Nest Learning Thermostat - 1st Generation T100577

After reading many reviews mostly positive and some negative, I decided to take a chance and ordered it. Free shipping from Amazon to my door in Calgary, Alberta the thermostat arrived in 4 days. I was concerned about the install, but it was amazingly simple and I had it installed in 15 minutes or less by myself. My heating system is simple, one forced air furnace and no air-conditioning (it is Calgary folks..) so I only had 2 wires to deal with. After reading some reviews about the device not drawing enough power to operate correctly, I was concerned given my simple wiring scheme that I might also experience the thermostat shutting off the wireless antenna to conserve power. Happily after 4 weeks, I have not had one issue with the device. Wireless connection to my Netgear R6300 AC router has never lost connection. I can view my energy useage per day, control the thermostat from my Iphone or Ipad and enjoy the slick interface everytime I walk by the unit as it senses my approach. I set up all the schedules myself instead of letting the unit 'Learn" our schedule because my wife and I are fairly consistent in our routines (kids are all gone now). Setting up the weekly schedule took 10 minutes at most, but it would have been quicker had I known I could just copy and paste similar schedules during our work week. It was pretty cold today and I came home early (snow storm coming) so I just turned up the thermostat from my iphone as I drove home so the house was nice and toasty when I arrived 30 minutes later. What more can you want from a thermostat? It is pricey, but it is worth it from my perspective because we Canadians burn a lot of money during the long winters here. The thing I noticed most was that the house is always at a consistant temperature. My old thermostat could not calculate temperature as exactly as this one and would let the house cool for a few degrees before the furnace would kick in. The Nest kicks in when the house drops 1/2 degree so you never feel too chilled. I highly recommend this product.

I've owned mine now for almost 3 months. One thing I can say about it is that it's simply wonderful. It's gorgeous to look at, everyone comments that it looks like we have a sophisticated camera system in the house. Then the sensor senses their movement and the screen turns on to tell them what the temp is in the house. Everyone thinks it's magic! hah You can download apps for IOS and Android to control your thermostat from anywhere in the world, as long as it's connected to a wireless network!

From the mobile app you can...
- Check and change your Nest's temperature remotely
- View and edit your Nest's schedule remotely
- View when and for how long your heating and cooling system was on for the last 10 days
- Access the settings of your home's Nest Learning Thermostat
- Find out if you're saving energy with the Nest Leaf
- Enable unique System Match energy-saving features tuned for your home and - system type

The thermostats software had an update on Oct 2nd. 3.0 I love the new features!
~ Early-On - Get the temperature you want when you want it. If your schedule says 72ºF at 6am, Early-On will start heating or cooling early so it’ll be 72ºF when your alarm rings at 6:00.
~ Filter Reminders - Filters are incredibly important for systems that blow air out of vents. A clogged filter can increase your bill by 5%. Unlike other thermostats that just alert you once a year or once a month to change the filter, Nest’s Filter Reminders are based on how many hours you’ve used heat or AC. That means they’ll only show up when you actually need them.
~ Enhanced Auto-Away - Now Auto-Away is even better at understanding if you’re home or not. When it’s sure you’re gone, Auto-Away can now turn on as quickly as a half hour after you leave the house. And if Nest doesn’t detect any activity for a while but knows you’re usually home at this time, it’ll wait longer before activating Auto-Away.

...And a few other improvements. These three mean the most to me personally.

The upfront cost is kind of steep. But I have to say, it's really worth it. If you're annoyed by your current thermostat (like I was) or you're doing a reno I would definitely recommend giving this one some serious thought.

Visit their website for further details, there's so much I couldn't include.

UPDATE: New Summer Software, May 2013

"Sunblock
In 60% of homes, the thermostat is in direct sunlight at some point during the year, heating up and reading temperatures up to 25ºF (14°C) higher than reality. In the summer, that means the AC runs overtime. In the winter, the furnace may not turn on at all. It’s frustrating for customers and one of the big issues we hear about in customer support and our online community.

So Nest invented Sunblock for your thermostat. Sunblock senses when Nest is in direct sunlight and automatically adjusts so Nest reads and sets the correct temperature. It uses Nest’s built-in light sensor to track the sun’s patterns and temperature sensors to detect—and adapt to—heat spikes from the sun. Sunblock is enabled by default in every Nest thermostat, and will turn on after at least one day of Nest being in direct sunlight. Look for the little sun icon on Nest’s display.

Advanced Fan Control
If we’ve learned one thing about our customers in the last year, it’s this: they really like fans. And for good reason: circulating the air keeps homes from getting stuffy, maintains an even temperature throughout the house, and can sometimes save energy. With Advanced Fan Control, you can now schedule the fan to run all night and turn off in the morning, run for a few minutes every hour, or just turn on at 6pm when you get home from work.

Cool to Dry
If you live in an excessively humid area (see: Florida) and don’t have a dehumidifier, you already know the only way to control humidity - and the mold that comes with it—is with the air conditioner. With Cool to Dry, Nest uses its humidity sensor to detect when humidity reaches potentially unhealthy levels. Then it automatically turns on the air conditioner when needed—for as long as its needed—to help keep your home dry. This feature is only meant for homes in extremely humid climates.

Enhanced Auto-Away
With our last update, we improved Auto-Away so it could turn on as quickly as 30 minutes after you walked out the door. Now, Auto-Away has gotten much better at understanding when you’re coming home. Say you leave in the morning and your schedule says to turn on the AC at 2pm. If Nest thinks you’ll be home in the afternoon, it’ll pause Auto-Away and turn down the temperature at 2pm so you’ll come home to a cool house. However, if you usually come home at 6pm, then Auto-Away will skip over that 2pm temperature and help you save energy all day long.

Mobile app updates
We’ve updated the Nest Mobile app for iOS and Android to make it more natural to change the temperature—it’s just like turning the ring on Nest itself. We’ve also added messages, so Nest can send you a message on the Web or Mobile app when you need to change your filter, for example.

Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune technology finds new opportunities to save you energy, then helps you take advantage of them. We’ve created two features powered by Auto-Tune that are currently available to customers of our new energy partners:

Rush Hour Rewards - You could earn $20-60 back from your energy provider this summer. It’s simple: Rush Hour Rewards helps you use less energy while everyone else is using more, which earns you money from your energy company.
Seasonal Savings - Seasonal Savings automatically fine-tunes your schedule over several weeks to help you save energy and stay comfortable. In our trials, it's helped Nesters use 5-10% less heating and cooling."

This info was taken from the Nest website. I did not write it, but I sure do love the improvements!

OK, straight up, I'm a techie. I like having most of the latest gadgets, and this one fits the bill nicely. I've got a smart phone, touch screen in my car, a tablet, etc, and now a smart thermostat.

I've had this now for about six months and I only had one problem. I have air conditioning and forced air gas furnace and I had a small problem that was a result of my furnace not having a C "common" wire going from the circuit board on the furnace up to the nest. I was able to easily run a new wire from the furnace to the thermostat with just putting one small hole in the wall. I'm handy so it was no big deal at all. Anyway, nest support was great about giving me some details on what I needed to do, and now that I have the C wire the nest has been flawless.

I work from home so I don't even really need the auto scheduling feature, which is of course it's biggest benefit. However, what I really like is being able to control the thermostat from my iPhone. Lots of times I'm on another floor of the house and I want to adjust the heat or turn the furnace fan on or off to better regulate the whole house temperature and it's great to be able to do it from my phone.

Pros:
- Simple interface
- Saves money by detecting when you're away
- Looks cool
- It turns on when you walk by (motion sensor), nice touch!
- Monthly usage report by e-mail

Cons:
- No way to schedule furnace fan to run at intervals, for example 10 minutes each hour (if it did this it would be perfect as it would help maintain a consistent temperature on different levels in the house)
- Phone app needs to give more historical data on usage