A knock at the door on iPad day. Run to the door. What could it be? Nope. Not an iPad… but it is a Nest thermostat that my Dad sent me as a gift. Pretty spiffy. I’ve been really interested in the Nest thermostat since it was announced last year. I’ve long thought modern thermostats are ugly things. Even the fancy pants ones I’ve seen in really nice homes look bad. I’m shocked it’s taken so long for a group of people to sit down and knock out a better one.
Of course, I dove right into installing it. How could I resist? I quickly found out that my old thermostat was mounted on an electrical box, so I needed to use one of the adapter plates instead of just mounting the Nest to drywall. I also found out that I needed to touch up the paint on the wall thanks to the footprint of the adapter plate being smaller than the old thermostat. Lucky for me, I still have a can of that paint stored away in the closet for just such needs.
Other than having to wait for paint to dry, installation was a breeze. The Nest comes with a nice guide and a set of stickers to mark your system’s wiring as you take your old thermostat of the wall. Everything goes together with ease. Seemingly, every little detail has been thought out, including the nifty bubble level built into the mounting plate.
Once everything is together, you hit the modern sign that software is involved. After answering a few questions about the network, the Nest checks for a system update, downloads it, installs it, and restarts. Then backs everything up. And then… checks for an update, finds another one, downloads it, installs it, then backs everything up again. Annoying, but necessary.
Some time later, everything is up-to-date and you can get on with the rest of the setup and configuration process. After displaying the wiring setup it detects, the Nest performs a nifty verification process. It fires up your HVAC system and asks you whether the system is heating or cooling. It’s a genius move that probably sorts out most common wiring issues and it gives a bit of confidence to the installer—me in this case!—that everything is happy.
A few more questions, such as what the absolute minimum and maximum away temperatures should be, and it’s ready to go. The only other thing to do is to set up an account on nest.com to enable remote access via the web and, more importantly to me, the iPhone app. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s so sweet. It’s one of those little things that says, “Yes, we are living in the future.”
All that remains is to see how well the system learns and adjusts. But really, what I’m looking forward to isn’t just to see how this nifty thermostat works out. No, what I’m excited about is what I hope is coming next from Nest. You see, this little device which leverages WiFi, modern UI design, and the Internet kicks the living daylights out of any previous home automation I’ve ever seen. With a company name like Nest, it’s not a stretch to imagine that Tony Fadell and group have more nifty home automatic tech in the pipeline. No wonder the established companies in this space are rattling their patent portfolios.
For now, however, this is perfect. Thanks, Dad. And, oh, what is that? Another knock on the door…
Posted by James Duncan Davidson.