Futuristic Home Heating and Cooling Technology – Nest Thermostat

According to the EPA, using a programmable thermostat can save homeowners and residents 5% - 15% a year on your heating and cooling bill.  They recommend setting your thermostat at 68°F when you are awake and at home, and programming a 10° to 15° setback for at least 8 hours.  The same strategy would apply for cooling your home in the summer, by keeping the thermostat at 78° when you are home and awake, and using a warmer setting while at work or asleep.

Sounds easy, right?  In a series of surveys done by researchers at University of California, it was discovered that 90% of programmable thermostats are rarely or never programmed.  Photographs of participants’ thermostats that were collected revealed that 50% of the respondents had set their thermostats on “long term hold” and 20% of the units displayed the wrong time.  Since many programmable thermostats don’t seem to be user-friendly, even homeowners who have the opportunity to save on energy bills are not using technology to their advantage.

Startup company Nest Labs wants to change that with their newly unveiled Nest thermostat, which can actually program itself. Users can adjust the thermostat manually as they normally do, and within one week the Nest unit will learn the patterns and program itself to raise and lower temperatures automatically.  It can even recognize that the house is empty during vacation times and go into energy saving mode.  Of course, the Nest can be programmed by the user as well, and if you practice good energy saving habits, Nest will pick up on them.

This year may be the time to take energy savings seriously and get a little help from a smart thermostat.