If you have a Nest thermostat, then you already know how much energy you can save; but if you don't already have one, you might be surprised how much you can lower your heating or cooling bill by getting one.
It's an unfortunate myth that the Nest Thermostat is just a toy for smart home enthusiasts. According to the national academies, 41% of all energy consumed comes from “powering” homes and businesses, with heating making up the majority of that energy consumption. According to the Department of Energy, Americans spend $11 billion each year on energy requirements to cool their homes with air conditioning.
This is especially true in the northern US, where the weather can be extremely cold in the winter; and in the southern United States, where temperatures get sweltering in the summer. Those heating and cooling costs add up fast.
The reality is that if there were a Nest Thermostat in every home, it would have the biggest impact on energy use in history. If you bought a Nest thermostat, it could save you more money than you could imagine, with ultra-efficient heating and cooling of your home.
When most people heat or cool their homes, they set the thermostat to a certain temperature they are comfortable with and forget about it. Or, they turn on their air conditioner at the beginning of the hottest time of the year and usually leave it running all day. This may be the reason why heating and cooling are the two largest energy consumers in the residential sector.
It does not have to be this way. The charts you'll find from Nest customers on the Nest blog are amazing. By letting the Nest learn the owner's behaviors when they will be out of the house and adjusting the temperature accordingly, the energy (and cost) savings were incredible.
Can the Nest thermostat do this for you? Anyway:yes.
The price of a few hundred dollars may seem steep, but when you add in the cost savings of using much less energy to heat or cool your home, the cost is really a few cents in comparison.
There are so many great and easy integrations anyone can do with a Nest 13 things you didn't know you could do with a Nest thermostat 13 things you didn't know you could do with a Nest thermostat You might be surprised how many little tricks you can do with your new Nest Thermostat! Read more . So let's talk about how you can achieve these savings after you've purchased and installed your Nest Thermostat How to install and use the Nest Thermostat to automate energy savings How to install and use the Nest Thermostat to automate energy savings If you've ever considered Getting started with home automation, buying a Nest Thermostat is the perfect way to start. In just one week of use, we cut our power consumption in half. Read more.
The most effective energy-saving feature added to the Nest Thermostat is the "Auto-Away" feature.
It sounds simple enough; Auto-Away basically knows when you're out of the house, and when you are out, it will lower the thermostat setting so that every time you leave the house you're saving money.
When I first installed the thermostat, I assumed I would never be able to use this feature because it must rely on your phone's GPS being on all the time, and I usually keep my GPS off to save battery power on my phone.
However, the next time I checked my energy usage on my online Nest dashboard, I noticed that Nest was accurately tracking when I was away and adjusting my thermostat settings for me.
This was kind of a surprise. How did the Nest know I was away from home when I never enabled my phone to tell it?
I visited the Nest website to find out exactly what was going on, and this is what I found:
After some more research, I learned that the Nest uses its built-in wide-angle motion sensor to identify the time of day when people appear to be home. With a clever algorithm, the system eventually "learns" your patterns. If you lower the thermostat and then feel like you're still home, it will readjust the temperature and then "correct" the algorithm to fix that error.
Eventually, your Nest Thermostat will know your typical home hours even better than you do.
If letting Nest automatically adjust the temperature when you're not home doesn't offer enough energy savings, you can also set your own energy-saving schedule on top of that, using the Nest Schedule tool.
If you already know what your typical weekly schedule is going to be, you can simply schedule in the time of day that you need the Nest to lower your temperature. Work from 8am to 4pm every day of the week without fail? No problem, just use the Schedule tool to lower the temperature when you go to work, and back off a bit before coming back.
With the scheduling tool, you can also do smart things to save energy, like having your thermostat turn down the temperature at night when you don't really need the house to be that hot.
Keep that in mind The Nest will also control your central air conditioning unit. If you have one.
In the case of A/C, you would basically adjust your schedule to set the temperature a bit higher when you're not home, and then cool the house down when the time comes.
Don't have central air conditioning? Do not worry about it. Did you know you can also use the Nest to control a WeMo or Smartthings outlet using the Auto-Away trigger on IFTTT?
On IFTTT, there are many great integrations you can make that will save you money IFTTT Recipes That Help You Save Money IFTTT Recipes That Help You Save Money IFTTT can be used to do just about anything, and saving money is no exception. Here are some of the best recipes to help you live more frugally. Read more . This is especially true if you have a Nest thermostat. For example, you can use the Nest's Away trigger to turn off the AC outlet when you leave your house.
Or you can use the Nest's temperature sensor to turn on the A/C outlet whenever the temperature in your home reaches a certain point.
The catch, of course, is that you'll need a window A/C unit that turns on automatically when the wall outlet is turned on, without the need to push the “on” button.
If you don't have one that's capable of doing that and you're considering buying a new A/C unit, then you might want to consider getting a smart air conditioner like Quirky's - it really isn't that much more expensive. than a normal one!
If you're not sure whether to trust the Nest algorithm to know exactly when you're away from home, you can always use your smartphone's GPS The 8 Best Offline GPS Apps For Android To Navigate Anywhere The 8 Best Offline GPS Apps Android tethering to navigate anywhere Need directions on your phone but don't have an Internet connection? These offline GPS apps for Android will help you navigate. Read More Set up a trigger in IFTTT that fires whenever your phone (you) leaves a predefined area around your home.
Combine the trigger with an action to lower your Nest Thermostat.
With this setup, you're guaranteed to save energy (and money) whenever you leave home.
This is really just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to ways you can lower your energy costs even further through automation from Nest.
Other ideas:
Trigger a Smartsense multi-sensor to recognize when someone has opened a window in the room and have Nest immediately turn off the air conditioner to avoid wasting energy or overloading the central air system.
Each of these smart home solutions start your smart home with 4 easy projects Start your smart home with 4 easy projects Creating a smart home may sound like a huge undertaking and it can be hard to know where to start. But it is not as difficult as you may think! Read More The more smart integrations you add to your Nest, the more your energy waste goes down and the more your energy savings go up.
Obviously, you can't do any of these things if you still live in a house with an outdated thermostat. Buying and installing a Nest is an important first step in achieving your energy-saving goals.
Convinced to buy a Nest thermostat? Are there other innovative smart home integrations you can think of that could lead to even more energy savings? Share your ideas in the comments section below!
