Nest thermostat, anyone using one?
 

+$200 for a thermostat? Is it really that good?

My inner gadget boy says "cool doode you can control the thermostat with your smart phone"

My inner cheapskate says "do you really need to micro manage your thermostat? And $200 will buy a lot of beer".

I currently have a programmable thermostat that has four setting per day, evening temp., sleeping temp., wake up temp., day temp.

What say ye?

I have just a plain Jane programmable thermostat which suits my needs just fine. My wife and I both work full time so setting it to our schedule is easy

I personally dont understand this "adjust it with your smart phone" hey it sounds cool but I would NEVER use that feature

As far as price goes $100-$200 is pretty much going rate for a decent thermostat

Nest thermostat, anyone using one?
 

100+.

I came the the same conclusion. I can't see the need to monitor my thermostat. The presets do just fine. On the days I and off schedule I can change the thermostat with my analog finger in seconds. That is a cool toy however.

Yeah but turning down the thermostat when your wife left it up high when she went to work and you're in Istanbul is cool.

I should get that. My wife and kids always adjust it way high or low, then leave. :rolleyes:

The Nest is pretty cool, and expensive.. I like that it has a motion sensor and will lower the temp when no motion is sensed.. Apparently it has algorithms and scripts built in that it learns the heating needs of the house..

I however live in a house with one pipe low pressure steam system...And my inner geek commanded me to put together a system similar to what this guy built

A Steam Enthusiast's Outdoor Reset Boiler Control

I have a web portal where I can view the status of the system, and make adjustments, and can receive alerts on my droid if the boiler shuts down on low water etc.. Will be adding methods to control my sump pumps..

Waste of $ IMHO. I don't even have a programmable T-stat. It isn't hard to set the thing when you come / are home and when you leave the house. It may be different in an extremely hot or cold place, but you are in San Pedro, you probably don't need any heat or A/C for 10 mos out of the year!

Of course if you HAVE to fiddle with your handheld all the time, knock yourself out. I have better things to spend $200 on.

G

I think the most efficient way of adjusting the thermostat is once at night to lower it, and once in the morning (assuming someone will be there all day) to raise it back to a comfortable level.

This full adjustability doesn't make sense to me, because the only reason to drop the temp is to save $$, but by doing it multiple times, you lose all efficiency unless it's electric heat.

I just need one that circulates air every x minutes just to make sure air gets filtered without relying on teh fan to kick in for heating or cooling.

I have a NEST and absolutely love it. There is more to it than just remote control from your smart phone. It does pay for itself.

if you walk past your thermostat alot, then good. but i don't. i come into the house via garage, the thermostat is in the living/dining room. mostly we hang out in kitchen, family room, bedrooms.

i got a $100 wifi enabled thermostat at home depot. programmable, i can turn up the heat/fan remotely. good enough for me.

How crazy do you want to go? My house is all in zones controlled by my central Crestron processor. The "smartphone" piece is actually the "dumb" side of the system.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1362585470.jpg

Has anyone noticed a change in control schemes in all these new thermostats including just the setback thermostats?

Old method:

Hysteretic control - you would set the thermostat at 70 and the furnace would turn on when the temperature dropped 69 and turn of when it got to 71.

New method:

Pulse Width Modulation - when you set the thermostat to 70, 6 - 10 times an hour the thermostat checks the temperature and runs until it reaches the set point.

In my house with low heat loss sometimes the gas furnace will only run for 60 seconds. That can’t be efficient. Is this a conspiracy to sell more igniters with the service calls?

LOL, I just called Nest tech support yesterday. I told them I wanted to turn off all the smart features and just make it a dumb thermostat. I was tired of the thing arguing with me. Now, I set it in the morning, and turn it off at night. Simple as that. I still do like it, because it shows me energy usage during the month, and I can phone it from an hour away and make the house cozy :)

Love love love my nest !!!!

We have geothermal and don't use a programmable thermostat. We were told that setting it and leaving the unit was most efficient so we do.

I think the reason for that is emergency heat (electricity) kicks on if the set point is more than 3 degrees different from interior temperature. I doubt that argument works in the summer.

The tech boy clients who want it all and control the temp of their bathroom when they are out on vacation in France I usually have my HVAC man install the latest and the greatest and have them pay for it. Now, for my own house, I installed a brand new dual level system and have two simple programmable controls that isn't programmed. If I need it , I will flip the switch to heat and leave it at 71 degree. Same for the summer. Scott, for those guys who live in sub zero temp places, I see the reason for it to save a bit of energy, for us who live in paradise, do you really need to control your AC in the summer where you are?

Nest is overpriced, sure, so are most new Porsches. I'd still get one (of each) because I like the design, features, and it's a clever little device.

It's done well for me, as far as savings, using "airwave" etc...and occasionally (rarely) I've enjoyed changing temps from the iphone while away from home. Mostly, if I'm honest, I like it because it's cool looking, and we're not talking $1000 here. That being said it is expensive enough that I did not yet buy a second one for downstairs ;-)

If you are questioning the price, it's probably not for you (nothing wrong with that), you are clearly paying $$$ for a cool design. If you buy one, you will probably love it.

Aww man, you've completely crushed my dreams of spending $$$ to be able to fiddle with room temps on my iPhone while I'm sitting on the patio looking at the mountains, canyons and that tiny slice of ocean view. :D:D:D

my thermostat has a temp swing setting. if u set target for 70F, set swing for 2F, it won't turn on heat until 68F, then heat until 70F. i think most modern programmable thermostats have that feature.

When you are out sitting on the patio looking at the half naked women (yeah right, mountain and canyon views) you will often wonder why people need AC or heat around here.

Our estimated cooling costs for the summer was $32. I don't think messing with it in the summer will save us much either.

The electric elements do come on but you could set it to go up 2* and a short time later anoher 2* but we were told it doesn't save enough to make it worthwhile.

Now you're talkin'! :)

It only costs you $32 per month to cool your house in July and August???

It doesn't say where you live but is AC required at all? Geothermal is more efficient but you still have to run a compressor and fans.

Our estimated cooling cost for the year in SW WI is $32. The ground water is 48* and make our heating costs rise a bit but the cooling is good. It costs us more than the estimate because we run the house cooler than the estimate. I like cool in the summer. We went a summer without as our old central air unit got hit by lightning and ran the attic fan all summer. That was quite a bit more expensive than the geo unit. June/July/August mostly but May can get warm enough to use it a little.

It sure is not.
There may be drafts which make a huge difference.

My parents also had a furnace which was over-sized. That thing kicked on and off every 10 minutes and the bills were $400+/mo at 60deg.

I personally set the temp up to 70 at certain times(wake/dinner), then back down to 65-67.
It stays plenty warm for a long time and sweaters are still in fashion.
Girlfriend is a lazy smoker, and leaves the window open in the dead of winter :rolleyes:

With forced air, the furnace runs until the air temp in that room reaches the set level.

What is not factored is the heat-soak of all the surfaces and objects in the house.

New electronic "efficiency" thermostats should be programable for a wider swing.
That is an easy feature to program in, but I've seen very few with this feature.

For those of us paying over $100/mo for electricity and $30/mo. for gas, a smart thermostat of any kind is probably going to pay for itself in a few years and return dividends after that. If you're one of those who can remember to turn up/turn down your temps 365, you can save enough for a couple nice dinners out pretty quickly.

IMO simple is good.

A few years ago i finally switched from the dial type to a $16 digital non-programmable, but it ticks me off cause about once a year I gotta put two new AAA batteries in it.

if your thermostat wire is not 40+ years old, the...the C wire is wired for 18VAC

I have a thermostat like the one below, but it was a little cheaper (and filtrete brand which is rebranded radio thermostat hardware) when I bought mine a year or two ago. We have seen lower bills since we swapped. There is a smart phone app, but there is also a windows program. The windows program allows you to program the fan independently of the AC. It's not as pretty as the nest which is important to the missus, but when I bought mine it was more than $200 cheaper than the nest. Besides, the main things that I was looking for were the ability to program the thermostat from a PC and the ability to get the fan to periodically circulate the air in the house.

LockState WiFi Internet 7-Day Programmable Thermostat + Free iPhone App-LS-60i at The Home Depot

I put in two (dual zones) a few months ago - love them! We pay $350 to $1000+ a month for electricity and gas so the ROI should be there. And we do use the iPhone app feature all the time. It's kinda like a TV remote -- until you had one, you never realized how lame it was to not have one.

I don't understand the reason for adjusting the heat or AC all the time when you are away on that cell phone. is it because there isn't any thing to do.

I installed a Nest thermostat in my weekend/county house. The remote capability is very nice to be able to warm the house up a few hours in advance of our arrival. I can also check in on very cold nights to insure that the heating system is maintaining the set temperature. Gives peace of mind that everything is working ok and my pipes aren't going to freeze.

For that kind of pocket change I'd think about solar or ground loop for the long term costs.
Thermostat is a bandaid.

There's also the gas Bloom Box which looks interesting, but not sure if available for non-commercial application.

An energy audit is not too expensive, slow-fill foam insulation can be added into walls with minimal intrusion(small hole), and attic ventilation and light roof tiles make a big difference.

The contractor that did my energy audit said if there was any insulation at all inside the wall, they could not add more (except by tearing the wall completely open.

Do you have more info on the slow-fill foam insulation?

Yep. I have three. LOVE them.

Randy, I should have typed slow-rise.
Basically the same open cell stuff but with a slower reaction time to not push out the drywall.
They drill a series of small holes (1/4-1/2" I think) and start at the bottom.
Two chemicals start as liquid, and turn into foam.
All excess comes out the holes.
AFAIK, was told it can be used with existing batt insulation. The foam just seals any gaps with the fiberglass settling.

I just looked at a finished basement bathroom (cold Mich) where paint was sagging off the drywall. There had been a fixed slow shower leak, but I suspected there was also an air gap at the top, and cold air was creating condensation inside that wall. The wall with sagging paint felt much colder to the touch than the other without problems.

thx, I will look into that