I searched, and found nothing meaningful, if someone has a link to another existing thread, plz to provide.

Does anyone use nest thermostats? Anyone have any complaints or rave reviews?

Also welcome: alternative thermostats

Here's why I'm interested.... I have a programmable thermostat, and have that set up. I want something a little more advanced, particularly the ability to run my fan for say 10 or 15 minutes every hour, independent of temp. Right now the fan is on when it cools, or always on. I get such poor circulation upstairs, and the hallway where the return is stays cooler than the bedrooms. Its my understanding that nest now does exactly this.

I would like internet connectivity, so I can turn the unit off if I forget to, when the day is really nice out... or bump it down ahead of time if I leave work early.

[Edited on May 28, 2013 at 12:07 PM. Reason : .]

5/28/2013 12:06:22 PM

No complaints from me. It is a very nice piece of equipment. It will now do exactly what you want with the fan.

5/28/2013 12:52:10 PM

my friend just put one in his house and he really likes it. I'm not sure if he fully utilizes it for everything it can do but i know he's told me about it's ease of use through the iPhone app and that it has adapted to some of their habits like the heat turning on shortly before he gets up in the morning to cut down on the chill in the house and then it would heat up even more shortly before his wife would get up since she likes it warmer. then automatically go into savings mode when they're both at at work before heating/cooling automatically before getting home.


it sounds really cool. i would have one if i had a larger place.

5/28/2013 12:52:22 PM

do you guys that own them have the original, or the 2.0? i keep seeing the OG go on sale.

5/28/2013 1:47:53 PM

oops. DP

[Edited on May 28, 2013 at 2:15 PM. Reason : .]

5/28/2013 2:13:40 PM

i have the 1.0 with current software.

its fine. it's cool. if you care about something paying for itself, just get a seven day programmable.

if you only have one thermostat, you're not going to see much in the way of crazy savings and it's mostly just the "cool" factor that you're paying for.

however, more of the savings come from when you have two zones, and the nests talk to each other to coordinate whole house climate.

honestly though, i just like it because although i have a relatively predictable schedule, it's nice to be able to remotely control it when i want to, and i appreciate that it's aesthetically attractive, which is why nest came to market to begin with.

pretty sure they were discussed in old school in the home improvement thread at some point.

Quote :

"It will now do exactly what you want with the fan."

i still wish there was an "Off" but still cycling the fan feature. i had my nest set to off for the last 1.5 months, but at night, even with a ceiling fan, it's nice to be able to cycle the fan to move air overnight. but you have to have one of the heat/cool settings on in order for it to do that as far as i can tell. other than that, no complaints.

5/28/2013 2:15:15 PM

Currently my fan has to be on cool to run, too... I just jack the temp up so the a/c doesn't run.... But its non freaking stop. Plus this seems like something they can push a future update to fix.

I thought about a slightly more robust seven day programmable... But the fan feature is important... The air stagnation upstairs is terrible... (Town house). I'm hoping that by having a more balanced climate upstairs we will save money... Since my room heats up faster than any other room, we're keeping the thermostat lower than it needs to be to keep my room cool. I'd rather just move air around. And cool it when it is appropriate.

As for gen 1 vs 2.... Both are compatible with my system. I know the second is slimmer and what not, andand compatible with more systems, but is there any reason to get two over 1? Like, will 1 reach end of support any sooner?

[Edited on May 28, 2013 at 3:08 PM. Reason : .]

5/28/2013 3:08:01 PM

I like mine. Fairly easy to setup and nice I can easily turn it on from my phone on the way home. It also started predicting my habits after a few weeks which was pretty cool.

5/28/2013 4:23:44 PM

i've got two for both zones - my favorite feature is probably being able to turn the AC / heat on remotely in preparation for me coming home although most WiFi thermostats have that feature - i consider it a toy more than a requirement but after having a manual thermostat for the previous 2 years i love it

Quote :

"i still wish there was an "Off" but still cycling the fan feature. i had my nest set to off for the last 1.5 months, but at night, even with a ceiling fan, it's nice to be able to cycle the fan to move air overnight. but you have to have one of the heat/cool settings on in order for it to do that as far as i can tell. other than that, no complaints."

they just added the ability to cycle the fan independently of the cooling / heating - just set the thermostat on 90 so it won't run - i've used it when we were gone for a while and the air was stale inside

5/28/2013 9:48:10 PM

yeah, i would just prefer a "fan only" option included with heat/cool/heat+cool/off

5/29/2013 11:24:39 AM

I'm having one hell of a time getting mine just right. For example, it just bumped the temp down to 63 for no reason

6/29/2014 11:08:24 PM

I hate money as much as the best of them...but i ain't buying no $350 Vitamix or a $200+ thermostat.

6/29/2014 11:41:29 PM

it was a free upgrade. i, too, wouldn't pay $200 for a thermostat

6/29/2014 11:49:37 PM

I wanted to get one of these when we had to replace our thermostat maybe a year ago... the wife said it looked too much like HAL.

6/30/2014 12:35:55 AM

6/30/2014 5:37:33 AM

hooking up a thermostat is probably the easiest thing you can do besides changing the filter when it comes to HVAC - there are numerous videos / instructions online - they have their own support forum too

6/30/2014 8:48:10 AM

^ I had a hard time when I replaced my 25 y/o one with a programmable...there were a bunch of wires to the old one that didn't have a place to go on the new one.

6/30/2014 12:32:45 PM

That's all documented really well with nest.

6/30/2014 12:38:39 PM

yeah it's very easy to do.

6/30/2014 2:06:24 PM

We love ours. I love being able to turn the A/C on from my iPhone.

6/30/2014 2:40:16 PM

^ that would be cool

6/30/2014 3:03:08 PM

It's nice for us because the upstairs thermostat is right outside my son's room. And the hardwood floors creak pretty loudly so it's nice to turn the A/C on at night from the iPhone app.

6/30/2014 3:20:22 PM

Yeah, I frequently turn it on when driving home or even just from downstairs shortly before I head to bed.

6/30/2014 3:22:53 PM

I have a thermostat installed for free by my power company that I can operate via computer or smartphone, and that I can program to run based on either times, electricity price periods during the day, or a combination of both.

I say again, free. Check with your power company. With Gulf Power, it's called "Energy Select."

(between that, a hybrid water heater that a made money on after rebates, and my 5 kW solar system, my power bill has been running $19-21/month, which is the fee to be connected to the grid.)

7/1/2014 9:36:56 PM

There's reports do Nest screwing up AC systems, but it's hard to know if it is the real reason for failures. I'd like to get one but this kind of stuff makes me weary.
http://afspecialsauce.kinja.com/are-nest-thermostats-killing-air-conditioners-1574174163/

7/6/2014 9:23:08 AM

^^ You leasing or did you pay out of pocket for the panels?

7/6/2014 9:54:41 AM

^^Yeah, reports about thermostat problems really make me tired as well.

7/6/2014 10:05:54 AM

i honestly thought this was going to be about the nuclear emergency support team and was thinking it would be really cool

[Edited on July 6, 2014 at 9:50 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2014 9:50:13 PM

^lol

^^^ yeah, so I've had one Nest of my 2 go south on me. Reminds me that I need to finish up the warranty claim to get it replaced. I was having issues with my HVAC, constant fan but no cool air coming out. I'd installed both units myself. Finally called a service to come out and look at everything, and we got one working properly, but the other one is jimmied at the moment. Basically

7/6/2014 9:50:42 PM

i have constant fan

this first energy bill is going to be horrible

7/6/2014 9:54:00 PM

^^^^^ no, I bought them. $17,600 for 5 kW with micro inverters, which I thought was a good deal. After local subsidies and federal tax credits, it only cost me $2300.

7/6/2014 11:16:30 PM

The question is...how much are you guys saving? I am debating of getting one.

The google answer.
https://community.nest.com/thread/1021


[Edited on July 7, 2014 at 12:51 PM. Reason : gogle]

7/7/2014 12:50:34 PM

Depends on what you are asking. If you are comparing it to a programmable, the number may be no savings to actually spending slightly more. If you are comparing it to a non-programmable, the savings will be pretty comparable to a programmable. People get the nest instead of a vanilla programmable for some of the extra accessory type functions and the neat-factor of the wireless accessibility. If your main goal is energy savings over an old manual thermostat, then a fairly standard programmable will achieve that. Otherwise, if you're looking for a thermostat with some "cool" factor you should consider Nest, Ecobee, Venstar, and some of the Honeywell series (has easy remote sensor options).

Personally if we're talking about luxury thermostats, I like the look and idea of Honeywell's new "Lyric" thermostat: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/10/5793536/the-heat-is-on-honeywell-is-finally-ready-to-challenge-nest



[Edited on July 7, 2014 at 2:17 PM. Reason : ]

7/7/2014 1:58:09 PM

right. I have a programmable WITH internet connectivity, that ALSO is "smart" enough to know what pricing tier it's operating in at any moment from the power company...and it was free and freely installed by the power company.

Now, that may not be an option with your power company, but I'd check into it before dropping the money on a Nest.

7/8/2014 12:07:28 AM

^what power company do you have?

7/8/2014 2:24:10 AM

Gulf Power

7/8/2014 9:23:57 AM

Nest got fried when lightning hit my house last week.
They overnighted me a new one, no charge, no questions asked.

7/24/2014 3:16:03 PM

I just got my remote temperature sensors for my nest thermostat, setup is easy and they work well. I got 3 for $100 total, definitely worth the cost.

the way nest does it is to let you manually switch which sensor is driving the HVAC or use a schedule, there doesn't appear to be averaging or an automatic mode yet.

the ecobee seems more useful since it also has motion sensors you can use to decide which temp sensor to use, but this is a good step for nest

4/18/2018 8:48:34 AM

I love my Ecobee. It also works well with Alexa.

It has also saved me several hundred dollars last year, just by having so much control over heating and cooling.

One thing I do NOT like about Ecobee is that if you have two units they do not communicate with each other. I'm not sure what benefits that would give you, but it seems like if the upstairs could communicate with the downstairs, there is some efficiency there that could be gained.

4/18/2018 9:58:22 AM

I liked my Nest - setup was easy and it looks nice, but I thought the way you control the temperature schedule could have been a bit more intuitive as far as the UI goes, but they may have updated it. I didn't really get to take full advantage of the energy saving nature of it because I didn't want it to get too hot for my dog during the day. For the right person/situation it's a great thing to have

4/23/2018 3:46:23 PM

you can use it with a conventional schedule and not the learning schedule or energy saving schedule if you want

4/23/2018 4:12:05 PM