Nest says that its smart thermostat is a simple way to save money on heating bills in the future. It looks nice and is easy to use, but the price might make some people think twice. After using the device for a year, we found that it saved us energy. The difference you see will depend on your house and how you heat it, though.
Google gives you everything you need to install the thermostat in your home, right down to a screwdriver with a flat-head and a Phillips-head bit that can be switched. Once you’ve turned off the circuit breaker that powers your old thermostat, all you have to do is remove the wires and the mounting plate.
Now that this is done, the installation can start. Google made it so that it could be attached to both wood and drywall with self-tapping screws. With the included driver, it was easy to screw in the fasteners, and the included mounting unit was held securely in place by the wire fasteners that were always marked. A thoughtful bubble level just below the top screw made it easy to make sure it was level.
But the Nest Learning Thermostat is different from Google’s other smart thermostats because it doesn’t always need a C wire. Instead, it can “pulse” your system on for a minute or two at a time to get enough power from the wiring to keep itself charged.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is made up of two parts. There’s the thermostat itself, which can be mounted on the wall (in place of the old thermostat, for example) or put on a stand, which is sold separately. In this mode, you’ll need to put the Nest near a power outlet and close enough to your router to reach it (you will need Wi-Fi). The heat link is the other part. This is the part that will control the boiler and talk to the thermostat wirelessly.
The design of the thermostat is kind of like the click wheel on an Apple iPod. Not surprising, since Nest was made by the same person who made the iPod more than ten years ago. It is made of high-quality materials like glass and brushed metal, and it looks much better than a regular thermostat.
The LCD screen on the thermostat has a resolution of 480 x 480 pixels, which is more than enough to see everything you need to see. The target temperature is shown in bold letters in the middle of the display, while the current temperature is shown on the outer ring. There are temperature, humidity, light, and activity sensors in the sensor window.