We are thinking of getting a Nest Thermostat since we saw a sale for them recently. Here is my question though.

From what I have read, one of the big upsides to Nest is that it "learns" your habits so it can raise/lower your AC to help reduce costs. That said, my wife is staying home with our newborn so her schedule is not as consistent and changes daily.

Given this, is there any real advantage to a Nest Thermostat that can justify the price? We already have a "dumb" thermostat that lets us set schedules and has a vacation mode

There is an app called Skylark that is great. Let's you set boundaries and will set tstat to home or away for you. until I found that app I wasn't happy with nest. Costs $10 one time but can run on many different phones and it runs quietly in the background. Outside of that I have every other smart thing shut off on the tstat.

Another Skylark user here. Really happy with the added functionality it offers for the Nest.

Why not just use NEST app? What is the difference between the two?

I also have the smart features turned off, and just use the schedule.

We got a nest for upstairs because it made it easier to adjust the temp in the baby's room in the middle of the night. Liked it enough to get one for downstairs but we pretty much just manually control it. It's really nice to be able to turn it on from the couch or when we're headed home on a hot day.

I really wish Nest had a remote sensor. We only want to cool one room upstairs but it's a guessing game trying to get the temp right based on the location of the nest.

Nest app has Geo-fencing built-in and can bring your thermostat from "away" to "home" based on the location of your phone. You don't really need a 3rd-party app.

as far as learned schedules go, its a continuous function, so a wife at home with a baby won't affect it. FWIW, my wife requested me buy a new nest (we moved and left the old one with the house) when we had the last kid so she could adjust temp from her phone and not risk waking up the baby by walking down the hall

Nest or Ecobee either way, getting rid of your dumb thermostat will probably help your energy bills and will ROI in 1-2 years max. I saw about a 7% YOY average reduction in electricity in summer and 10% on gas in winter

Another vote for ecobee here. I've had both a Nest and ecobees. Thee ecobee offers more programming flexibility, much better reporting of usage, and the remote sensors are fantastic.

bco2003 said:

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Another vote for ecobee here. I've had both a Nest and ecobees. Thee ecobee offers more programming flexibility, much better reporting of usage, and the remote sensors are fantastic.

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I'm just now hearing about this brand and researching it. I'm assuming by your message the remote sensors work well? I'm asking because our master bedroom is always warmer in the summer than the rest of the house. I'd love to get it corrected.

ol_army12 said:

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I'm just now hearing about this brand and researching it. I'm assuming by your message the remote sensors work well? I'm asking because our master bedroom is always warmer in the summer than the rest of the house. I'd love to get it corrected.

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The remote sensor will get your master bedroom exactly the temp you want it. However, the byproduct is the rest of your house will be colder. The ecobee won't fix balancing issues, but will get the setpoint temp exactly where you want it.

We run into this in our master bedroom, because of the heat load where the room is located, on the southwest side of our house. The thermostat is also located in that bedroom. But we are rarely in that room during the day, so have a remote sensor in our living room, and have the living room sensor dictate the temperature during the day. Then have the bedroom thermostat dictate the temperature during the evening. Works great.