Being a custom home builder in Cottage Grove, MN lets us try out new and innovative products. We’re always looking for new technology for the smart home and the Nest is a great product that can keep you comfortable and save you money.
Heating and cooling take up at least half of the average homes energy bill, as such it’s important to be conscious of how often you’re leaving your heating and cooling running when you’re not even in the home.
If your thermostat isn’t programmed you could be wasting a lot of energy, and money, every year. Unfortunately a complicated thermostat mixed with laziness results in many of us not taking the time to learn how to program our thermostats.
Thankfully, there is now a smarter solution.
The Nest Thermostat
Most people leave their heating and cooling running while they’re out of the home, either due to forgetting to turn it down or because they don’t want the house to be too hot or cold when they return. The Nest Thermostat knows when you leave the house and will turn off the heating and cooling for you while you’re away. You can also schedule it to turn off while you’re at work as well as lower it when you’re asleep.
If you change your temperature settings the Nest will learn what temperatures you like and build a personalized schedule based on your habits. After a few days of manually changing the temperatures the nest will start setting them on its own.
Like most smart devices you can control the Nest from an app on your smart phone. If you’re getting home early you can tell the Nest to change the temperature from anywhere sot that the temperature will be perfect when you arrive home.
One of the best features of this device is that you can see exactly when the Nest is running in your home and how the temperature levels affect your energy bill. If you set the temperature to 70° one day and bring it down to 68° the next you will be able to see exactly how much energy you saved. The Nest will also email you a monthly energy report that contains a summary of your energy use.
The Nest can help lower your heating and cooling bills by up to 20%! So, if you’re trying to be a little more energy conscious, or just want a better way of controlling your home’s temperature, the Nest Thermostat is a great option.
For those of you who don’t have central air, the Nest Thermostat obviously isn’t going to work for you. There is, however, another product on the market that you may want to look into.
The Aros Smart Window AC Unit
The Aros is similar to the Nest in that it learns about what temperatures you prefer at different times of the day, can be controlled from anywhere using your smartphone, and can anticipate your movements by using your smartphones GPS settings to turn off when you leave and have the home back to the perfect temperature when you get back home.
For anyone without central air this is the perfect substitute!