The Nest Thermostat: Learn Your Home Habits With This Smart Tool

Smart home technology has become increasingly popular, but the main reason seems to be that people like having remote access to their homes. In other cases, landlords and renters have embraced items like submeters that break down water use by tenant, a system that not only makes billing more accurate but also seems to reduce the amount of water renters use.

Now for those who are energy conscious, the thermostat has gone green with an educational streak. So if installing quality attic insulation or good windows hasn’t dropped your energy expenditures enough, it’s time to look into the Nest thermostat. Built by former Apple engineers and owned by Google, this thermostat has all the hallmarks of a success story. Here’s what it can do for you.

It Can Learn

The first thing most people recognize as remarkable about the Nest thermostat is that it can learn. While you have to control its settings when you first get it and program it to you liking, the Nest thermostat has the capacity to learn how you like your home heated. That’s pretty impressive for a thermostat, but Nest takes it even further.

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One setting on the Nest thermostat is Auto Away. Auto Away uses motion detection to determine whether anyone is home and can turn on within half an hour of you leaving the house, particularly if you usually leave at that time. On the other hand, if Nest doesn’t detect motion at a time when you’re typically home, it notes that and waits longer to switch to Auto Away.

It Measures Temperature, Humidity, And More

The typical programmable thermostat lets you set a few basic metrics. You can set a home temperature, have it lower the temperature when no one is home to reduce energy use, and then have it go back up shortly before you arrive. And for most people, that seems perfectly adequate. The Nest thermostat, however, takes this all a bit further.

Based on what the the thermostat knows about how you keep your home, it will adjust its settings if someone turns on the stove and so the house is heating up. Nest can also be very helpful if you live in an area where temperatures may fluctuate widely in the course of a day.

It Saves You Money

Because the Nest thermostat is so sensitive, there seems to be strong evidence that installing one can save you a significant amount of money each year. This should be weighed against the cost to buy and install one – the device doesn’t run cheap and costs even more if someone else installs it – but over the long term it has the potential to be a worth investment. It might even stop a few friendly thermostat wars.

Is It For You?

If you’re a renter of someone is home at your residence the majority of the time, a Nest thermostat may not be worth it, but if you’re an early homeowner intending to remain where you are for a long time, Nest is a great investment. No human has the internal sensitivity to monitor your home conditions to this extent. Trust Nest to keep your home comfortable in the most efficient way.