The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Reader Recommendations => Topic started by: dannymurphy on January 29, 2017, 07:17:12 PM
-
Anybody have a next thermostat that can comment on whether the energy savings paid off the initial investment?
-
I haven't really done an analysis of the usage to be honest but I can say that we absolutely love it. The ease and flexibility in which you can modify the schedule (We have 6 intervals) is pretty impressive. The ability to turn off heat or cooling entirely when leaving and then turning it on ~ 1 hr before you get home via the app allows us to not come home to a cold house even with a varying schedule. Not to mention I think having a "smart" thermostat is worth the price simply for the impact it has on potential buyers when selling the home (relevant to us as we plan to sell in < 3 years).
-
I have one and it has definitely saved us money. However, I'm not sold on the price premium for a Nest and if I had to do it over, I would go with a much cheaper Ecobee or similar that has all the same functions at a fraction of the cost.
-
I've never owned a Nest thermostat but last fall a family friend asked for help re-installing hers after she moved to a new place. She took her Nest thermostat with her to the new place and as I was wiring it up for her, she said it literally cut her AC bill in half that previous summer (Georgia, $300+ monthly bills are possible in some homes).
-
I have one and it has definitely saved us money. However, I'm not sold on the price premium for a Nest and if I had to do it over, I would go with a much cheaper Ecobee or similar that has all the same functions at a fraction of the cost.
I was going to recommend the ecobee.
Nest is the biggest name in the market, but I think ecobee is probably the best in the market. It's dual fuel compatible when nest wasn't.
-
I just installed an Ecobee and really like it. One thing that I wish either of them had was geofencing or something like it. The Ecobee senses motion with the thermostat and the remote sensor to determine when you're home or away. I think it ought to use the presence of the smartphone(s) on the Wi-Fi network as an input as to whether someone's home. You could also set up a geofence that sets up the thermostat when your smartphone is within x miles of home. Should have gotten into software.
-
I just installed an Ecobee and really like it. One thing that I wish either of them had was geofencing or something like it. The Ecobee senses motion with the thermostat and the remote sensor to determine when you're home or away. I think it ought to use the presence of the smartphone(s) on the Wi-Fi network as an input as to whether someone's home. You could also set up a geofence that sets up the thermostat when your smartphone is within x miles of home. Should have gotten into software.
Nest has these sort of features: https://nest.com/support/article/How-Home-Away-Assist-uses-your-phone-s-location
-
I've had a Nest thermostat for the past 3 months. I'm by no means a handy man at all and found it extremely easy to install and set-up. I was able to pick it up on Black Friday for $50 off and then received another $50 rebate through my electrical company. I've seen my bill drop by about $15 a month once I started using it. Well worth the investment in my opinion.
-
I hate Google following me around and knowing too much about my life.
I went with Honeywell instead of Nest.
Works well for me.
-
I also went Honeywell (Wifi smart thermostat) after having the Nest for a few months. You could totally tell that Nest was made by a silicon valley company (nice interface, substandard thermostat) whereas the Honeywell was the opposite. Much better thermostat and more options, slightly clunkier interface.
-
I went with an Emerson Sensi thermostat. It cost practically nothing because I paid a portion of it with a gift card and got a $75 rebate from National Grid. It's been great so far. Clean, simple app that allows me to control the thermostat from anywhere. Multiple scheduling options. I love that the house warms up/cools down as I am driving home from work.
-
Worth checking if your electric company offers a program that will provide you with a smart thermostat or offers rebates on any of the mentioned brands. Any of them will save you money compared to the typical home user, and if you can get one for free/cheap that's the way to go.
Had a Nest that I bought and then replaced it with an Ecobee -- our Utility was giving them out as part of a variable rate pricing program (which I've found to be worthwhile when used with multiple utilities and adjusting our usage around low power costs). Honestly, I think I prefer the Ecobee interface to the Nest.
-
We got one a few months ago but have not noticed any big change in our electrical bill so far. It's fun because you can use an app with it, but we had a programmable thermostat previously (though it didn't sense when we were home like Nest does) so I'd say the older programmable thermostat was good enough. If you don't already have a programmable thermostat though it's probably worth getting.
-
Privacy issues? Nest is Google now.
"Tweeted Ryan Block, vice president of product at AOL: “With Nest’s built-in sensors now Google knows when you’re home, what rooms you’re in, and when you’re out. Just FYI.”"
Could be relevant to insurance renewal, e.g. Nest possibly knows if you had a small kitchen fire, even one you didn't claim for.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-nest-privacy-20140114-story.html
-
I have an ecobee3. Family knew I wanted it and got it for me as a gift.
Things I like:
-I like how it averages the temperature across multiple rooms and keeps the house more consistent
-I like all the specific options especially the ones that let you control the cycle times of the A/C with minimum on and off times to keep from sort cycling and keep the cycles long enough for efficient cooling and dehmidification.
-I like that the thermostat can sense humidity and kick on if humidity gets really high even if the temperature is slightly below your set point for those of us without dehumidifiers.
-I like that it is "smart" because I can control it from my phone and also we use "IF This Then That" app and "life360" app's GPS tracking so that when the last household member leaves home it sets to our set up "away" setting and when the first person gets back home it turns back to our "home" settings.
-Online graphs provide great information on your A/C runtimes and current temperatures
Things I don't like:
-There is a proximity sensor that senses when you walk up to the thermostat so it can change to a different screen to adjust settings and sometimes different lights in the room like my TV can activate this even when no one is nearby
-The motion sensors and the "follow me" feature have been hit and miss with me and get stuck "on" sometimes. I have completely disabled this feature and just let the thermostat average all the room's temperatures.
-Just a nitpick from a computer person... I don't like that all the data including commands sent to the thermostat from your phone must run through the internet to ecobee's servers and then back to your hardware. I wish there were more options to query and control the thermostat within your own network so I could have higher resolution data and also commands could be instant and "snappy".
-
My apartment complex installed Nests in all of our apartments. I do love it and have seen my power bill go down about $10-$15 a month since it was installed. I am still moderately concerned about privacy issues, but I will say it's done its job wonderfully both for keeping the apartment at ideal temps (for me) and lowering my bill.
-
Check to see if your local power company offers a credit to get one. My last one gave you $100 credit the first year and $40 each additional year (per unit up to two). If you get a credit like that, it's a no brainer to get one.
If you already have programmable thermostat of any kind (and that you've actually programmed it), I really doubt it's ROI but man are they awesome...
-
Our power company offers a $50 rebate for the Nest or Ecobee; I like the idea that it seems to be saving people money on their powerbills, but I'm not sure it would work for us. We only rarely need to use heat (once or twice a year at most) and we almost always have our windows cracked open during spring and summer for the pets, so we really couldn't program the AC to turn on before we got home. Under these conditions, would a Nest/Ecobee still somehow cut our relatively high summer AC bills? Is there any way to use them without connecting to the Ap, avoiding the privacy issues but still saving energy/money, or is the fact that it turns on by itself the main selling point? Seriously I don't mind hitting the on button when I walk in the door...
-
i had the gen 1 before i got all mustachian. they are great but there are cheaper options that do the same thing.
i'd sell you my gen1 for a bargain if you're interested. as my local utility pays us 50 bucks and gives us one if we install it ourselves so i just got a free gen3.