Nest thermostat what else can it do ?
 

In September of last year we moved into our retirement house which has a Nest brand thermostat . It is just the wife and I so no 12 year old computer savvy kids in the house :D So we have been manually using the Nest for both heat and AC and all is good . The wife decided the other day to " register " the Nest and down load the app to both of our phones .

So with our limited knowledge/skills we can now remotely change temp settings and go from heat to AC using our phones . So what else can this thing do ? Can it QB a security system ? Can it open/close garage doors that have door openers on them ? Just random questions really but trying to learn what else it can do .

You are now setup so Google knows exactly what temperature you keep your house and when.

Think it is pretty much a thermostat, not a home automation hub.

I love my nest. I know the heat is on after a storm so pipes don’t freeze. Able to adjust the heat when we go away and return to room temp before we come home. Gives you a readout of each days energy usage. It’s not total house control, just hvac, but it’s so easy to use the phone app that I rarely look at the wall mount. Also nice if a room heats up from cooking or the sun, I can turn on the fan for a while from my phone.

I check the temp in the house when others are there.....wife,kids. I turn the heat down without them knowing. Saves money

Secretly record your conversations, take pictures of you naked and upload them to the internet... stuff like that.
J/K

it "learns" habits and will keep the house at the temps set. I have mine set for when both my wife and I are out, the system kicks over to the "away" mode to save $$$. I also have it set to meet the desired temp at the time designated which means it starts early enough to get to temp at the time rather than starting to the cycle to warm or cool at the time set.

I also have installed the Nest smoke and C.O. detectors. Recently added a security camera.

I do have some reservations about the Google ownership. I bought into the system when they were tied closely to Apple. I am pretty sure one of these days I will need to watch an ad to change temp in the house. But for right now this is a very seamless system

We've got ours connected to Alexa. We can now adjust the temperature by saying "Alexa, turn the heat to 70°". Small convenience, but we appreciate it.

i need to donate one for my office. one of the thermostats is in my office; i share a vent somewhere with a very cute engineer that is always cold. she is always parading thru adjusting the damn thing. i would love it if she could just use her smartphone.

sorry no pics. but a cute civil engineer is a unicorn indeed!

Wait, you live in the female desert, and you have an excuse for a cute female to come to your office to adjust the thermostat, but you'd be happier if she used her phone and never came to your office?

I think I read that right, and I don't understand.

I work in IT. If I had that problem, I'd probably be tweaking the thing all day to get visits.

good point..but too much of a good thing...applies.

i am good on wet days when she wears her HUNTER rubber boots. those things are cool on cute chicks.

My first wife was a cute civil engineer...

Yet she was also clinically crazy! And was fired from her first company for incompetence. She used to work at TVA, (not far from IROC) in Tennessee and now is in Las Alamos.

I'm afraid! Very afraid! :eek:

What they can do depends on which generation/version of nest you have. https://store.nest.com/product/thermostat/T3007ES?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8ry_wfuC2gIVyrjACh2RxA26 EAAYASAAEgJMCfD_BwE&dclid=CJHb59n7gtoCFVBmwQod2ewC Dw

Nest is compatible with wemo which allows you to control lights, etc. You can make the hvac/temp and lights and other electrical equipment match people coming and going, etc.
Wemo works with Nest

I'm not sure that setting the thermo down for a few hours or a couple days is worth it. The time it takes to warm everything back up, makes it a small savings.
Nest also has a doorbell with camera built in, and their wireless security cameras. (formerly DropCam)
All their stuff can be controlled by your phone or laptop/tablet.

It's smart enough to "learn" how long it takes to get up to the desired temperature; if you allow it to (it's a setting), it'll start running the heat earlier to get there in time without resorting to AUX heat.

You'll get monthly reports showing how much energy it saved (or didn't), and whether that was down to weather, adjustments etc.

Let it track your phone location, and it'll automatically switch to ECO mode when everyone is out of the house, and it'll notice you coming back.


Like steve said, there's a security system (Nest Security), video doorbell, smart door lock, cameras (both internal and external), and also smart smoke/carbon monoxide detectors (with the option of wired, so you don't need to check/change batteries).

To integrate with garage door openers (Chamberlin/Liftmaster etc), you probably need both a MyQ internet gateway for that guy, probably upgrade the control switch to a MyQ aware one (which also upgrades the security protocols/lets you use modern remotes). And the Chamberlin apps are very disappointing.

So it works well to use a smart hub - like a Wink - that lets you control/monitor everything (Nest, lights, garage doors) from a single interface.

Wink is kind of cool because it integrates with many of the competing/incompatible HA systems out there - and then presents it all in one place, rather than having an app for each system. And Alexa "knows" how to talk to Wink and Nest.

Being able to control, dim/brighten lights from an app is surprisingly useful. And the Wink has "robots"; you can have it in "Housesitter" mode, so it'll randomly switch lights or appliances on/off throughout the evening to make it look like someone's there. And do things like integrate a water sensor alarm to control a water shutoff valve (e.g. under your dishwasher or other appliance), for example.

It makes a good launch point for a hack of your network :D

my electricity/gas utility company keeps sending me promo crap for nest.
I keep trolling them with, so how does this work.. they come up with an explanation and what not how it will reduce my heating bills.
I play dumb and tell em , but that can never work..
sure it will, just put this on your heater and you'll reduce the bills by at least 20%

It won't, are you willing to be me half my utilities bill over it? obviously they won't.


to bad, cause I only have a wood stove...

I just like to inform the internet mine is held at 50deg for three weeks when leaving on vacation.

Same as my new DTE mandatory smart-meter.

I had a nest for awhile at a 2nd home, mainly because I wanted to be able to check temp remotely to be sure power wasn't out, etc. Long story short, I hated it and took it off (free to anyone who wants it btw).

Maybe I didn't have it configured properly, but the damn thing would just move the temp all over the place for no apparent reason. We'd come back from being out for a couple hours and it'd be 78 degrees in the house! No matter what i did, I could not turn off the "learning" modes and have it function like a standard thermostat.

Anyway, maybe I just had a bad experience or was not doing something correctly, but it was not for me. Seems like another thing that is "reinvented" with added tech, but needlessly so. I know I'm in the minority, but I try to stay away from connected gadgets as much as possible. My toaster doesn't need to be internet enabled and the whole voice controlled everything just seems like peak laziness to me. And that's not even getting into the whole data thing...ok, maybe I need more coffee this am. Ranting over...

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!!

A better use for your toaster!:)
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I did the same thing... didn't want all the learning features. Called tech support and they walked me thru how to disable that feature. Now, I just turn it up/down as needed. Great, but not too intelligent. At least I can monitor and control with my iPhone app.

I have a early Nest. I just use it as a thermostat. I schedule the temp, rather than use the learning features. I like being able to know how much energy in using, adjust temp from away, not heat the house when no one is home or we are on a trip, etc. The only real issue is that the thermostat is downstairs so it will think no-one is home but actually we're just upstairs, or it thinks the house is 68F but actually the upstairs is significantly colder or hotter..

I never got into to the other Nest stuff. The smoke detectors seem useful enough but AFAIK they can't feed temperature and motion detection data to the thermostat which seems like a missed opportunity; see my one issue above. Maybe they've fixed that by now; I lost interest and stopped following the product.

Dropcam was the first really cool security cam but too expensive. I found the Blink system instead.

All in all, I think Nest really slowed down after Google bought it. Not sure if that is due to Google or to Nest's founder. But for about a year there, the connected home ring was theirs to grab.

Good to know...maybe I'll give it another shot. Thx

^^^ Their support line is good. I've used it a few times for my Nest Cams. They will stay with you until the problem is solved.

I am going to get one for my vacation house since it is compatible with WEMO and I want to be able to adjust my heat/air when i am away. I use WEMO accessories to turn the light and other things off and on via my Iphone (like my hot water heater, pump and a pump to recirculate hotter so the pipes don't freeze in winter). I use blink cameras as my alarm...as they have motion sensors and temp sensors (based on recommendations here).

Might want to try the nest smoke alarms/detectors...anyone use those?

My Nest is on the second floor, I can tell the Echo in my first floor bedroom to adjust the temperature.

I have four nest protects (smoke, CO) what I like is they talk to each other, so if one goes off in the garage my bedroom protect alerts me.

I think for now we'll just continue to use it as a thermostat . May do some adjusting via our phones but for the most part will just walk over and change if/when it is needed . Thanks for all the feedback .

We have the nest too and couldn't be happier about it. The app is user-friendly, same with the installation. I read here some of its features, might be a good read, when you're in the bathroom, lol. But it cannot be used as a garage door opener. haha! We use the chamberlain for our garage door though. It works great but I can't recommend it to those aren't very techy, especially it's very network dependent. If you lose your internet connection, it's good as useless.

I too use a Nest thermostat for a second home. All the automatic/learning BS is disabled. While its nice to be able to pre-warm the place when we're heading out there during heating season, my main reason for having the internet enabled t-stat is so I can monitor the temp and insure my heating system is functioning during cold snaps. When the temps drop well below freezing I am in the habit of checking on the Nest app and making sure my set temp is being maintained. Last thing I want is the house to freeze up and the Nest has been worth the price for the peace of mind.

In my primary home we could not get the Nest t-stats to work correctly with a separate heating system (hydronic with boiler) and cooling system (central A/C). The Nest is supposed to be able to handle this, but failed miserably. Myself and my contractor gave up and installed Honeywell's touch screen internet enabled t-stats and they work perfectly. Not as slick design as Nest, none of the learning features (which I don't use anyway), and I think the schedule programming interface is actually superior to Nest.

I have a 20 year old programmable thermostat. It is not connected to anything but the HIVAC system. My wife is retired, and I work from home. There is someone home most of the time. I have it set to turn the temp up at our bed time (10:30) to 82 degrees and we have a ceiling fan so we don't get hot. It only goes down to 78 shortly before I get up at 7:00 to feed the dogs, eat my breakfast and make the long arduous 14 step trek down the hall to my office after I kiss my wife goodby. She is usually in bed until 8:30.

This sounds like a decent reason for a remote control T-stat. The rest just sound lazy.

I dont understand people changing the t-stat setting all the time. Program it and be done!

I really want the eco bee with the remote sensors. The thermostat placement in our house kind of sucks, and the sensors help to balance the room temps better from what I’ve heard.


But I’d need two of them, and I’m not keen on dropping $600 on thermostats.

And when you are home, when you are away, when you sleep, when you leave for work, and when you get home from work. And because Google knows it, so does the NSA.