Nest Thermostat Added to Apple Online Store

I think a lot of people who have posted here aren't really grasping the concept the way I am. I see it as a hand-off, out-of-mind system. Like potty training a puppy. You work with it for a few weeks, and eventually it can do it on its own. The fact that it will learn your patterns, and recognizes when you're away is impressive. The ability to control the system wirelessly is just a bonus, not the key concept.

For the record, I was trying to set the AC last night and was close to removing it from the wall and lighting it on fire. As others have said, I just want the heat on at this temp, and the AC on at another temp, simple enough? No, they've over-engineered something so simple. The Nest solves that problem. The nest will do that for you.

When I first saw the price, my first thought was, “where do I buy it?” That’s a reasonable price to pay for clean, stylish design paired with simplicity and convenience.

Cats and dogs and couch potatoes

Is the thing smart enough to know that I am home but not moving? Watching tv or having a snooze on the couch, for example?

Is the thing smart enough to know that I am away but my dog is doing laps around the living room and does not need the heat on?

If not than I am gonna have to babysit it almost as much as the $20 manual thermostat I have right now and, in some cases it will waste energy instead of saving it.

Turning the knobs is very satisfying. I bought two...

I've never understood why all thermostats offer programmability when it's such a pointless feature. What would be infinitely more useful is also exceedingly simpler: min and max. Does this thermostat have that feature?

e.g. I want to put in just two numbers. 68f and 76f. If the temperature in the house is ever below 68f, I want it to be heated up to 68f. If the house is ever above 76f, I want it cooled down to 76f. Obviously, no action needed while temp is between 68f and 76f.

What's annoying is having to manually toggle a thermostat between cool and heat and having to adjust the target temp accordingly. Or I can set it to auto but then it only takes one number. For budget (and comfort) concerns, I don't want to pick a number in between 68f and 76f that solves for both heating and cooling; there is no perfect number.

I've never understood why all thermostats offer programmability when it's such a pointless feature. What would be infinitely more useful is also exceedingly simpler: min and max. Does this thermostat have that feature?

e.g. I want to put in just two numbers. 68f and 76f. If the temperature in the house is ever below 68f, I want it to be heated up to 68f. If the house is ever above 76f, I want it cooled down to 76f. Obviously, no action needed while temp is between 68f and 76f.

What's annoying is having to manually toggle a thermostat between cool and heat and having to adjust the target temp accordingly. Or I can set it to auto but then it only takes one number. For budget (and comfort) concerns, I don't want to pick a number in between 68f and 76f that solves for both heating and cooling; there is no perfect number.

What wastes energy and raises your energy bill is heating the house when you are not there. Do you need the house at 72 degrees when no one is there? Also, do you need the house at 72 degrees when you are sleeping? Why not lower it to 68 or so and have the thermostat automatically heat the house just before you wake every morning.

Mine saves me about $50 a month than before I had a programmable thermostat. Is that pointless?

Now, I wonder why no wired version?

You mean as far as connecting to a network? Probably due to how people are unlikely to have a network cable running to their thermostat.

This is fancy thermostat but the one I have now is just fine. Programmable and it's simple to use once you learn how to use it. If you can install this thing yourself, you can program the common programmable thermostats - it's really ironic to say this thing is so easy to use while other thermostats are too hard and confusing to use (non-intuitive) but you can install this yourself??

I would not hesitate to buy it in a heartbeat but the $249 price tag is way too high. If it was $99, I would snatch it up. $149 tops to include wifi capabilities.

And I don't have A/C, I only use the heater 6 months out of the whole year and no thermostat including this one will reduce your natural gas bills - it's just common sense to RUN YOUR FURNACE LESS to reduce the bills! You can do that with any thermostat on the market and ones that are $20.

I don't know about you? But in my house, I find people are constantly pressing the temp up/down buttons on my thermostat to override the current programmed settings if they feel it's "too hot" or "too cold" -- making the fixed schedule less useful.

Never happens in my household. Guess the weather is a little erratic where you are. Here we pretty much have cold weather for 8 months, mild weather for 3 months and hot weather for 1 month (if we're lucky).

Sorry...still dont get it. It may be a 'big deal' in the US, but outside...not so much. It's still $250 just for the ability to set the temperature of your thermostat and have your thermostat turn off when you're not home. A heavily overpriced product. $99 would be a lot more realistic...seriously, this thing is not the second coming, its a thermostat. If it hadn't been made by an ex-Apple employee I highly doubt we'd be having this discussion.

What really makes it beneficial is its "intelligent" capabilities. Unlike my $40 programmable thermostat at home now, I'm not stuck entering a series of temperatures for fixed times on a schedule -- one for "heat", and another whole set for "cool".

Just a couple of points... yes you don't have to enter a schedule, but if you are living on a fixed schedule like most people do won't the Nest adapt to the same schedule anyhow? I suppose there is also the motion sensor so if you do leave and forget to hit the "away" button it will do it for you, but what if your thermostat isn't in a perfect place to detect motion all the time?

Second my $50 programmable Robertshaw has an auto change-over from Heat to AC or vise versa. If the heat builds up over a certain amount of degrees it will change-over to AC and if the AC drops past a certain point the heat will be activated. It is also smart enough to calculate how much time is needed to raise or lower the temp so recovery is finished when the set time hits. Not bad for $50.

Yes I agree mine doesn't look as nice nor does it "learn" however I can do a pretty good job of programming it to the point that I don't think the Nest would really save me tons of energy over my current one. I mean it would take years and years to ever make back the additional $200. In fact one might never make it back.

I'm not saying that it isn't a cool gadget and doesn't look cool on a wall, but trying to argue that this thing is really going to save some serious energy over a current Energy Star programable is a stretch. If spending $250 on something like this makes you happy then by all means go for it. Heck I spend money all the time because I think something is cool even if the benefits it provides are little over something else that costs a lot less.

Never happens in my household. Guess the weather is a little erratic where you are. Here we pretty much have cold weather for 8 months, mild weather for 3 months and hot weather for 1 month (if we're lucky).

Sorry...still dont get it. It may be a 'big deal' in the US, but outside...not so much. It's still $250 just for the ability to set the temperature of your thermostat and have your thermostat turn off when you're not home. A heavily overpriced product. $99 would be a lot more realistic...seriously, this thing is not the second coming, its a thermostat. If it hadn't been made by an ex-Apple employee I highly doubt we'd be having this discussion.

It has nothing to do with erratic weather. It's a programmable thermostat. It saves money and energy by adjusting the temperature when you are away from the house or sleeping. It is far more user friendly than other programmable thermostats, so it's actually more likely to be used for these reasons.

If you don't care about saving money or energy over your current setup, it's not for you. If you are diligent about adjusting the thermostat on your own and don't want it to happen automatically, it's not for you. If you are conformable using a traditional programmable thermostat and don't see the advantage of the added features, it's not for you.