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Could you elaborate on the Nest? I was considering getting one.

by snom380 13y ago

adriand 13y ago
Let me start with the positive: the Nest is beautifully designed and easy to install and in every respect appears to be a high quality product. The negative, for me and my coworkers (the Nest is at my office - it was a gift from a client), is very simple: there are times when you find yourself asking the question, "Why the hell is the heat / air conditioning on right now?" This never happens with a normal thermostat. The basic issue, as far as I can tell, is that the Nest learns from people. This seems like a benefit but when you consider the way people behave doesn't work out that way in practice. People get hot because they just exercised; or they get cold because they got a chill waiting for the bus; or they are naturally warmer or colder than someone else; or they're coming down with something, etc. They change the temperature of the office as a result. And maybe a bit later someone else changes it back, or changes it more, or whatever. So you end up with these weird patterns where the heat is at 19C usually, but for a two hour period in the morning it jumps to 22C, then goes back to 19C, then back to 20C for an hour in the afternoon, etc. Our previous office thermostat, where you programmed a weekly schedule but could set it to a new temperature for three hours before it went back to its schedule, worked much better in practice. These days I believe we have the Nest just set to keep things at a constant temperature all the time, which really defeats the purpose and is worse for resource usage than our old thermostat.
- dangrossman 13y ago
  All of Nest's learning features can be individually enabled/disabled, at least. If you don't want the automatic scheduling, you can turn it off and set the schedule yourself. You'll still benefit from the other things it does that other thermostats don't (learn when it's in direct sunlight to compensate, manage your humidity, learn how efficient your heat/air is so that it can reach scheduled temperatures at the scheduled time by turning on early, keep your office cooler with less a/c usage by running the fan a while even after the condenser shuts off). In a home, being able to turn the temperature up or down a degree with your phone when you're on a different floor than the thermostat is nice.
  - adriand 13y ago
    Thanks for the tips, I'll dig into it a little more.
- Florin_Andrei 13y ago
  This appears to be one of those situations when you need either: A) A dumb old-school programmable thermostat or B) A Star Trek computer for the house, that understands people.
- Tobu 13y ago
  So it's overlearning, and it's hard to improve on that with the deliberately limited inputs.

Could you elaborate on the Nest? I was considering getting one.

by snom380 13y ago

Could you elaborate on the Nest? I was considering getting one.

Let me start with the positive: the Nest is beautifully designed and easy to install and in every respect appears to be a high quality product. The negative, for me and my coworkers (the Nest is at my office - it was a gift from a client), is very simple: there are times when you find yourself asking the question, "Why the hell is the heat / air conditioning on right now?" This never happens with a normal thermostat. The basic issue, as far as I can tell, is that the Nest learns from people. This seems like a benefit but when you consider the way people behave doesn't work out that way in practice. People get hot because they just exercised; or they get cold because they got a chill waiting for the bus; or they are naturally warmer or colder than someone else; or they're coming down with something, etc. They change the temperature of the office as a result. And maybe a bit later someone else changes it back, or changes it more, or whatever. So you end up with these weird patterns where the heat is at 19C usually, but for a two hour period in the morning it jumps to 22C, then goes back to 19C, then back to 20C for an hour in the afternoon, etc. Our previous office thermostat, where you programmed a weekly schedule but could set it to a new temperature for three hours before it went back to its schedule, worked much better in practice. These days I believe we have the Nest just set to keep things at a constant temperature all the time, which really defeats the purpose and is worse for resource usage than our old thermostat.

dangrossman 13y ago
All of Nest's learning features can be individually enabled/disabled, at least. If you don't want the automatic scheduling, you can turn it off and set the schedule yourself. You'll still benefit from the other things it does that other thermostats don't (learn when it's in direct sunlight to compensate, manage your humidity, learn how efficient your heat/air is so that it can reach scheduled temperatures at the scheduled time by turning on early, keep your office cooler with less a/c usage by running the fan a while even after the condenser shuts off). In a home, being able to turn the temperature up or down a degree with your phone when you're on a different floor than the thermostat is nice.
- adriand 13y ago
  Thanks for the tips, I'll dig into it a little more.
Florin_Andrei 13y ago
This appears to be one of those situations when you need either: A) A dumb old-school programmable thermostat or B) A Star Trek computer for the house, that understands people.
Tobu 13y ago
So it's overlearning, and it's hard to improve on that with the deliberately limited inputs.