Any one using a Nest thermostat? (1 Viewer)

[JoeSteeler]

$14.999 with code 100NEST

http://simplisafe.com/nest-learning-thermostat

 

[JoeSteeler]

$14.999 with code 100NEST

http://simplisafe.com/nest-learning-thermostat

 

[joker]

Been using this for about 10 months now and absolutely love it. My heating & A/C bills are down, I can control it from my phone, and I can lock it so the girls can't play with the thermostat.

One thing I noticed, though - I put a wireless repeater in the outlet below it and the Nest instantly showed up as offline and my lock code wouldn't work on it. I suffered with this for a few weeks and contacted the Nest tech support, but they couldn't see it, either. I noticed the repeater plugged in and removed it, and bam, the Nest came back online from my phone and laptop. I assume the repeater was interfering with the wireless signal, so word to the wise...

 

[bushdocda]

Didn't find a better thread via search...I would like to manage a property somewhat remotely with smart thermostat and door locks. 

Nest seems very popular / capable but more options exist now. Lots of door locks that can be controlled via phone to avoid need to keys as well.  I want to see what products pair best/easiest  

Anyone have a successful pairing of thermostat and door locks and hub and phone - I am trying to use iPhone and avoid needed multiple hubs to connect. Thoughts?

thanks!

 

[Don Quixote]

Got my wife a Nest thermostat for Mothers' Day. Despite the unromantic gesture, it has been a hit.

I'm not that savvy about this sort of stuff, but installation was pretty easy. Before I ordered, I sent a photo of my current wiring in an online chat with support to make sure my setup was compatible.  In addition to confirming compatibility, they e-mailed me a customized installation/wiring guide.

It has been nice to control from the phone; our thermostat is downstairs, so it is good to be able to change while in the bedroom upstairs. We also have it paired with an Alexa and Alexa Dot.

 

[El Floppo]

Didn't find a better thread via search...I would like to manage a property somewhat remotely with smart thermostat and door locks. 

Nest seems very popular / capable but more options exist now. Lots of door locks that can be controlled via phone to avoid need to keys as well.  I want to see what products pair best/easiest  

Anyone have a successful pairing of thermostat and door locks and hub and phone - I am trying to use iPhone and avoid needed multiple hubs to connect. Thoughts?

thanks!

I've put your question in to one of my A/V contractors... hopefully will get an answer for you.

otherwise- the NEST website has a "works with nest" section.. includes what appear to be locking/security items- but I'll let you do the further research.

 

[Quez]

Didn't find a better thread via search...I would like to manage a property somewhat remotely with smart thermostat and door locks. 

Nest seems very popular / capable but more options exist now. Lots of door locks that can be controlled via phone to avoid need to keys as well.  I want to see what products pair best/easiest  

Anyone have a successful pairing of thermostat and door locks and hub and phone - I am trying to use iPhone and avoid needed multiple hubs to connect. Thoughts?

thanks!

I'm not familiar with any of the locks, but I did get a "smart garage door" installed recently.  It's the Aladin wifi connect on genie models.   It's pretty cool, not as slick of an app as nest, but it works.  I have had a few times where the wifi disconnects though, but it could be a range issue.

Eta. I should probably put this in the homeowners thread, but a garage door / motor upgrade is a great investment.  They aren't too expensive, and they are much quieter these days.  The old one sounded like a garbage truck crushing trash everytime I opened it.  This one is whisper quiet.

 

[bushdocda]

I've put your question in to one of my A/V contractors... hopefully will get an answer for you.

otherwise- the NEST website has a "works with nest" section.. includes what appear to be locking/security items- but I'll let you do the further research.

Thanks - much appreciated. I saw that page and the Yale Linus lock/nest combo looks like it would kick ###.  It's not available yet that I can see although it's coming in 2017...

edit to add - just live chatted with Yale and the Linus will not be available until October. 

 

[joker]

I'm not familiar with any of the locks, but I did get a "smart garage door" installed recently.  It's the Aladin wifi connect on genie models.   It's pretty cool, not as slick of an app as nest, but it works.  I have had a few times where the wifi disconnects though, but it could be a range issue.

Eta. I should probably put this in the homeowners thread, but a garage door / motor upgrade is a great investment.  They aren't too expensive, and they are much quieter these days.  The old one sounded like a garbage truck crushing trash everytime I opened it.  This one is whisper quiet.

Roughly how much was the controller, and how much was the installation if you had it done? If you did it yourself, how long did it take? I'm interested in doing this same upgrade.

 

[El Floppo]

Thanks - much appreciated. I saw that page and the Yale Linus lock/nest combo looks like it would kick ###.  It's not available yet that I can see although it's coming in 2017...

edit to add - just live chatted with Yale and the Linus will not be available until October. 

oh... too bad about October. 

I just heard back from my A/V guy- he says he doesn't know of any off-hand that are linked, other than Crestron... but that gets into using a central system and becomes expensive fast.

 

[offdee]

I've done some research on these types of smart thermostats and before purchasing a Nest, do yourself a favor and look into the Echobee 3.  Does all the same stuff as the Nest, but has a cool feature where you can purchase additional sensors that you place in different rooms of your house and it monitors the temperature of the whole house to keep it regulated..... not just the temperature of the room where the thermostat is located (like all other thermostats do).   With those sensors the thermostat can read when people are in and out of those rooms and heat up or cool down as needed when people are actually in them.   The base thermostat comes with one extra sensor, but you can purchase up to 32 sensors to put all over the house if one wanted.

I have the thermostat and 3 sensors personally, so can read 4 total different temperature points throughout the important rooms of the house  (living room & kitchen downstairs and 2 of the opposite corner bedrooms upstairs...one being the master BR)

 

[El Floppo]

I've done some research on these types of smart thermostats and before purchasing a Nest, do yourself a favor and look into the Echobee 3.  Does all the same stuff as the Nest, but has a cool feature where you can purchase additional sensors that you place in different rooms of your house and it monitors the temperature of the whole house to keep it regulated..... not just the temperature of the room where the thermostat is located (like all other thermostats do).   With those sensors the thermostat can read when people are in and out of those rooms and heat up or cool down as needed when people are actually in them.   The base thermostat comes with one extra sensor, but you can purchase up to 32 sensors to put all over the house if one wanted.

I have the thermostat and 3 sensors personally, so can read 4 total different temperature points throughout the important rooms of the house  (living room, kitchen, 2 upstairs bedrooms)

the nest doesn't have sensors? 

I'll have to look back at a recent project to see what we did- swore we had nest with our typical sensors... but it was on Lutron, so might have been separate.

eta:  we used the Nest smoke detectors, not thermostats.

 

[offdee]

the nest doesn't have sensors? 

I'll have to look back at a recent project to see what we did- swore we had nest with our typical sensors... but it was on Lutron, so might have been separate.

eta:  we used the Nest smoke detectors, not thermostats.

https://www.cnet.com/news/move-over-nest-were-swapping-the-ecobee3-into-the-cnet-smart-home/

 

[SWC]

I've done some research on these types of smart thermostats and before purchasing a Nest, do yourself a favor and look into the Echobee 3.  Does all the same stuff as the Nest, but has a cool feature where you can purchase additional sensors that you place in different rooms of your house and it monitors the temperature of the whole house to keep it regulated..... not just the temperature of the room where the thermostat is located (like all other thermostats do).   With those sensors the thermostat can read when people are in and out of those rooms and heat up or cool down as needed when people are actually in them.   The base thermostat comes with one extra sensor, but you can purchase up to 32 sensors to put all over the house if one wanted.

I have the thermostat and 3 sensors personally, so can read 4 total different temperature points throughout the important rooms of the house  (living room & kitchen downstairs and 2 of the opposite corner bedrooms upstairs...one being the master BR)

unless you have zone dampers within your ductwork which most homes do not have the thermostat does not have the ability to add heat or cool to individual rooms maybe maybe maybe some homes have two zones such as an first floor and second floor and then you could control the heat and cool on the separate floors but that still is not room by room i am just sayin that your post makes as much sense as a scale to measure something subjective bam take that to the bank brohans 

 

[offdee]

unless you have zone dampers within your ductwork which most homes do not have the thermostat does not have the ability to add heat or cool to individual rooms maybe maybe maybe some homes have two zones such as an first floor and second floor and then you could control the heat and cool on the separate floors but that still is not room by room i am just sayin that your post makes as much sense as a scale to measure something subjective bam take that to the bank brohans 

The sensors accomplish a couple of things..

1) instead of just regulating the temperature in the room that the thermostat is placed, it reads the temperature in all of the rooms that the sensors are in.   If all rooms with sensors are occupied, than it will average out the temperature of all.  If there's only people in one of the rooms with a sensor than it will read that one room's temperature and make sure it's at the desired temp.   With regular thermostats they just read the temp in the room they are installed in...so if that room is darker and cooler than say the upstairs bedroom full of sunlight...than that upstairs bedroom is getting jipped with cool A/C becuase the thermostat thinks the whole house is already as cool as the room it's installed in.

2) The program on the Ecobee 3 allows a "home" and "away" settings. The sensors in the heavy traffic'd rooms allows that setting to kick in...it now knows if you're home and will regulate temps accordingly based on movements in the space rather than an archaic "set to cool down at 4:30pm".  So, ultimately more immediate and non-manual temp comfort and also $$$ savings by heat or AC not being on when nobody is home.

 

[Quez]

Roughly how much was the controller, and how much was the installation if you had it done? If you did it yourself, how long did it take? I'm interested in doing this same upgrade.

Im not 100% sure.  Off the top of my head, +/- $400 for the garage repair (springs broke). He charged me about  $75 to swap out all of the rollers with plastic ones.

He told me to go to Lowe's and buy a new controller unit, and give him $60 cash to install.  I believe the opener was a little under $200

Also, for anyone that reads this, don't attempt to fix a garage door spring unless you know what your doing.  It's apparently very dangerous and you can kill yourself.

 

[SWC]

The sensors accomplish a couple of things..

1) instead of just regulating the temperature in the room that the thermostat is placed, it reads the temperature in all of the rooms that the sensors are in.   If all rooms with sensors are occupied, than it will average out the temperature of all.  If there's only people in one of the rooms with a sensor than it will read that one room's temperature and make sure it's at the desired temp.   With regular thermostats they just read the temp in the room they are installed in...so if that room is darker and cooler than say the upstairs bedroom full of sunlight...than that upstairs bedroom is getting jipped with cool A/C becuase the thermostat thinks the whole house is already as cool as the room it's installed in.

2) The program on the Ecobee 3 allows a "home" and "away" settings. The sensors in the heavy traffic'd rooms allows that setting to kick in...it now knows if you're home and will regulate temps accordingly based on movements in the space rather than an archaic "set to cool down at 4:30pm".  So, ultimately more immediate and non-manual temp comfort and also $$$ savings by heat or AC not being on when nobody is home.

first off what you typed here is a good clarification because no one should think that any of these fancy pants sensors are actually capable of somehow magically heating or cooling just one room everyone needs to understand that in order to do that you need room by room zoning which is common in commerical but not residential construction and is expensive all these do is make the system run to accomodate the worst performing room in a system take that to the bank bromigos 

 

[SWC]

continuining from above so that this is not one big block of text what i mean is that back in the day we would balance a homes system and by that i mean we would adjust dampers and flows through different duct runs to ensure that when you set the one thermostat to 70 for example every room got pretty darn close to 70 normally within 2 to 3 degrees which is pretty acceptable and common in residential  and if you really cared about that you would do the damper adjustments seasonally and have marks where you wanted things set during heating and cooling seasons take that to the to be continued bank brohans 

 

[SWC]

so if your home is not balanced and to use mr ridiculous arbitrary scales example you have one room on a second floor with a lot of heat gain that stays warmer than other rooms and now you have a sensor in there and the system is going to trigger to try and cool that one room you are going to run the hell out of your system shorten its life and pay buco utility bills for that pleasure so all i am saying is that be careful what you wish for a fancy box that looks like hal is nifty until it ends up costing you more on the front end and then every month after that because of its neato cheeto sensors and that my bromigos is savings that you can indeed take to the bank 

 

[El Floppo]

first off what you typed here is a good clarification because no one should think that any of these fancy pants sensors are actually capable of somehow magically heating or cooling just one room everyone needs to understand that in order to do that you need room by room zoning which is common in commerical but not residential construction and is expensive all these do is make the system run to accomodate the worst performing room in a system take that to the bank bromigos 

fwiw- all the homes/apartments we do are zoned. I didn't think people still built houses that weren't with at least an upstairs/downstairs zone.

 

[SWC]

first off what you typed here is a good clarification because no one should think that any of these fancy pants sensors are actually capable of somehow magically heating or cooling just one room everyone needs to understand that in order to do that you need room by room zoning which is common in commerical but not residential construction and is expensive all these do is make the system run to accomodate the worst performing room in a system take that to the bank bromigos 

fwiw- all the homes/apartments we do are zoned. I didn't think people still built houses that weren't with at least an upstairs/downstairs zone.

hey man i think that no football guys would do that but for most people out there that dont have fancy wicker furniture if there is only one ac compressor outside the house there is normally only one zone in my experience and that zone is the entire house but the stuff i know is old and probably not what one would classify as luxurious take that to the rust belt production worker bank bromigo 

 

[SWC]

i also think that kc guy is the guy to ask i think he is an out in the field hvac brohan so ignore me and listen to that bromigo he knows his stuff tak ethat to the bank 

 

[bushdocda]

Thanks all. 

Looks like I can use z wave technology products to get to a single hub that supports both the thermostat and locks. Can anyone help me confirm this for a tech stupid?

http://www.z-wave.com/shop-z-wave-smart-home-products/category/smart-hubs,smart-locks,smart-thermostats

 

[Ned]

The sensors accomplish a couple of things..

1) instead of just regulating the temperature in the room that the thermostat is placed, it reads the temperature in all of the rooms that the sensors are in.   If all rooms with sensors are occupied, than it will average out the temperature of all.  If there's only people in one of the rooms with a sensor than it will read that one room's temperature and make sure it's at the desired temp.   With regular thermostats they just read the temp in the room they are installed in...so if that room is darker and cooler than say the upstairs bedroom full of sunlight...than that upstairs bedroom is getting jipped with cool A/C becuase the thermostat thinks the whole house is already as cool as the room it's installed in.

2) The program on the Ecobee 3 allows a "home" and "away" settings. The sensors in the heavy traffic'd rooms allows that setting to kick in...it now knows if you're home and will regulate temps accordingly based on movements in the space rather than an archaic "set to cool down at 4:30pm".  So, ultimately more immediate and non-manual temp comfort and also $$$ savings by heat or AC not being on when nobody is home.

I've wanted to do this for a while, but I just can't get past those sensors being battery operated.  How often are you swapping batteries?

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Still have one for sale. 

 

[offdee]

I've wanted to do this for a while, but I just can't get past those sensors being battery operated.  How often are you swapping batteries?

From FAQ on site..

--

How long does the wireless remote sensor battery last?

The wireless remote sensors use a coin cell battery (CR2032) battery that will last up to 4 years on average.

 

[offdee]

I see there's now an Ecobee 4 that just came out in the past couple of weeks.  Looks like the only difference from the E3 is that the E4 now has Alexa/Amazon Echo built into it (so it acts as your Echo hub and no need to purchase a standalone separate Echo)...has a microphone and speakers built into it.

Also read that by the end of the year instead of those separate room sensors that sit on a shelf, counter, etc. they will have light switches you can install that will then ultimately act as the chosen room sensors. Pretty cool.  

I'm still torn on the Echo/Alexa built into the thermostat idea with kids around...don't want them catching on and constantly telling it to heat up/down every time they pass by it.  Or the idea of them running over to the thermostat and asking it to tell it a joke or what the score of the game was last night.   The rational part of me just wants the kids (and ultimately the wife) to just stay away from the thermostat....not drawing them to it to eff around with it all the time.

 

[heckmanm]

Just got a notice that my power company is offering a rebate, so it may be time to pull the trigger.  Looks like they go with Ecobee.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Anyone using one of these? How about the Ecobee? I keep going back and forth.

My house has one zone for the heating and AC for the multiple floors (2 story and a finished basement), so I was at first interested in the Ecobee since they had the remote sensors. Now that the Nest is coming out with them (this month sometime-ish) it is back in contention.

I like the Nest more, but I am not sure how it will work, since I am an Apple junkie and have all Mac and iOS devices. I understand the Nest doesn't connect with the Apple HomeKit system, but how well does it work with Apple devices?

TIA!

 

[The Commish]

Anyone using one of these? How about the Ecobee? I keep going back and forth.

My house has one zone for the heating and AC for the multiple floors (2 story and a finished basement), so I was at first interested in the Ecobee since they had the remote sensors. Now that the Nest is coming out with them (this month sometime-ish) it is back in contention.

I like the Nest more, but I am not sure how it will work, since I am an Apple junkie and have all Mac and iOS devices. I understand the Nest doesn't connect with the Apple HomeKit system, but how well does it work with Apple devices?

TIA!

I have two of the Ecobee 4s (with alexa).  Easy to put in, work just fine and easy to control from phone.

 

[heckmanm]

I got an Ecobee last summer.  One caveat on installation: There's a way that the existing thermostat may be wired where it isn't nearly as simple to install.  I don't recall the exact details but I think if you don't have a "C" wire then there's an extra module that has to be installed on the furnace itself.

 

[Don Quixote]

Anyone using one of these? How about the Ecobee? I keep going back and forth.

My house has one zone for the heating and AC for the multiple floors (2 story and a finished basement), so I was at first interested in the Ecobee since they had the remote sensors. Now that the Nest is coming out with them (this month sometime-ish) it is back in contention.

I like the Nest more, but I am not sure how it will work, since I am an Apple junkie and have all Mac and iOS devices. I understand the Nest doesn't connect with the Apple HomeKit system, but how well does it work with Apple devices?

TIA!

I control Nest from my iPhone and iPad.  No issues on compatibility there.  I don't use HomeKit.

 

[Mr. Ected]

I got an Ecobee last summer.  One caveat on installation: There's a way that the existing thermostat may be wired where it isn't nearly as simple to install.  I don't recall the exact details but I think if you don't have a "C" wire then there's an extra module that has to be installed on the furnace itself.

Thanks for the heads-up!

I checked mine, and it has a 'C' wire. The thermostat that is there now is more than a plain-old-ordinary one, it just isn't Smart, with ability for remote sensors.

 

[heckmanm]

Thanks for the heads-up!

I checked mine, and it has a 'C' wire. The thermostat that is there now is more than a plain-old-ordinary one, it just isn't Smart, with ability for remote sensors.

I think that should make for a pretty simple install then.  I didn't have one (despite already having a programmable), so went with a tech to do my install.

 

[Johnny Bing]

Thanks for the heads-up!

I checked mine, and it has a 'C' wire. The thermostat that is there now is more than a plain-old-ordinary one, it just isn't Smart, with ability for remote sensors.

Install will  be very quick.  I installed an Ecobee Alexa with room sensor last summer and it took probably 15 minutes. 

I use Apple products and haven't had any issues with it.  One zone house for both AC and Heat.  Only thing i did was deactivate Alexa on it, as it was causing some issues sometimes talking with my Amazon Alexa in the kitchen.  So I just shut off the Ecobee since I can control it with other means. 

I like the fact that it wakes up when you walk by and the outside weather temp/conditions are right on the screen.  If you click the icon it brings up more details, but it is nice for me as I walk by that in the morning and it allows be to see quickly what the temp is outside. 

 

[Mr. Ected]

Thanks for the heads-up!

I checked mine, and it has a 'C' wire. The thermostat that is there now is more than a plain-old-ordinary one, it just isn't Smart, with ability for remote sensors.

Install will  be very quick.  I installed an Ecobee Alexa with room sensor last summer and it took probably 15 minutes. 

I use Apple products and haven't had any issues with it.  One zone house for both AC and Heat.  Only thing i did was deactivate Alexa on it, as it was causing some issues sometimes talking with my Amazon Alexa in the kitchen.  So I just shut off the Ecobee since I can control it with other means. 

I like the fact that it wakes up when you walk by and the outside weather temp/conditions are right on the screen.  If you click the icon it brings up more details, but it is nice for me as I walk by that in the morning and it allows be to see quickly what the temp is outside.

Stupid question, can you change the name you call an Alexa? I have a son named Alex. Thought that might conflict some!

 

[Don Quixote]

Stupid question, can you change the name you call an Alexa? I have a son named Alex. Thought that might conflict some!

You can.  I haven't done it personally, but I think you can change it to call it "Computer."

ETA: Nevermind, just realized you were talking about Ecobee Alexa, and not Amazon Echo/Alexa.

 

[Johnny Bing]

Stupid question, can you change the name you call an Alexa? I have a son named Alex. Thought that might conflict some!

You can, I have it set to Echo, but for some reason it was communicating with each other and the Eco was doing some odd things, so i just turned it off on the Eco.  

 

[Mr. Ected]

Stupid question, can you change the name you call an Alexa? I have a son named Alex. Thought that might conflict some!

You can.  I haven't done it personally, but I think you can change it to call it "Computer."

ETA: Nevermind, just realized you were talking about Ecobee Alexa, and not Amazon Echo/Alexa.

Actually starting to do smart things in the house, and realize the Alexa might be an easy way to combine and manage them. I buy stuff from Amazon all the time, so it would come in handy.