The Nest thermostat is starting to gain a lot of popularity amongst homeowners. For those of you who might not know what it is, it’s a “learning thermostat” - it learns your schedule, programs itself and can be controlled from your phone.
It's apparently shipping around 40,000 to 50,000 thermostats each month. Have you had any experiences with it?It’s innovative, and on the cutting edge of where all these remote technologies are headed. Remote access. Why am I still getting up to click the thermostate on? I think they’re great and apparently very easy to install.
I am less interested with it learning my schedule, although a few weeks with it I may have a different opinin of that.
They also get real high reviews from almost everyone who has switched.
the nest thermostat works great, the only issue I had was my daughter downloaded the app on her cellphone and was adjusting the temperature so we had a lot of thermostat wars.
MY MOST COMMON SERVICE CALL FOR NEST. CONNECT SPARE THERMOSTAT WIRE TO NEST “C” TERMINAL ON THERMOSTAT AND OTHER END OF SPARE WIRE AT FURNACE TO COMMON ON ITS TRANSFORMER OR CIRCUIT BOARD. CONNECTING A COMMON TO POWER NEST THERMOSTAT FROM FURNACE CONTROL POWER IS ESSENTIAL FOR ITS FUNCTIONS. NOTE THAT NEST THERMOSTAT COMES WITH CHARGED NI-CAD BATTERY AND WILL ONLY FUNCTION FOR LIFE OF BATTERY UNLESS POWERED BY FURNACE CONTROL POWER. WITH OUT THE COMMON WIRE CONNECTED NEST WILL FUNCTION PROPERLY ONLY AT FIRST.
The Nest thernostat has the same “cutting edge” technology as multiple other more experienced thermostat manufactures like Honeywell, Venstar, and multiple others have had for at least a year or more before Nest hit the market. These comparable thermostats are not round but rectangular with multi colored touchscreen displays, wi-fi, ability to be used as a picture frame or slide show using an SD card amongst other equally “cool” features.
The major difference is marketing. Thermostat companies market to the HVAC industry and hoped that would trickle down to homeowners and businesses. While Nest made the wiser choice and went straight to the end product user, the homeowner, and made it available for anyone to purchase. This I believe has made nest the more popular choice even though there are thermostats with more options and even better looking for the less money.
Overall, I would buy the Venstar color touch T5800 with wireless key for residential or the T6800 for commercial installations and they include parts and labor warranty when installed by licensed contractor.
Or the Honeywell IAQ with features equal to and beyond the Nest. All the top of the line central air systems like carrier’s infinity or Yorks Affinity, even the Dave Lennox signature series controls have are equally as well equipped and loaded with modern technology. The general public was never informed about these thermostats by their contractor. I have installed and serviced all of the above and each one will go above and beyond expectations especially when you pair them with the correct eqipment. IThe total cost installed would be very close to the cost of a Nest Thermostat uninstalled and what kind of warranty does nest offer if it is not installed by a licensed contractor? Most contractors will install a homeowner bought part, but always write a disclaimer on the invoice that there is no warranty on parts and only a 30 day labor warranty through the installing contractor if it was installed incorrectly but if a part fails in that first 30 days the labor warranty would not be applicable.
The Nest is a little pricey yet a very smart thermostat. This device knows when to go dormant without prior programming. We recommend this device to anyone who is in and out of residence, who would like to change their home tempature via wi-fi, who is into technology, and high profile clients.
The Nest is very innovative and easy to use. It is also nice in some climates to see the blue and red to know if you are heating or cooling. Combine the Nest with other apps for better control and home automation.
I do not personally recommend the Nest. I find that the Honeywell WiFi 9000 is a very user friendly and easy to set up thermostat. To me the ease of use for the customer goes a long way.
There are pros and cons. We don’t recommend them to clients that have Heat Pumps or clients that don’t have enough wire going to the thermostat for a common wire.
Here are the reasons:
Heat Pumps:
The nest uses internet weather and can’t use an outdoor thermostat. This can lead to incorrect defrost cycles and incorrect shut off and switching to aux heat. Not good and clean lead to major issues.
Common Wire:
If you don’t have a dedicated wire for the common then it power robs from the “Y” line. This can, with certain equipment, lead to faults and errors. Not good when you can’t get heating and cooling for a client.
Outside of that, they can work will for the right person and situation.