But my family and I are home 90% of the time except when we are not. Usually an impromptu dinner or outing gets us all out. Or we travel for a couple weeks. How well does Nest handle a schedule when we are home 90% and not leaving?
Planning on buying two Nests - up and down. But my family and I are home 90% of the time except when we are not. Usually an impromptu dinner or outing gets us all out. Or we travel for a couple weeks.
How well does Nest handle a schedule when we are home 90% and not leaving? We are in Texas now - moving to Colorado soon.
I work from home. On Nest's website they have a white paper they published last year about their calculations on hos the Nest may affect two different types of homeowners...the ones who leave the house and go to work for 7+ hours a day, and the ones like us who are home most of the time. Even for the ones who are home, there are savings to be made.
I just got the electric bill for last month. $422 (ouch). But Nashville, my home city, had a heat wave for the record books including the hottest day ever recorded (109 degrees). We had easily the most degree days listed on our electric bill than I've ever seen (529). The closest month I can find in our records that was like last month was July of 2010, where it crested to 498. The degree day calculation wasn't as high but it was still intense. What's more interesting is that we consumed 5009 kwhs of electricity back then. Last month? 4196, which was a decrease of 16.3%.
We're nearly six months into having the Nests around and I'm starting to look at the ROI proposition. We spent $500 on them and we're seeing $15-20% improvement in every month of use. The other major energy improvements we could do are:
1. Replace main HVAC unit (gas/electric) with a new one. The old Rheem is 12 years old this month. Cost to replace it with a 14 SEER model? About $5000. Estimated energy savings? 20% per month.
2. Replace 20 year old double pane wooden windows with modern argon/krypton gas models. Cost to replace all 24 windows is about $8000. Estimated energy savings? 10% per month.
3. Add a split vent AC unit to home theater/office area to help with household hot spot. Will decrease load on main HVAC unit. Cost is $2000. Energy savings is undetermined.
4. Clean the air ducts and have them checked for leaks. Cost? $300 or more. Savings? 2%-14% according to estimates.
My household spent nearly $3400 in electric power consumption in 2011 before the Nests. I'm pulling together the natural gas numbers now. But if I see 15% savings for energy usage for the year (assuming that we look at the March-October period for electric consumption for AC and October-March for heat), then I predict I'll have already saved >$500 for the first 12 months of service. Everything else is gravy and no other solution has that great an impact for the initial investment. I am looking into having the ducts checked. That seems to be an inexpensive check compared to the potential benefits.
We currently have a pro1 thermostat. It has saved us literally thousands. But, with the hype of the new nest, is there really any reason to switch at this point? Looking for honest opinions please.
I don't know of a reason to get one just because Google bought them. It might take some time for Google to sink their teeth into Nest but they will. My concern is how much of my info will Google collect…..and what will they do with it?
Sigh... again, people who are less likely to attempt to program the one they already own ARE EXACTLY WHO NEST IS TARGETING with the thermostat that DOESN'T REQUIRE YOU TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN INSTALL IT.
Go watch the cnet video that was linked on, I believe page two. That schedule she showed HAPPENED AUTOMATICALLY. Listen to her carefully. She actually complained it hadn't learned her families morning habits yet. So at that point you can tap on that very screen she showed to update the programming to be more accurate for your family. Which is touch simple to do, unlike the vast majority of thermostats that have user interfaces that are absolutely horrid.
That's the other hard to quantify benefit - the ability to set, change and update the schedule is so much more easy that even if you do decide to manually do it (like I did initially to get it jump started) people are going to be far more likely to not only attempt it but to succeed at it.
Improving success, making me more comfortable overall and saving me seriously money are hardly "adding complexity" :rolleyes:
Sounds a little like the old PC vs Mac debates. Or GUI vs. Command Line for that matter. Yes, you can program many common old thermostats, but they are not dynamic, and have to be re-programmed as conditions change. Nest learns and adapts--reprogramming itself on the fly. Kinda spooky sometimes, but I'm liking it.
Sounds a little like the old PC vs Mac debates. Or GUI vs. Command Line for that matter. Yes, you can program many common old thermostats, but they are not dynamic, and have to be re-programmed as conditions change. Nest learns and adapts--reprogramming itself on the fly. Kinda spooky sometimes, but I'm liking it.
I think wrt to Thermostats that "learning" if overdone.
Indoor location (WifiSlam, iBeacon etc) is going to trump software only solutions. I don't want my thermostat guessing whether i'm home or away I want it to precisely know. I also want smarter routing of the heat in my home with smart vents.
The "perfect" thermostat with people with way too much money to spend and not enough intelligence to spend it wisely.
Well said. What kind of idiot would install a device that needlessly and pointlessly radiates their living space: I don't agree these people have too much money to spend. If they had any money or sense, they would get in an electrician, and wire it up. Wireless crap is for people who don't care about their health, and can't afford to put in ethernet.
Well said. What kind of idiot would install a device that needlessly and pointlessly radiates their living space: I don't agree these people have too much money to spend. If they had any money or sense, they would get in an electrician, and wire it up. Wireless crap is for people who don't care about their health, and can't afford to put in ethernet.
There isn't any credible evidence that low power WiFi or other non-ionizing radiation harms people any more than green light harms people.
Comments
Just stumbled across this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by alex_kac
Planning on buying two Nests - up and down. But my family and I are home 90% of the time except when we are not. Usually an impromptu dinner or outing gets us all out. Or we travel for a couple weeks.
How well does Nest handle a schedule when we are home 90% and not leaving? We are in Texas now - moving to Colorado soon.
I work from home. On Nest's website they have a white paper they published last year about their calculations on hos the Nest may affect two different types of homeowners...the ones who leave the house and go to work for 7+ hours a day, and the ones like us who are home most of the time. Even for the ones who are home, there are savings to be made.
I just got the electric bill for last month. $422 (ouch). But Nashville, my home city, had a heat wave for the record books including the hottest day ever recorded (109 degrees). We had easily the most degree days listed on our electric bill than I've ever seen (529). The closest month I can find in our records that was like last month was July of 2010, where it crested to 498. The degree day calculation wasn't as high but it was still intense. What's more interesting is that we consumed 5009 kwhs of electricity back then. Last month? 4196, which was a decrease of 16.3%.
We're nearly six months into having the Nests around and I'm starting to look at the ROI proposition. We spent $500 on them and we're seeing $15-20% improvement in every month of use. The other major energy improvements we could do are:
1. Replace main HVAC unit (gas/electric) with a new one. The old Rheem is 12 years old this month. Cost to replace it with a 14 SEER model? About $5000. Estimated energy savings? 20% per month.
2. Replace 20 year old double pane wooden windows with modern argon/krypton gas models. Cost to replace all 24 windows is about $8000. Estimated energy savings? 10% per month.
3. Add a split vent AC unit to home theater/office area to help with household hot spot. Will decrease load on main HVAC unit. Cost is $2000. Energy savings is undetermined.
4. Clean the air ducts and have them checked for leaks. Cost? $300 or more. Savings? 2%-14% according to estimates.
My household spent nearly $3400 in electric power consumption in 2011 before the Nests. I'm pulling together the natural gas numbers now. But if I see 15% savings for energy usage for the year (assuming that we look at the March-October period for electric consumption for AC and October-March for heat), then I predict I'll have already saved >$500 for the first 12 months of service. Everything else is gravy and no other solution has that great an impact for the initial investment. I am looking into having the ducts checked. That seems to be an inexpensive check compared to the potential benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DocNo42
And the iPhone is just another smartphone.
Obviously you can't see the difference between the function of a thermostat, and a smartphone.
That's your takeaway? LOL - good luck then.
Apple Geniuses are paid like Village Idiots!
Thanks for making a zombie thread. And thanks for not bothering to stay on thread topic.
We currently have a pro1 thermostat. It has saved us literally thousands. But, with the hype of the new nest, is there really any reason to switch at this point? Looking for honest opinions please.
Thanks
Given that they’re now owned by Google, no.
I don't know of a reason to get one just because Google bought them. It might take some time for Google to sink their teeth into Nest but they will. My concern is how much of my info will Google collect…..and what will they do with it?
All of it, and we’ll never know; that’s why it’s not worth pursuing.
But it would be nice to be able to tell Siri to set the house to a certain temp while on the drive home from work.
Sounds a little like the old PC vs Mac debates. Or GUI vs. Command Line for that matter. Yes, you can program many common old thermostats, but they are not dynamic, and have to be re-programmed as conditions change. Nest learns and adapts--reprogramming itself on the fly. Kinda spooky sometimes, but I'm liking it.
I think wrt to Thermostats that "learning" if overdone.
Indoor location (WifiSlam, iBeacon etc) is going to trump software only solutions. I don't want my thermostat guessing whether i'm home or away I want it to precisely know. I also want smarter routing of the heat in my home with smart vents.
I'd love to have a Net Zero home.
Yes, you seem genuinely concerned. /s
The "perfect" thermostat with people with way too much money to spend and not enough intelligence to spend it wisely.
I’m confident you know nothing about what the device is or does.
The "perfect" thermostat with people with way too much money to spend and not enough intelligence to spend it wisely.
Well said. What kind of idiot would install a device that needlessly and pointlessly radiates their living space: I don't agree these people have too much money to spend. If they had any money or sense, they would get in an electrician, and wire it up. Wireless crap is for people who don't care about their health, and can't afford to put in ethernet.
There isn't any credible evidence that low power WiFi or other non-ionizing radiation harms people any more than green light harms people.
Lol - sure there is ... just google "wi-fi radiation destroys DNA"
There is a nice link there-in with no less than 34 published papers showing how mobile phone or wi-fi radiation destroys or damages DNA.
[ Alwaaaays better to do some research before posting hopeful and wishful but uninformed responses in forums. ]