Nest Thermostat from the iPod creator

I was actually driving home from work today lamenting the fact that there hasn't been any products in the home energy conservation or clean energy market lately that have gotten me excited. Then I saddled up to my computer and read a Fox news article on the Nest learning thermostat.

Nest was founded by Tony Fadell. You may not know him, but you know his products considering he worked under Steve Jobs on the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three of the iPhone.

From the Fox news article:

What's different is that Nest looks like the kind of slick gadget that you'd want to display on your coffee table. Its brushed metal fascia reflects the colors around it, and the sky blue digital display is elegant, yet high tech. It's designed to go on your wall and replace that old-fashioned, mercury-filled Honeywell model we all grew up with. But Nest has a rotating push-in dial (sound familiar?) that makes you want to touch it -- even though after it learns your habits you may never have to.

"I wanted it to be something that draws attention," Fadell told me over lunch before the launch.

Nest certainly does. But it's more than just a pretty face. It's smart, too.

It neatly solves several problems that have bedeviled home owners who have been trying to save energy -- and money -- for years but been thwarted by either awkward technology or expensive home automation systems.

This is the third time we've featured a smart thermostat on Mapawatt. The first one was Ecobee; which I still use and love. I can program it over the internet and adjust the setting on my iPhone when we go away on vacation. The biggest issue with the Ecobee was initial cost (it was donated to me by the company). When I wrote the post in September of 2009 the Ecobee was listed on the website at $469, but I'm pretty sure costs have come down since then.

The second smart thermostat we featured was the Filtrete Wi-Fi remote programmable thermostat by 3M. It has many of the same features of the Ecobee, although I'm not sure if it has all the web capabilities of the Ecobee. However, you can currently buy the Filtrete thermostat version at Home Depot for $100!

The Nest thermostat seems to have all the features of Ecobee, and then some, including:

Sexy user interface
Learning capabilities (adjusts to your behavior)
Auto-Away featuring a motion sensor (I have previously only considered this for lighting)

At $249, the Nest is more expensive than the Filtrete Wi-Fi thermostat (but has way more features) and I'm guessing it's in line with Ecobee's new pricing (if Ecobee is still much more expensive, they are in for a big surprise when their sales start dropping off). I have to admit, if Ecobee and Nest were both staring me in the face and they were the same price, I'd be hard pressed not to chose the Nest (someone from Ecobee feel free to chime in on the comments).

(5/28/12 - Mapawatt Note: Ecobee costs have indeed come down since this post was published. Check out our latest Ecobee Smart SI post which actually costs lower than Nest!)

The biggest question is will homeowners chip in $249 to buy a thermostat, no matter how cool it is? I've realized that people are willing to pony up for cool gadgets that entertain them, but do cool gadgets that save money (and energy) make homeowners want to spend it?

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/story/2011-10-25/nest-...

Nest is "sold out" until 2012 - Is this a showing of strong demand, or just marketing hype?

Tags:

nest ipod

nest thermostat

nest vs ecobee

smart thermostat

Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/03/2012 - 21:16

I have the nest and it is great. Having a little trouble getting it online. But I'm sure my computer guy will get it. It looks great and my house feels better already.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/13/2012 - 18:58

Chris, I too have a split level house with 2 zones to manage and I believe I'm pretty good at managing consumption manually with my builder provided Honeywell. I've been scouring the Internet sites looking for any real analysis of real world consumption savings as a result of this Nest thermostat. At it's $250 price point, I'm hesitant to make the purchase 2x over without any real data from real users of this product. I would love to know if you run across any such examples. Thanks for this article!

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/29/2012 - 14:23

4 Zones? I have a Mobile Home, No Joke Please. LOL I had to go on Disability a few years ago and at 59 can not do much about where I live But I can save by doing research on these sites. I already have dropped my electric from over 50$ a month to 34$ a month using the B&D tracking meter W/O software. Got it new on Amazon for 39& that plus the kill a watt work well together. Now on Zoning I am going to 4 zones ( maybe 3) since I mainly use the living room and Kitchen I can close off both ends of the house 2 bed rooms on one end and 1 master and 1 bath on the other end. With a 3 Ton Mitsubishi HYPER HEATING INVERTER zoning the system so I am only heating and cooling the middle part of the house I hope to get rid of the Oil heat I have now. 4 $ a gallon for oil and only going higher and Electric is only .08776 here. But we do have mean summers with 90 percent humidity and normally low teens in the winter which the new Inverter systems seem to handle very well. They do cost more but you can buy them and do the install your self only needing a HVAC Tech to do the final hook-up to be legal.

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/14/2012 - 21:07

I don't exactly know what Brian refers to by ROBUSTNESS, but the facts he mentions are indeed robust in favor of the Ecobee (savings, control, reliability). The NEST, for example still (3/14/12) does not support 2 stage cooling which I have. From their site "Nest is compatible with the following systems: Forced air, radiant, heat pump, oil, gas and electric One or two stage conventional heating One stage conventional cooling One stage heat pumps with auxiliary heat or two stage heat pumps without auxiliary heat 24 volt systems only. Zoned systems (systems with multiple thermostats). Nest works with zoned systems both with and without dampers. Note that Nest may need a common wire to be compatible with some zoned systems. Note: Nest does not support conventional two-stage cooling (the thermostat has a Y2 wire) or heat pumps with two-stage heating and auxiliary heat. Nest is also not compatible with dual fuel systems (also called hybrid or package systems). Whereas the Ecobee is also designed to operate low-voltage heating and cooling systems and...... Equipment Description Gas/Oil/Electric heating (up to three stages)...... Yes Air or ground source heat pump with auxiliary heat (up to four stages)...........Yes Standard electric cooling (up to two stages) ................................................ Yes Two-wire hydronic heat ............................................................................Yes Central humidifier ....................................................................................... Yes Central dehumidifier ................................................................................... Yes Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) ..................................................................... Yes Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) ................................................................. Yes Economizer ................................................................................................. Yes Sensors with dry contact outputs ................................................................. Yes I think the above is one measure of robustness !!!

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