I remember seeing Nest a while ago when Kevin Rose tweeted & talked about it. I’m a real geek when it comes to eco technology & energy saving so i was very excited to finally get hold of Nest.
I finally found it in John Lewis in Liverpool. I had completely forgot that it had been released due to moving house but I’m glad I spotted it.
Nest is a smart thermostat which has learning capabilities & the ability to control it from an Android or iOS app.
The blurb for nest is as follows :-
Most people leave the house at one temperature and forget to change it. So the Nest Learning Thermostat learns your schedule, programs itself and can be controlled from your phone. Teach it well and the Nest Thermostat can lower your heating and cooling bills up to 20%.
This is the holy grail for eco folks. The thermostat learns your heating routines & the temperatures you tend to set at different times of the day. The idea being that as it becomes more aware your intervention with your thermostat is reduced & subsequently you save money on your heating bills.
As a product this thing is amazing. Aside from the fact it can be set to turn your heating off when you leave the house and switch it back on when you return, the product itself is actually very attractive. The design is spot on & it has a solid feel. The OS is operated by twisting the external body of the thermostat left and right, similar to the original ipods, and when you click it down the menu item displayed on the small LCD is drilled down. It has loads of settings & can tell you historical savings & heating changes. I really like the OS and I think it will be simple for most people to quickly get to grips with.
The brushed steel body and beautiful display really do allow this product to bring central heating into the 21st century. The thermostat allows you to program the heating also so no more trekking out into the workshop like I’ve always had to do when I wanted to adjust the timing of the boiler or turn it off or on.
One of the biggest draws for me is the automatic switching off/on when you leave/return home. I’m in and out a lot during the day & I’m always operating the programmer & thermostat. Furthermore we travel to Scotland on a regular basis and always turn the heating off when we are away. This means the house is freezing when we come back. With nest you can open the app and remotely switch on your central heating, perfect to do a few hours before you arrive home.
The Nest Thermostat connects to your home network via WiFi via standard 802.11b/g/n and comes complete with a two year warranty. It’s also equipped with a built in rechargeable lithium ion battery so should have plenty of battery life and plenty of charge cycles in it. The box contains the thermostat (display & base) and a heat link unit along with power cord, power plug, wall screws, installation guide, welcome guide and nest certified installation card.
The sales people didn’t have much information. I’m aware this is a new product but when asking about installation & costs it wasn’t made very clear. I’m under the impression you can self install or have it installed at a cost. The thermostat on it’s own is priced at £179 and installed it’s £249 so not exactly cheap but will pay for itself in no time.
Nest is available directly from the manufacturer & you can have a hands on play with it in John Lewis stores.
I will be purchasing one of these but I’m currently on the hunt for a new place to live so I’ll wait until i move in before getting one & paying to have it fitted.
Have you had a Nest thermostat installed? How have you found it with regards cost/energy saving & in general use? I would love to hear what you think.
