Nest Learning Thermostat - 1st Generation T100577

by Nest

• This is the original Nest. It's beautiful, simple to use, can be controlled from your smartphone and works in about 75 percent of homes
• Auto-Schedule - Nest remembers the temperatures you like and programs itself
• Auto-Away - Nest saves energy by automatically turning itself down when you're away
• Remote Control - Connect Nest to Wi-Fi to control it from your smartphone, laptop or tablet
• Energy History - See how much energy you've used and what affects your energy use most

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

We didn't think thermostats mattered either.

Until we learned they control about 50% of our home's energy bill. That's as much as the refrigerator, lighting, TVs, stereos and computers combined.

Traditional thermostats tend to waste a lot of energy, mainly heating and cooling your home when no one's there.

We designed Nest to learn from you. As a result, 99% of Nests have schedules that work with your life. And when life doesn't go according to schedule, Nest can help:

• Forgot to turn down the thermostat before you left the house? Auto-Away will automatically do it for you.
• Dreading the summer heat? Airwave keeps you just as comfortable but runs your AC up to 30% less.
• Coming home early from a weekend away? Use your phone to adjust the temp on your way.

It's simple:
You'll spend on average $30,000 heating and cooling your home over the 20-year life of your system. In that time, the Nest Learning Thermostat, which takes 30 minutes to install and programs itself in a week, can save you $6,000.

Let's stop wasting energy.

That beige box on your wall controls about half your energy bill, but huge amounts of that are wasted heating and cooling empty homes. Programmable thermostats were supposed to help, but only 11% of people program them. They're too complicated.

So we made Nest simple: turn it up, turn it down. Nest will remember what you like and help you save energy.

Living with Nest.

Day 1: We've made installation easy. Even if you've never even considered installing a thermostat. If you're comfortable installing a light fixture, you can install Nest yourself. Most people install Nest in 30 minutes or less. Or, a professional can help.

Day 2: Learning starts once Nest is up and running. Turn it up when you're home, turn it down when you leave and in a few days Nest will have learned your schedule.

Day 6: Life doesn't always go according to schedule, so Auto-Away kicks in when you leave home unexpectedly. Energy History shows you how much energy you've used daily.

Day 7: The Nest Leaf appears when you're saving energy. Changing the temperature just one degree can save you up to 5%. The Leaf guides you in the right direction.

Day 8: By now, Nest has made a schedule for your home. One-off temperature changes won't confuse it, but change the temperature a few days in a row and Nest will catch on and adjust its schedule. When you teach Nest well, you can save up to 20% on your heating or cooling bill.

Day 90: Now that summer's here, it's time to switch from heating to cooling. Nest will start building a new schedule, just like it did in your first week. As you turn on cooling, Nest's Airwave technology can cut your AC runtime up to 30%.

Day 365: Teach Nest well and it'll not only pay for itself, but continue saving year after year.

Control your Nest Learning Thermostat from anywhere.

Control your home's temperature from your laptop, smartphone or tablet when you connect Nest to Wi-Fi. You'll be able to see and adjust your schedule, change the temperature and check energy history from anywhere. Plus, Nest's software will automatically update.

Keep track of how much energy you use in Energy History and get a monthly email summary of how your energy use is changing with the Nest Energy Report.

Nest is secure, private, and reliable. Its security features include HTTPS, SSL and 128-bit encryption.

Programs itself. Saves energy.

Nest is the first thermostat that learns from you. Teach it well to stay comfortable at home and save energy when you're away.

Auto-Schedule

Programmable thermostats are frustrating to program, so most people don't or they create schedules that don't match their lives. Nest automatically programs itself in about a week. It creates a personalized schedule based on the temperature changes you've made and continually adapts to your life.

Airwave

Airwave automatically turns off the AC a few minutes early, but keeps the fan running. Nest's humidity sensor activates Airwave. When indoor humidity is low, Airwave can cut your AC's runtime up to 30%.

The Leaf

Want to know if you're saving energy when you change the temp? The Nest Leaf appears when you turn Nest to a temperature that's energy efficient. It guides you in the right direction. A 1-degree change can save you up to 5% on your energy use.

Auto-Away

Nest's activity sensors have a 150 degree wide-angle view, so that it works in most locations. About two hours after you've left the house, Nest will sense you've gone and automatically adjust the temperature to avoid heating or cooling an empty home.

Energy History

Energy History shows you how your energy use changes on a daily basis. Check Energy History to see how much energy you save and why— your adjustments, Away, or the weather.

Time to Temperature

Turning the temperature up higher doesn't heat the house any faster, so Nest helps you save by showing you how long it'll really take to reach the temperature you want. Nest has three temperature sensors to track your home's heating and cooling.

Easy to Install

If you're comfortable installing a light fixture, you can install Nest yourself. Three out of four people install Nest in 30 minutes or less.

Too busy? Professional installation is also available at 855-4MY-NEST.

At home in most homes.

Nest is compatible with:

• 24 volt heating and cooling
• Gas, oil, electric, solar, geothermal systems
• Conventional heating, one-stage or two-stage
• Conventional cooling, one-stage
• One-stage heat pump with auxiliary heat
• Zone systems with or without dampers
• Wi-Fi required for remote control and software updates
• Common "C" wire not needed in 99% of installations
• R, Rc, Rh, W1, Y1, G, O/B, AUX/W2, C wires

To make sure Nest works in your home, use Nest's compatibility check. NOTE: This link will take you away from Amazon.com.

Detailed Specs.

Here's the technical info for the Nest Learning Thermostat.

Dimensions

• Mass = 198g / 7.0oz
• Diameter = 81.2 mm / 3.2 in
• Height = 40.6mm / 1.60 in

Environmental

• RoHS Compliant
• Mercury Free
• 100% Recyclable Packaging

Inside the box

• Nest Learning Thermostat
• Installation guide
• Start Here guide
• Nest screwdriver
• Mounting screws and labels
• Optional mounting kit

Languages

• English

Sensors

• Temperature sensors
• Humidity sensor
• Near-field activity sensor
• Far-field activity sensor
• Ambient light sensor

Legal

Nest Learning Thermostat, Auto-Schedule, Auto-Away, Airwave, the Nest logo, and the Nest House logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nest Labs, Inc

Warranty

• 5 year limited hardware

Battery

• Built in rechargable lithium-ion battery

Wireless

• Wi-Fi - 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHZ
• Zigbee @2.4GHz

LCD Display

• 24 bit color
• 320x320px display
• 1.75" diameter

Awards and Recognition

The Nest Learning Thermostat is the recipient of many awards and has been recognized as one of the most revolutionary energy-saving products of our time.

We didn't think thermostats mattered either.

Until we learned they control about 50% of our home's energy bill. That's as much as the refrigerator, lighting, TVs, stereos and computers combined.

Traditional thermostats tend to waste a lot of energy, mainly heating and cooling your home when no one's there.

We designed Nest to learn from you. As a result, 99% of Nests have schedules that work with your life. And when life doesn't go according to schedule, Nest can help:

• Forgot to turn down the thermostat before you left the house? Auto-Away will automatically do it for you.
• Dreading the summer heat? Airwave keeps you just as comfortable but runs your AC up to 30% less.
• Coming home early from a weekend away? Use your phone to adjust the temp on your way.

It's simple:
You'll spend on average $30,000 heating and cooling your home over the 20-year life of your system. In that time, the Nest Learning Thermostat, which takes 30 minutes to install and programs itself in a week, can save you $6,000.

Let's stop wasting energy.

That beige box on your wall controls about half your energy bill, but huge amounts of that are wasted heating and cooling empty homes. Programmable thermostats were supposed to help, but only 11% of people program them. They're too complicated.

So we made Nest simple: turn it up, turn it down. Nest will remember what you like and help you save energy.

Living with Nest.

Day 1: We've made installation easy. Even if you've never even considered installing a thermostat. If you're comfortable installing a light fixture, you can install Nest yourself. Most people install Nest in 30 minutes or less. Or, a professional can help.

Day 2: Learning starts once Nest is up and running. Turn it up when you're home, turn it down when you leave and in a few days Nest will have learned your schedule.

Day 6: Life doesn't always go according to schedule, so Auto-Away kicks in when you leave home unexpectedly. Energy History shows you how much energy you've used daily.

Day 7: The Nest Leaf appears when you're saving energy. Changing the temperature just one degree can save you up to 5%. The Leaf guides you in the right direction.

Day 8: By now, Nest has made a schedule for your home. One-off temperature changes won't confuse it, but change the temperature a few days in a row and Nest will catch on and adjust its schedule. When you teach Nest well, you can save up to 20% on your heating or cooling bill.

Day 90: Now that summer's here, it's time to switch from heating to cooling. Nest will start building a new schedule, just like it did in your first week. As you turn on cooling, Nest's Airwave technology can cut your AC runtime up to 30%.

Day 365: Teach Nest well and it'll not only pay for itself, but continue saving year after year.

Control your Nest Learning Thermostat from anywhere.

Control your home's temperature from your laptop, smartphone or tablet when you connect Nest to Wi-Fi. You'll be able to see and adjust your schedule, change the temperature and check energy history from anywhere. Plus, Nest's software will automatically update.

Keep track of how much energy you use in Energy History and get a monthly email summary of how your energy use is changing with the Nest Energy Report.

Nest is secure, private, and reliable. Its security features include HTTPS, SSL and 128-bit encryption.

Programs itself. Saves energy.

Nest is the first thermostat that learns from you. Teach it well to stay comfortable at home and save energy when you're away.

Auto-Schedule

Programmable thermostats are frustrating to program, so most people don't or they create schedules that don't match their lives. Nest automatically programs itself in about a week. It creates a personalized schedule based on the temperature changes you've made and continually adapts to your life.

Airwave

Airwave automatically turns off the AC a few minutes early, but keeps the fan running. Nest's humidity sensor activates Airwave. When indoor humidity is low, Airwave can cut your AC's runtime up to 30%.

The Leaf

Want to know if you're saving energy when you change the temp? The Nest Leaf appears when you turn Nest to a temperature that's energy efficient. It guides you in the right direction. A 1-degree change can save you up to 5% on your energy use.

Auto-Away

Nest's activity sensors have a 150 degree wide-angle view, so that it works in most locations. About two hours after you've left the house, Nest will sense you've gone and automatically adjust the temperature to avoid heating or cooling an empty home.

Energy History

Energy History shows you how your energy use changes on a daily basis. Check Energy History to see how much energy you save and why— your adjustments, Away, or the weather.

Time to Temperature

Turning the temperature up higher doesn't heat the house any faster, so Nest helps you save by showing you how long it'll really take to reach the temperature you want. Nest has three temperature sensors to track your home's heating and cooling.

Easy to Install

If you're comfortable installing a light fixture, you can install Nest yourself. Three out of four people install Nest in 30 minutes or less.

Too busy? Professional installation is also available at 855-4MY-NEST.

At home in most homes.

Nest is compatible with:

• 24 volt heating and cooling
• Gas, oil, electric, solar, geothermal systems
• Conventional heating, one-stage or two-stage
• Conventional cooling, one-stage
• One-stage heat pump with auxiliary heat
• Zone systems with or without dampers
• Wi-Fi required for remote control and software updates
• Common "C" wire not needed in 99% of installations
• R, Rc, Rh, W1, Y1, G, O/B, AUX/W2, C wires

To make sure Nest works in your home, use Nest's compatibility check. NOTE: This link will take you away from Amazon.com.

Detailed Specs.

Here's the technical info for the Nest Learning Thermostat.

Dimensions

• Mass = 198g / 7.0oz
• Diameter = 81.2 mm / 3.2 in
• Height = 40.6mm / 1.60 in

Environmental

• RoHS Compliant
• Mercury Free
• 100% Recyclable Packaging

Inside the box

• Nest Learning Thermostat
• Installation guide
• Start Here guide
• Nest screwdriver
• Mounting screws and labels
• Optional mounting kit

Languages

• English

Sensors

• Temperature sensors
• Humidity sensor
• Near-field activity sensor
• Far-field activity sensor
• Ambient light sensor

Legal

Nest Learning Thermostat, Auto-Schedule, Auto-Away, Airwave, the Nest logo, and the Nest House logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nest Labs, Inc

Warranty

• 5 year limited hardware

Battery

• Built in rechargable lithium-ion battery

Wireless

• Wi-Fi - 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHZ
• Zigbee @2.4GHz

LCD Display

• 24 bit color
• 320x320px display
• 1.75" diameter

Awards and Recognition

The Nest Learning Thermostat is the recipient of many awards and has been recognized as one of the most revolutionary energy-saving products of our time.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

702 of 763 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Simple, Elegant, and it Works March 3, 2012

By Daniel G. Lebryk TOP 50 REVIEWER

This is what thermostats should have been all along, simple, elegant, and they do exactly what I expect.

The lowly thermostat, why in the world would anybody ever pay this price for a new thermostat? Honeywell sells perfectly programmable thermostats for a whole lot less money. In theory, they save money on the energy bill. I now have a Nest thermostat, and I'd never buy or want to use another thermostat ever again.

October 2, 2012 Update: Nest just announced the second generation of this thermostat and dropped the price of version 1 $20. the new version is said to be compatible with more systems and is thinner. The software is identical between the two versions (all Nests are being updated to the same software version). The case of a good evolution that does not obsolete version 1.

The construction is impressive. The main body is brushed stainless steel. The face is rounded glass that looks like a lens. The face rotates with a pleasing weight and smoothness. The whole device has a nice solid weight to it - this feels like a really well built piece of equipment, worth the price I paid. When lit up, the display center is either black, blue, or red with very sharp white letters and numbers. There is a little green leaf that shows up when the thermostat thinks the temperature is conserving energy. The whole unit is about three inches deep, and it is roughly the diameter of the old round thermostats. Touching this thermostat is a pleasure. That in harsh contrast to the $100 Honeywell programmable thermostats that all felt like cheap garbage plastic.

March 12, 2012 update: After almost two weeks the thermostat has done a great job learning our habits.... I set up a program for when I wanted temperatures to do certain things on the first day I installed the thermostat. The first week the thermostat just followed my program exactly. It is now the third Monday after install, I am at home for the day, and the thermostat has now ignored the program and set the house to the normal, 68 degree, temperature. Exactly what I want the thing to do. Simple, without me messing with programs or reseting the thermostat, it just works.

My Nest arrived just before Christmas 2011. Like an idiot, I put off installing it until March of 2012. Now that I've done the work, I want to kick myself for not installing it the day it arrived. This is one of the easiest installs of any home improvement equipment I've ever done.

I've had all manner of thermostats, the simple round mercury containing simple set the temp and that's it, a really basic programmable box that required some strange switches to get to work, and the latest, a touch screen seven day programmable Honeywell. I spent about a hundred dollars on that Honeywell, and wrestled with that thing for years. I'm the only one in the house that could program the thing and it acted very strange. Out of the box the thing was a problem - I have an old hot water heat furnace and a forced air conditioning system. It took me hours to figure out how to not get the fan to blow whenever the heat was on. The initial set up was super cryptic; it required code numbers at certain points in the set up. And then, once I got the system running, it took hours to program. The darn programs were so hard to edit, simply a pain in the neck, I never changed them after that first set up.

This is how simple the Nest is to set up, kill the power to the furnace (usually an on/off switch on the furnace), remove the old thermostat face plate, tag the wires (the manual includes tags if the wires aren't' already labeled), remove the old base plate for the old thermostat, mount the base for the Nest, push the wires into spring clips (they act a lot like speaker spring clips), snap the Next thermostat onto the base, and power up the furnace. That's it, nothing more complicated than that.

The biggest mounting problem will probably be the old thermostat is a big rectangular box (most of those programmable thermostats are big and rectangular), and there will be ugly wall behind that box. Nest includes three accessory plates for that situation. One plate is a big rectangle that is about the size of most programmable thermostats. The other is a square plate the size of a square electrical box. And the last part is a metal adapter that fits over a standard square electrical box. In essence, Nest has included just about everything anybody could ever need to mount this thermostat. The great news, if the old thermostat is a round one, no plate is required the thermostat base will mount directly on the wall.

A few tiny tricks with mounting. If using an adapter plate, level it up perfectly on the wall, and then mark holes for mounting. Only use the horizontal holes (the rectangular plate can be mounted with the long side vertical) because the round base to the thermostat has to snap onto the base adapter and then the long screws go through both parts - the base and the adapter. The thermostat base has a level built in, and the whole thing can be adjusted a very small amount with the slotted screws. The adapter plates are a nice dull white plastic that can be painted with latex paint and no primer. The wires need to be pushed back into the wall; there is very little room around the binding clips. It's best to cut the wires back and strip off 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of insulation on each wire. The wire needs to be dead straight to go into those clips.

Once the thermostat is mounted and powered up, set up is really simple. Honestly, just follow the instructions step by step. In order to change an answer to a question, rotate the face of the thermostat left of right. To do the selection, press the face in. The face rotates very nicely, it has a certain weight and high quality feel to it. There is a little bit of a lag between turning and the display making the motion. After the third selection I was used to the delay.

Where I had all kinds of major problems with that stinking Honeywell thermostat, this was a breeze. The Nest recognized that I had two types of equipment connected, an air conditioner and a furnace. It asked me in plain English, does heating require the fan, yes or no? After I selected no, the fan never came on - exactly what I expected. The biggest problem I had was with connecting to my wireless network (if you network is secured, the WEP or WPA password is required). I have a dual band router - 20 and 40MHz. One band was set to mixed, 20 and 40MHz, the other set to strictly 20MHz. The Nest refused to connect to my router; I tried entering the password 5 times before I thought about the set up on my router. Once I set the first channel to be 40MHz only, the Nest connected immediately. This is the only wireless product I've ever had that required that change. But, honestly, that was pretty darn simple to figure out.

All the rest was completely intuitive. The Nest asks to name itself, if there are multiple Nests in the house, some settings for the type of equipment, the date and time, the location by state and zip code, and the two limit temperatures for when away from the house (one for heating and the other for cooling, defaults were 65 and 80). The thermostat will also generate a private pairing code that is good for 4 hours. This is required for the on-line account activation.

Once the Nest was set up and connected to the internet, it did a number of restarts, apparently updating the software. For about thirty minutes the thermostat acted a little weird, but once that was completed the thermostat worked perfectly. Honestly, I fully expected updates since I have roughly version 1 of the device and it was three months since it shipped.

Whenever I am standing in front of the thermostat, it wakes up and displays the current temperature, what temperature it is set to, and if it is heating the background is red, if cooling the background is blue, or if it is idle the background is black. Twist the dial left or right to lower or raise the set temperature. Exactly the way the ancient round thermostats worked. Absolutely simple and intuitive - anybody, with no instructions, can figure out how to change the temperature of the house.

I had already set up a Nest account on line (there's nothing it can do until entering that private pairing code). I immediately opened my Nest account and entered the pairing code. After about 30 seconds, I was now connected to my Nest thermostat and could change the temperature from the first screen.

Now comes the huge fun part - programming the thermostat. The program screen is a grid, Monday through Sunday on the left (each day is a row), and then time from midnight to midnight by 15 minute intervals across the bottom. Highlight a row, click the Add button on the bottom right and a red bubble shows up with a temperature in the middle. Drag that bubble to the Day and Time. Click on the up or down arrows that appear when hovering over the bubble to adjust the temperature. Done - one time and temperature event is added to that day of the week. Keep doing that until the day is filled up with all the events necessary.

A day of programming for our house was 4:30AM, set the temperature to 68 degrees (we wake up very early). By 9AM everybody has left the house normally, so now I set the next event to be 64 degrees at 9AM. The first person home is usually there at 2:30 in the afternoon, so I set 68 degrees at 2:30. We all go to sleep around 10PM, so I set 64 degrees at 10PM. One day cycle done. Now Monday through Friday is normally the same, so I clicked on Copy. Then I highlighted Tuesday and click Paste - as expected, the exact same events copied over to Tuesday. I repeated this all the way down to Friday. Then on Saturday and Sunday, we wake up later and don't leave during the day. So I copied Monday to Saturday, removed two events and then drug the remaining two to 8AM (68 degrees) and 10PM (64 degrees). Then I clicked copy and pasted that to Sunday.

Now I have a beautiful table with little red bubbles with all the temperature events for the week. It's super simple to visualize and edit. After I finished this programming, the thermostat immediately followed the program.

If this was all the thermostat did, I'd expect to pay about the same as a Honeywell programmable thermostat; this beautiful device wouldn't add much more value than that. But oh no it gets way better and this set up is the tip of the iceberg.

Nest can sense when there is a person in the house, or near the thermostat. It starts to learn when the house is empty and it begins to adjust the program steps to reflect when people are really around. During the first week it sticks to the program steps until it learns something different and starts adjusting.

It connects to a weather site to get the current and predicted temperature in the zip code entered for the thermostat. It uses this information to help anticipate heating or cooling needs. My house takes a lot longer to warm up if the temperature outside is -20 versus 50. If it has a target time to get the house from 64 to 68 degrees, it will start heating earlier if it is cold outside.

Then there is the internet connectivity. This is probably the single coolest feature of this thermostat. I have two iPhones (3 and 4), an iPad, and several computers from laptop to desktop. In a few weeks I will have an Android phone at home, so I will be able to test the Android App. From any computer connected to the internet anywhere in the world, I go to the Nest website, log in, and I can see my thermostat - what temperature it is currently in my house, what the thermostat is set to, and if it is heating, cooling, or idle (red, blue, or black background). I can click on the up or down arrow around the temperature and the temperature at home is immediately updated.

Once I've selected the Nest, I can then look at the program settings and edit those if need be; view the settings - set temp, current temp, relative humidity, and lock/unlock the temperature control; and adjust the learning and away temperature settings. The whole webpage is clean, simple, and intuitive.

The next level of power is the apps. All of the above functionality is available on an Apple device by downloading the Nest app. If we are sitting in the living room, the thermostat is in the family room, and the house is too cold, I can pull out my iPhone (which I pretty much carry all the time) and adjust the temperature. Yes, it sounds like the ultimate in laziness, but the truth is, there is nothing more convenient than being able to make that adjustment from anywhere in the house. The moment I make the change on the phone, the thermostat does exactly what I asked.

This is the way a thermostat should work. Everything about it is simple and intuitive. It uses technology in a way that makes things simple. And then it uses this powerful software to help me manage the heating and cooling energy in my house, without ever bragging that it is doing that job, or bothering me with the details.

This thermostat looks stunning on the wall. Yeah, that might sound like unbridled enthusiasm, but it really does look cool. I think it fits with any style of decorating because it has a kind of retro modern look. I feel really good about investing in this thermostat, it feels like a piece of hardware that is worth the price I paid.

I consider myself really lucky to have gotten one of these thermostats this early in the shipping process. I did pay only $250. Right now, it appears to be on backorder from Nest directly. I'm not sure I would pay a premium to get this thermostat quicker. Nest has mentioned Best Buy as one of their outlets, I've never seen nor heard of anybody buying one there.

This is an early adopter product. From what I can see, this is a very well tested fully functional product; it doesn't appear to have any of those crazy beta product issues. It is incredibly well thought out. Only time will tell if this catches on and Nest makes these for a lot less money. If you were on the fence over this thermostat, take the plunge and install it immediately on arrival. I wish I had installed it three months ago.

July 12, 2012 Update: There are some comments I've read that this thermostat can't adjust the temperature to finer than 1 degree F. On line to set the program, that is absolutely correct, yes it can only be programmed to a 1 degree tolerance. When turning the physical dial on the thermostat, it can be adjusted to about 1/4 or 1/3 of a degree. The whole number is displayed, but there are markers or segments between each whole number. The thermostat is much more precise than 1 degree and can regulate to about 1/2 a degree if not less. Read more ›

1,330 of 1,476 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Another frustrating gadget I wish I did not buy March 28, 2012

By Amazn Shopper

I was very excited about this product when it was announced. I frequently travel in winter and wanted to monitor my house temperature remotely via wifi to ensure my pipes do not freeze etc. Most stats that can do that require a C wire that I don't have. Nest can do without.
Like others mentioned, shipping, unboxing, installation and looks are all top notch and puts other companies to shame. However, this is where it ends. At least for me. Before you read details, let me say I have been using this stat for >3months. Many reviews out there are written a day after installation upon being impressed by the looks and the ease of installation.

Learning: It does learn your schedule over time but it takes good 3+ weeks until it stops giving me "cold house morning" surprises and heating while I'm not there. Yes, initial learning takes about a week but full learning takes much longer. And, after all this, I still had to go to the computer to change my morning setpoints by 30 minutes so I don't wake up to a cold house because this stat does not pre-heat ahead of time even though it learns exactly how long it is going to take and knows weather outside. Search the web, this is one of the top complaints with the device. Eventually, I disabled the learning and just program it manually because it is much faster and more predictable and gives me no surprises (sort of, keep reading).

Auto-away: works reasonably for me but it might or might not work for you depending on how much activity you have near the stat.

Internet control: Works great from the PC but the Android app is seriously weak and desperately needs more features. You cannot see or adjust your schedule, and if the stat is in AWAY mode, you cannot even see the house temperature.... People buy this so they can remotely monitor the house, vacation house etc. when they are not home (see my buying reasons above), they need to see what the temp is to see if there is a problem. They need to fix this. Android app was not updated since it was released. I hear the Apple app is better and was updated several times. On the other hand, the convenience is great.

Set point anticipation: As mentioned above, it learns how long it takes to reach the temp (and shows it) but it does not use it (or weather it gets from the internet) to start heating ahead of time to reach desired temperature at desired time. It only turns the heat at the specified time. I have a radiant forced water heat and it takes 30-40 minutes to reach the temp. This makes the learning feature a bit useless since you have to change it later anyway to have a warm house when you wake up. Most much cheaper programmable thermostats have had this feature for very long time. I would absolutely expect this for the price we pay for this stat.

Reliability: Reliability is the biggest problem with this gadget. Nest pushes a software update to the unit roughly once a month. The update can happen randomly when you are not home. Every time the update would take place, my unit would lose all settings. Schedule (that took 3 weeks to learn) gone, Internet connectivity account gone, location setting gone, heating system details gone. All accumulated learning data gone. Heat shut down until I come home and re-set the tstat. This would happen with three software updates. On a separate occasion, Nest cloud server was down and the stat trying to connect to the cloud drained the battery. Drained battery causes loss of wifi connectivity and disables your heat and control of it until charged. Wifi never automatically restores. All this was happening in dead winter with single digit temps outside. All you get on internet or a smartphone is a little "?" and a a statement that your stat lost connectivity. I was not travelling but can you imagine the scenario when I would be away for a week? Who would pay for frozen pipes damage? This is unacceptable. Stat should be a device that is dead reliable beyond a grain of doubt. Obviously, California designers do not share concerns of customers residing in cold climates. This made me to disable the key feature of the stat: learning (I do not have another 3 weeks patience for re-learning each time). I have asked Nest tech support to implement a feature that would need a user input to execute the software updates to prevent system sutdowns like this in ones absence. Still not implemented. Nest support recommended that I disable the wifi on the tstat to prevent updates. Another key feature and very reason I bought it. This would be likely the one most important reason why I'm considering switching to good ugly but trusted Lux or Honeywell. Since then the stat was replaced by Nest but problems continue.

Daylight savings time: This is with the replacement thermostat. Wouldn't you expect the smart stat be smart enough to handle DST switch? I would! Especially for the price paid. Well, it did learn new time automatically but guess what. It did not apply it to my schedule! How smart is that? I had to go in and reprogram all timepoints for all days in the week because they would be off by 1hr. That is ~28 time points! Come on, who wrote the code for this? My old Lux stat did not handle DST automatically either but only change needed was the clock!

Swing value: Nest does not have the ability to change the temp swing value. All other cheaper programmabe stats have had this basic feature for years.

Temperature hold: It does not have the hold feature. I would use hold feature when home on a weekday, like on holiday, Thanksgiving, or when sick home when I do not want to run my normal program. Any other cheap thermostat has this feature. Nest does not. The Away feature is not the same as hold. Hold should be one touch easy to use. The Away is buried in menus and generally reserved for low temperatures in cold season and not meant to be changed.

Energy use: By now it is well known that programmable thermostats do not save energy so they were taken off the Energy Star list. They preheat your house when you sleep and when you are not yet home from work. You would otherwise wake up or arrive to cold house with the manual stat and change it then. Nest takes this concept one step further. It allows you to preheat the house remotely when you are not yet home. Which you would otherwise need to adjust upon arrival home. Energy saving? Not. Convenient? Yes. Not a complaint, just saying...

Let me conclude with a paste of a section from Nest warranty statement. Like me, you probably did not read it before purchasing:

NEST LABS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT OPERATION OF THE PRODUCTS WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL IN EVERY CASE PROCESS ALL DATA CORRECTLY.

and, in the case your pipes froze after a software update

YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR (AND NEST LABS DISCLAIMS) ANY AND ALL LOSS, LIABILITY, OR DAMAGES, INCLUDING TO YOUR HVAC SYSTEM, PLUMBING, HOME, PRODUCT, PRODUCT PERIPHERALS, COMPUTER, MOBILE DEVICE, AND ALL OTHER ITEMS AND PETS IN YOUR HOME, RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OF THE PRODUCT INFORMATION, SERVICES, OR PRODUCT.

As of now, I cannot recommend this product. It looks great but that's about it. I recommend searching the web for more reviews as there are other problems reported but not experienced by me so therefore not included here. Many reviews concentrate on ease of installation. Yes it is true but ultimately you need a solid one-season-of-use review.

Update 04/08/2012: OK Nest released a new software update 2.0 which fixed/improved following features:
1. Android app was finally updated. Now I can see my temperature while in Away mode (auto or manual) or while off. I can now see and edit my schedule. +0.5 stars.
2. Reliability: Not really software related... They replaced my unit and it now survived two software updates without resetting itself or shutting off my heat. +0.5 stars. Maybe by next winter, I will trust it again....
All other feature and problems mentioned above are as before. Oh, one feature I forgot to mention: Some users complained about temperature accuracy (not me). Nest does not have a temperature calibration feature (common for many years on any other thermostat). Your only way to correct it is through exchange for another unit with Nest.

Update 07/15/2012: Apparently, this was not clear. This is a THREE (3) star review. NOT four (4) star review. Before the release of Nest 2.0. I had it as TWO (2) star review which I updated to THREE (3) star review upon release of Nest 2.0. Also, no comment on A/C-related features. I don't have A/C. Read more ›

The manufacturer commented on the review below

467 of 521 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Nest: A Fatal Flaw (UPDATED) August 5, 2012

By S Greene

Amazon Verified Purchase

The Nest thermostat is a remarkable design, with incredible features, and really reinvents an often overlooked part of everyday life. In so many ways, it is a great device.

But - it has a fatal flaw. (see update below)

A flaw that makes it unsuitable, and in fact dangerous, for any part of the world where temperatures can drop below freezing.

Nest Technical Support agrees this flaw exists. And they are working on it. But they don't know when there will be a solution.

THE PROBLEM: After a power failure, even a brief power failure, the Nest often requires human intervention to restart and turn the heat back on. Not every time, but quite often.

This means that if there is a power failure during a winter vacation, even brief, you will lose your heat until you return home. This results in frozen and bursting pipes, and the resulting water damage to your home.

In theory, there is battery backup that lasts a week. In practice, it often does not. It sometimes only lasts for an hour. When the power goes out, the Nest repeatedly tried to connect to WIFI, burning through the battery's power in a short period of time. Apparently the software does not recognize that when the power is cut to the Nest, it is almost certainly off for the WIFI router. So, the battery drains quickly. This happened to me this week during a one hour power failure.

When the power returns, the Nest should restart, but often it does not. It did not restart for me. The device was not responsive for me. I needed to remove it from the wall, recharge it on a mini-USB cable for an hour, and restart the device. Then, it started working again.

This problem happened during summer, so there was no harm done.... However, if this was winter, it would have resulted in a major emergency for me as this took place at my second home. There would have been a loss of heat, frozen pipes, and serious property damage.

In October, if the problem is not solved, I will remove the Nest from the wall, and put my old thermostat, which always restarts the heat after a power failure, back on the wall.

My experience is not unique, this is a known problem. I am not aware of any other thermostat that has this fatal flaw.

I can't take the risk of losing my home due to the Nest's Fatal Flaw.

If I had known this I would not have purchased the Nest. I have been told by Nest it cannot be returned.

Please consider this before you buy. And feel free to verify this problem with Nest Technical Support. It's real.

UPDATE: Technical Support called back after receiving a copy of this review that I posted on Amazon. I sent this review directly to Nest Tech Support when tech support told me that my Nest was fine, and that behavior was expected. After receiving my review, they called back and told me that although my Nest Unit did fail to function and was not able to control heat after a power failure, this was not normal behavior. However, they did not know what was wrong. They sent a new unit in case it was a hardware problem. I have a new Nest Unit, but there have been no power failures so I do not know if the problem is resolved. I tried to simulate a power failure with the heater circuit breaker, but this does not fully simulate a real power failure as my wifi was still working, etc. This would limit the rapid battery drain that was experienced during the real power failure. I have increased my rating to 3 stars from 1 star as they have acknowledged that Technical Support was not correct, and provided a replacement unit. I am hoping the problem is resolved but only time will tell. I will update in a few weeks. The Nest thermostat is a great product and I want to support them, as long as they stand behind their product and ensure it is safe and reliable.

UPDATE 2 Nov 4 2012: The replacement unit sent by Nest is still working - but it has not really been truly tested by a second power failure. I appreciate the suggestions to turn off the main circuit breaker for an extended period as a test, but it's a second home and we often have guests and I do not want to inconvenience others to be in a cold dark environment with no running water simply to test my thermostat. Also, the circuit breaker test would not produce the random voltage surges and brownouts typically associated with a real power failure. It's possible that the voltage drops and surges rather than the lack of power caused the problem, but of course, I don't know. The weather has turned cold, not quite pipe freezing cold, and the Nest is still in use. I hope it will handle the next power failure as it will happen eventually. Other than this possible issue, it's a great product, and I am hoping I can save energy by managing the temperature remotely.

UPDATE 3 Mar 25 2013: The Nest has almost made is through the whole winter and worked well. Despite the initial problems, and I am not sure how much it has been tested, it has worked well through a long cold winter in the cold north. Read more ›

The manufacturer commented on this review (What's this?)

Kate Brinks saysAugust 21, 2012

As S Greene noted in his comment on 8/13, the original information provided by Nest customer support was inaccurate. The unit was defective and we have sent a replacement unit. We apologize for the confusion.

To clarify, in the event of a power outage, Nest goes into a deep sleep to conserve power and wakes up when power is restored. Human intervention is not required.