My Nest thermostat is saving me $30 a month

[gorcorps]

Funny since the thought crossed my mind to market the system I made, and this is EXACTLY one of the reasons I'm not doing it. The minute a new player for a certain type of device comes out, there's always some patent somewhere that gets broken and the newcomer does not stand a chance. Patents promote monopoly.

They don't merely promote monopoly, they were expressly designed to grant it. It was meant to drive invention by granting the inventor a temporary monopoly on their idea, in exchange for that person revealing their design/formula. Unfortunately patents these days are granted on a much more generic level than they used to be, especially with large companies. That coupled with a fairly lengthy time till expiration (20 years from filing) means we can see a lot of abuse, stifling markets from advancing at the rate they should be.

Competition is no longer driven by lots good ideas, it's driven by a single good idea that's ridden into the ground

 

[gorcorps]

Hmm does this thing really work or is it you never programmed your other thermostat properly? Like if I properly set it up to when I wake up, when I usually get home etc. will the Nest really save me that much?

I admit it looks cool as all hell and very futuristic and a neat addition to a home, but for 250 bucks... that's a lot.

I don't see it helping if you have a pretty set schedule. I can see it helping if things change for you often, so you can change your usual programming via the internet once you know you had to stay late or something.

 

[richardycc]

people are complaining about a $250 thermostat but are OK with a $300 video card. LOL.

 

[herrjimbo]

i love the looks of it. the price? a tad high. that being said, it would be very useful in the winter. the summer, that's another thing.

i like my windows open all the time in summer. unless it gets 85 and above, that is. with the windows open and i'm not home, the a/c will probably kick in, hence negating the savings.

 

[SlitheryDee]

It looks pretty cool, but I'm not thinking it's going to be an incredible upgrade over the thermostat I already have. I think I saved something like $50 a month after installing it.

 

[gorcorps]

people are complaining about a $250 thermostat but are OK with a $300 video card. LOL.

priorities

Plus in the winter, the PC will serve the purpose of a space heater so the thermo stat will barely be needed

 

[Tim]

I work for a company that is an authorized nest distributer, and I approve of this thread.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm does this thing really work or is it you never programmed your other thermostat properly? Like if I properly set it up to when I wake up, when I usually get home etc. will the Nest really save me that much?

I admit it looks cool as all hell and very futuristic and a neat addition to a home, but for 250 bucks... that's a lot.

Most programmable thermostats only give you 4 or 6 programs and it's usually for weekdays, and weekend. This is good for most people but if you work shifts or have an odd schedule you may need more fine tuning.

This is why I made my own solution as I could program it myself. I only put it live with a few months of winter left so I did not really notice any difference but I'll see next year.

The nest is nice for someone who does not want to fiddle with this stuff though.

 

[Rage187]

my previous thermostat came with the house and was not programmable.

 

[OutHouse]

Op how many watts did you use compare to may last year?

 

[Rage187]

Op how many watts did you use compare to may last year?

Alright my wife shredded the previous bill but I just got June.

Current billing period 33
Total kwh 1300
Avg kwh/day 39

Same period last year 30
Total kwh 1458
Avg kwh/day 48

Previous billing 29
Total kwh 1051
Avg kwh/day 36


Not sure why last year had different amount of days but it looks like a solid 20% savings and this year sure is hotter.

Bill this month $161
Last month $135

 

[iamwiz82]

As for Apple carrying it, I understand that it's a business decision, but the people behind Nest are also ex-Apple employees.

Aha, that's why the layout of the site was so familiar. Still I am intrigued....

 

[Zargon]

people are complaining about a $250 thermostat but are OK with a $300 video card. LOL.

my 7 day programmable honeywellP) was 70 bucks

I looked at nest and realized it wasnt worth it for me

esp since the stupid lights on it would try and guilt me into less AC all summer and my wife might listen

 

[mmntech]

people are complaining about a $250 thermostat but are OK with a $300 video card. LOL.

It's pretty clear that a $300 video card is vastly superior to a $50 one.

I guess the Nest is better because it's easy to program and basically has unlimited settings. I'm just not clear on what makes it worth $250. I've got one in my house that allows for 4 programs a day for 7 days. Was under $100. What more do I, or most people, need? Are people really that dumb that they can't program a clock?

 

[l0cke]

It seems pretty cool. Sparkfun has a teardown of it here
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/334

 

[Leros]

I don't think the Nest would work well for me since I'm at home with a fairly unpredictable schedule. I really need to get a wifi thermostat so I can start cooling down the house before heading home. I currently have it set to start cooling assuming that I'll be home from work at 6pm (about the earliest I get home), but I usually don't get home until 8-10pm.

 

[iamwiz82]

I don't think the Nest would work well for me since I'm at home with a fairly unpredictable schedule. I really need to get a wifi thermostat so I can start cooling down the house before heading home. I currently have it set to start cooling assuming that I'll be home from work at 6pm (about the earliest I get home), but I usually don't get home until 8-10pm.

Just picked mine up and installed it. There is an app for both Android and iOS to manage it, so you could control it remotely. It's also available via the web. My accounts automatically sync'd when I first signed into nest.com, I assume because we are coming from the same source IP. Otherwise there is a manual sync process using a key.

 

[Rage187]

Just picked mine up and installed it. There is an app for both Android and iOS to manage it, so you could control it remotely. It's also available via the web. My accounts automatically sync'd when I first signed into nest.com, I assume because we are coming from the same source IP. Otherwise there is a manual sync process using a key.

Enjoy it. So far the oly thing I don't like is you can't use auto away with a temperature range. What I do like is everything else including automatic software updates.

 

[TheTony]

If someone likes this thermostat but doesn't want to spend the $, you may want to check out the Filtrete 3M50, or other thermostats made by RTCoA. Includes built-in wifi and has nearly all of the features of the nest, save for the design and learning capability. At 40% of the price.

 

[K1052]

Installed this a few days ago to replace a super cheap POS programmable that didn't even know the correct temp to within 3 degrees. Happy with it so far. There are other units that offer comparable performance but the UI isn't as smooth and doesn't have all the same learning functions. Probably overspent what I needed to but it looks cool on the wall and the apps are really handy. Time will tell if it really saves much money.

 

[Imp]

No point in us getting one... entire house is f*cking retarded and opens the windows while AC is on all the time.

Reasoning is that "we have to let the hot air get out" and "we have to manually help control the temperature and ignore the programmable thermostat".

I went to graduate school with half my degree in building sciece. My mind is blown. FML.

 

[fatpat268]

Don't see the point in it either. When people are home, the thermostat is set to 75. When we leave, we up it to 80 or so. I'm not seeing how this would theoretically save me money. Yea, it learns... whatever. Still not worth $250, when a $50 programmable thermostat does the same damn thing.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Apple and Lowes just started carrying them in store and I have to trust they didn't see any merit in the suit.

More likely their distribution contract with Nest likely specifies that nest will indemnify them for patent infringement.

 

[Brainonska511]

No point in us getting one... entire house is f*cking retarded and opens the windows while AC is on all the time.

Reasoning is that "we have to let the hot air get out" and "we have to manually help control the temperature and ignore the programmable thermostat".

I went to graduate school with half my degree in building sciece. My mind is blown. FML.

That would just make me bash my head repeatedly into a wall.

On a related note, I once had a roommate in college who was a history major argue with me that adding some salt to boiling water would make it significantly hotter (eg: more than 2 degrees C hotter). I think I told him that you would have to add grams upon grams of salt to see such an effect. But why listen to the guy that was majoring in chemistry?!

 

[jagec]

That would just make me bash my head repeatedly into a wall.

On a related note, I once had a roommate in college who was a history major argue with me that adding some salt to boiling water would make it significantly hotter (eg: more than 2 degrees C hotter). I think I told him that you would have to add grams upon grams of salt to see such an effect. But why listen to the guy that was majoring in chemistry?! :rolleyes;

Far better to argue about what constitutes "significant".

As for the thermostat, it DOES look pretty slick, and if you don't already have a programmable thermostat (or just don't program it correctly) the savings could be significant. Since I already have a reasonable high-end programmable thermostat, though, I don't see it being worth it *for me*, even though their web interface looks a lot nicer than mine.