Knowledge base

The Nest Learning Thermostat: Even Better Than It Sounds

date: Jun 12, 2016

A Nest Learning Thermostat is one of the smartest energy-saving devices you can have in your home. It monitors and learns your behaviors to automatically adjust the home’s temperature to fit your schedule, tells you when you’re saving energy and sends you reports on power usage, calls your phone immediately if there’s a problem with your heating system – and can integrate with other smart devices in your home for a complete automation solution.

Home Automation musthave - Nest Learning Thermostat

If you haven’t had to replace your thermostat or heating system over the past few years, it’s likely that you haven’t paid much attention to all of the hoopla that has surrounded the Nest Learning Thermostat; you probably assume it’s simply another programmable heating/AC control device.

That description doesn’t even begin to do the Nest justice. Sure, it controls how hot or cold your house is, and it will save you lots of money on your energy bills. But it’s also able to “learn” your behavior to tailor its performance to your needs, and can be the brains of a whole-home automation system which can control literally hundreds of smart appliances and products.

We could go on and on for pages about the Nest’s abilities to control your lighting, alarm system, home theater, outdoor sprinklers and many other systems. For this article, though, let’s just examine everything that the Nest thermostat itself can do.

Smart Thermostats on the smart home wall

We’ve all had those days when we’ve left the house without remembering to turn down the thermostat. Nest never forgets – but neither do many old-school programmable thermostats.

What makes Nest so different that it doesn’t just do what you’ve told it to do. It’s actually able to track your behavior over time, to learn what temperatures you prefer and when you prefer them. It can also track the weather based on your zip code, so it is able to compensate for unseasonably warm or cold spells as well as the change of seasons.

Third-Generation Nest - automated climate control

The bottom line: after a week or so of paying attention to your temperature choices, the Nest thermostat will adapt to your lifestyle patterns and preferences, and be able to program itself. For example, if you get up every day at 6 am and turn up the heat to 75°, and turn it back down to 65° when you leave for work two hours later, Nest will learn that and start doing it for you automatically. Of course, you can override Nest’s choices at any time, either from your home control panels or by using the Nest app on your smartphone from anywhere in the world.

Having been on the market for a number of years, the Nest thermostat is a more refined and functional product than ever. It’s sleeker and slimmer than previous models, fitting in with just about any décor. And the thermostat isn’t just smart – so is the third-generation display, known as “Farsight.” When Nest senses you in the room, the temperature or time is displayed in large, bright, back-lit numerals that can be seen from any location; you no longer have to walk over to the thermostat simply to check the settings. There’s also a little green leaf that appears when your temperature is set for maximum energy savings.

Nest sends daily and monthly energy history reports to your smartphone app, so you can tell how much power you’re using for heating or cooling during each hour of the day or day of the week, and adjust your energy consumption accordingly to save money. You might be able to get a discount on your home insurance, too. Plus $85 from ConEdison.

Smart Home Automation | Manhattan, NY

We’ve mentioned the Nest’s incredible ability to work with a huge variety of enabled devices for full smart home automation, but there’s one automation feature that’s directly related to the thermostat itself. If your home’s temperature gets so low that your pipes could freeze, or if Nest senses a potential problem with the heating system itself, it will immediately send an alert to your smartphone so you can take action right away.

By now, we hope you’ve seen that if you haven’t paid much attention to the publicity surrounding Nest, you should. DTV Installations can put a Nest thermostat in your home and integrate it with any other smart home devices or systems – and if you purchase it from us (since we’re an authorized dealer) it will be a free delivery and the installation will only cost $99 and take about an hour. Call us for a free, no-obligation quote today and we’ll show you how to turn your house into a smart Nest home.