have totally been home and the Nest guesses we’re gone and sometimes when we’re gone if Burger runs around the Nest thinks we’re here :)

      xo
      s

    • Susan says

      I don’t think it’s the risk of being robbed that bothers me so much. It’s that hackers could access Nest Labs servers and disrupt the functioning of the thermostat in your house. I guess I’d keep my old one just in case I needed to reinstall it.

      Wow am I paranoid! LOL

      Here is Nest Labs privacy policy so you can see what type of data they collect on you:

      http://nest.com/legal/privacy-statement/

  41. Erica says

    That thing looks amazing! I hadn’t heard of it before, but now I want one. Too bad I can’t afford it, because I am seriously over here drooling.

    Reply

  43. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    My (super thrify) Electrical Engineer hubby has been jonesing for a Nest thermostat for a while now (so much so I considered getting it as a birthday gift for him).

    When he reads this (he read you guys daily now!) I’ll be getting a text about how we need one. :)

    Reply

  44. Ronica says

    My hubby is an energy/sustainability professor at Penn State, and a gadget freak, so I was wary when he came home with it, but as usual, he was right. Last Feb. we had the same temps as the Feb. prior, but our energy costs were 30% less. It has paid itself back easily. We did have some trouble with it at one point, but turned out we got a lemon (and yes, tech support was fabulous), so Nest replaced it and we’ve had no trouble since. It really is brilliant!

    Reply

  45. Leslie C. says

    We love our Nest Thermostat! What made us love it even more is that it was FREEEEEEE! In Texas, electricity is deregulated, so electric companies compete for your business! The company we had been using is called Reliant and they came out with a plan partnered with Nest and if you signed up for the “Learn and Conserve” plan, they sent you a Nest learning thermostat for free!
    Side note: Reliant’s spokesguy is Matthew Mcconaughey…. I mean does it get any better?!? Hahaha

    Reply

    • Alaina C says

      We are also Texans and took advantage of Reliant’s offer of a free Nest thermostat. We just received our electric bill for our first full month with the product. I’m not happy. Our bill was $200.27. The report is that we used 1701 kw, even though we had 29 days of “leafs” in a 32-day billing cycle. Our thermostat is located in a rarely used hallway, and our system often goes into away mode because we never go past the thermostat. While my overall verdict on the product is still pending be aware that you could find yourself having to put effort into telling your thermostat that you are still home.

  48. lesley says

    I want a Nest and some Fancy Pants too! I have never heard of the Nest but this is pretty awesome. Thanks for letting us in on the Nest!

    Reply

  49. Jennifer says

    I adore your honest and complete product reviews! It gives me information as well as courage to do things myself.

    Reply

  50. Ana says

    So glad to see this post as I just ordered a Nest this weekend and am eagerly tracking its progress to my house. The city utility offers $85 for using them (and other programmable thermostats). Maybe Richmond will catch up soon.

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *