In an effort to create an efficient household, I upgraded our thermostat to a product called Nest. Nest is a thermostat that uses a wireless internet connection to provide you with remote control of your home’s heating and cooling. It also learns your habits and appropriately heats and cools the house automatically.
It’s no surprise that Nest was started by some former Apple employees who worked on the ipod. The interaction design is definitely inspired by Apple products of the past. It is extremely easy to set up and use, even though it has complex features built-in.
Our old thermostat was working fine. The problem was that I could not figure out how to program it without a user manual. Plus, it was super ugly. I’m sure I could have found the manual online, but I’ll use any excuse I can to bring good design into the house. I’m also excited to use technologies that would have only been fantasized about in 1959. I would think that the original designer of the house would have wanted it this way.
Nest requires that you have low voltage wires to connect to the thermostat. Luckily, we had the standard 4 wire setup: red, yellow, green, and white. Installing it was as simple as removing the old thermostat and plugging the wires into the right connectors on the Nest. Nest has a very thoughtful built in level, so you don’t have to fiddle with tools to get it straight. Once you get it wired up and screwed to the wall, you just pop the screen/face on and you are done!
I got it hooked up to our wireless network and it took a couple of minutes for Nest to setup and update its software. So far, so good. I’ll make sure to post some updates after having lived with it for a bit. Now to get the green paint covered up!
Nest retails for $249.
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