I bought this item through Amazon, as always the item came well packaged and on time. If there is one thing I have ever learned, that is nothing is as easy as plug and play, but first I want to get to the good. Besides what others have said this does show the current temp in the house but it is on the outer ring and in small numbers. Others have complained that the current temp is to small and the temp setting being the focus is a problem for them, I am more concerned with what temp I set it to, not what the current temp is. Once the unit has programmed it's self based on your temp preferences the only reason to be concerned with the current temp is if the unit fails to turn on, or you really have to have that gee wiz info. I bought this to save money not to impress others with the screen and info. The screen is large, easy to read, I like that it turns on when you walk up to it, it is simple to use, the app is great and works flawlessly, and yes it is a bonus that it looks nice. Now for the bad, when I installed it I followed all the instructions, all the wires went exactly where they belong. It is nice that for those with large dual zone systems and humidifiers and all the bells and whistles they have stickers with the wire names provided, they say Y1, RH W1, G and so on. My system only used 4 wires R, Y, W, G and had no jumpers for the old system so my system was not exactly rocket science to wire correctly. I kept getting a fault saying it would not recognize the Y1 (cooling) wire, after trouble shooting on my own I confirmed the connections were good, no wires broken or twisted and everything was good on that end. In this 4 wire configuration there is no blue (or sometimes black) wire which is required, this is a power wire that some systems use to provide constant 24 volt power to the thermostat. If you do not have this wire some systems will still work with this unit with no problem, it simply takes a little power from the RH and Y1 to get its power, and remember it was not recognizing my Y1. I finally call customer support and was on the phone with them for about 2 hours, they were very polite and tried there hardest to help but that night it was getting to late at night and the house getting to cold to deal with it and the thermostat required a full charge to continue troubleshooting. As a side bar there is a mini USB plug on the back of the faceplate that works with android style plugs to provide a quick charge, this is in the event of extended black outs you can recharge fast. So for the night I reconnected the old thermostat and the HVAC worked fine. Next morning I'm back on the phone with tech support. After giving them the case number from the night before we started going through many of the steps again since my old thermostat seemed to work fine that proved there was no problem with the HVAC wiring it's self, so this wire detection problem was a bit of a mystery. After moving wires to different terminals and reading out voltages from the tech info screen for about a hour and a half, they determined that it was a faulty base plate, they were kind enough to order a replacement base plate and even overnight FEDEX it to me, so at this point I'm waiting for a part that might fix the problem. Knowing modern housing construction practices, I still had my suspicions that it was not a issue with the baseplate but was a wiring problem with the HVAC, besides I hate throwing parts at a problem to see what might fix the issue. I had a friend that does HVAC look at the system, first thing he said was I needed that C (blue) common wire connected to provide enough power. I had already tried that and seen that the issue was not fixed, that was because as I suspected the system was not wired up correctly. The common wire was there but not connected to anything, so after rewiring the entire system we got the Nest thermostat to work as advertised. There are two morals to this story, first is that Nest tech support is great and they try everything they can to get you up and running, but in the end you are talking to IT people not HVAC professionals. The second moral is if your are replacing a old "dumb" thermostat or even a newer programmable one but not a "smart" one, and they worked fine before does not mean that the system was wired up correctly to work with this unit. So if you plug it in and it gives you a E80 fault code and you do not have a blue wire or it's not connected to the terminal, chances are you need it, and after connecting it if you continue to have faults chances are your blue wire is not connected properly. If you really are insitant on upgrading your thermostat call a HVAC person to look at your system.

I ended up buying this thermostat directly from Nest.com because they had a promotional discount on the 4th of July. I was very happy with this purchase as there are rebates for Southern California Edison and SoCal Gas for buying this thermostat with continuous rebates throughout the year. I really do love this thermostat, not only is it incredibly functional, it's very beautiful on the wall replacing an ugly old school Honeywell system that was easily 16 years old. Things I love: * Installation was very simple and Nest makes it easy by going online first and doing a compatibility check and shows you a wiring diagram you should print off. I'm no electrician and could easily do this install in about 15 min once I had the diagram and the tools in front of me. * The integrated feel - it connects to your wi-fi, you have an app for iPhone (and I believe Android), you can control it online in a traditional browser. Besides doing it's job it's keeping track of energy usage and helping to show you where you can be saving. Plays well with other internet of things, like Amazon Alexa and IFTT * The trim plate - the ugly old Honeywell system i had left a large square mark on the wall, the trim plate that came with Nest easily covered that up and it looks beautiful. * Senses when you walk by or approach and lights up to show you the current temperature, and outside temperature (gleans from wifi weather) * Intuitive interface, you press in the lower part of the thermostat to bring up a menu and you rotate the dial and press again to make choices, very simple and easy-to-use. * Partnership with energy companies - besides a rebate with gas and electric companies, they have a partnership with a solar company in my area I'm going to check out. Strong partnerships like that can lead to highly efficient systems and reducing cost (hopefully). What I don't like: * As a geeky nerd, I'm a little disappointed that I have to use the interface to connect to my wifi. If you have a very secure wifi password that is long, this will be a test of patience. In other devices, I'm used to it broadcasting it's own connection that you can securely connect to and set the password on with another device, like your iphone. I wish this kind of option were available, or other kind of pairing ease-of-use. * The auto-schedule that tries to learn your pattern in the first few days can be a little grumpy. For example, I had my power off on a hot day when installing. Once I got it installed it was quite warm in my house. I turned it on and immediately set to 65. I later adjusted that, but over the next few days it set itself to 65 until it figured out that wasn't a normal thing. Overall, I like the auto-schedule, it's just in the first few days you'll be scratching your head. * Don't do like me and set to 65 if you'd be happy at 71, for example. Just set your ideal, not a drastic temperature. * When you first turn it on, it may not be immediately apparent how to achieve what you want. I put it on hot/cold (by accident) and was trying to figure out how to just cool the house when I was staring at the heating screen. Stick with it and it will get easier in a day. The iPhone app is a lot easier to deal with, but once you get used to the interface, you won't give it a second thought after 2-3 days. * Cost.. it's expensive. Nest had a 4th of July sale for $50 off which made it attractive along with the rebates is like $175 off. But, you do get a lot more for your money. Final thoughts: If you plan to do more home automation, or already have a home automation system, be sure to know if this will work with it. For example, at the time of writing this I'm considering a SmartThings Hub system by Samsung which apparently Nest does not have a working partnership with Samsung on, so Samsung doesn't have a supported connection to Nest thermostat (although there are developer work-arounds that work). It does work well with Wink Hub system. This isn't an endorsement for either SmartThings or Wink Hub but it's a good idea to know this information if you have the desire to integrate and update more items in your home like lighting, locks, sensors, etc that require a hub of some sort.

I have a lot of observations to make about this product. I'll start with what I was faced with first. I live in a 2 story house, purchased last July. I live in South Carolina, where it's very humid and we rarely use our heating systems. The heater with air handler is located in the attic. The house was built in 2003. No one has ever replaced the contractor-installed Bryant brand heater. I've had these heaters before, and they are annoying. Whenever I replaced them in the past with a Trane furnace, my bill was cut in half and none of the ridiculous traits of the Bryant happened anymore. Those being the following: Cold spots in different places all over the house. A long ignite time, which means it's blowing cold air on you from the vents before it finally ignites. Too long to ignite. Uneven heating everywhere. Too hot upstairs, too cold downstairs. When the temps got below 35, it was unbearable downstairs unless I cranked it up to 70, which is a high temp for me on the thermostat in the winter. My AC condenser was replaced recently, so in the summer the air conditioner handled everything very well. It is a 4 ton unit and unrelated brand to the Bryant. (not a very good plan, but at least the AC works well). The AC has none of the issues that the furnace has. It works great. There's a problem, though. Because past owners pieced together a different AC system, the two systems are not as efficient as they could be. They also just can't put in a furnace and make it all work. Not the kind of efficiency furnace I've bought before. I just needed a furnace, but not an AC unit. So, I set out to talk to all these Trane installers. I love the two stage AC units from Trane because they only go into the higher mode when they really have to. The answer I got? "You can't change out only one unit. It has to be both." (something I knew from previous houses, anyway). Installer: "That's going to cost you $13,000.00" Me: "Gulp. I know that they really need to both be married up, in order for them to work well." Installer: "No other way, with this pieced together system you have right now." The problem with this? I didn't have the cash. Lowes would only loan me $6,000 at no interest. I always went for no interest loans in the past. Wells Fargo would only give me 5,700.00 but I could not combine both of these financing options. No one would loan me (or anyone else) that much money. I could've gone with a personal line of credit at my bank, but it was 10 - 12 %. Banks are a lot tighter with home improvement loans these days, since GE sold its finance division to a company called MySynchrony. GE gave me 15,000.00 no interest for the first year once. Not anymore. So, I set out to get 4 more quotes. Same answer from all of them. So, I was stuck with running downstairs to turn the heat down at night because I felt like I was going to suffocate upstairs, then running downstairs in the morning to turn it up to get it warmer down there. Then I remembered the Nest. It's expensive, yes. But .....it is better to at least try to spend $248.00 instead of 13 grand. (All the quotes I got were pretty much the same.) At the very least, I could incorporate it into a new system in the future. Install: Easiest install of any thermostat I've ever performed. I've always done my own installs because I liked Honeywell for many years, but there are no screws or difficult, cramped holes to put the wires into. You don't have to read a book to figure out which wires to use and guess what kind of system you have. It already knew, once I installed it. It's connected to the Internet through your WIFI. If I'm upstairs with the heat on and it gets too hot up there, I just pick up my iPhone, go to the app and adjust it. If I want to go downstairs in the morning and know I have it set to 65 down there, I just heat it up a bit on my iPhone before I get out of bed. It learns. I'm not quite sure what it will learn from me, because I'm retired and usually keep things about the same. But, the programming was extremely easy, both on the unit and on the iPhone app. Change it anytime I want. I was at the doctor yesterday. Realized that just my dogs were at home and I had started the AC this past weekend. (You can switch between heat and air any time you want on the iPhone or iPad app...awesome. ) So, I just turned up the AC to a warmer temp because my dogs aren't too crazy about it being really cold. Before I got home, I set it back to 70 for AC, where I like it. I was bed-ridden after some spinal injections this past weekend. I was praising this thing for making my life comfortable while I recuperated upstairs. Before, it would've been absolute agony to go downstairs all the time because South Carolina is in Spring already. You never know what the day will be like. I just changed it when I needed to on my iPhone. The WIFI was easy to connect, once I realized that you turn the unit itself with a rotating dial either left or right, then press on the choice you want. No annoying methods to type in your password like it is on a Bluray player to login to an app like Netflix. Those are a pain. The screen is motion-sensing on the unit, so you just have to walk by or wave your hand to see its settings. It seems to also get my systems to the correct temperature WAY faster than my Honeywell thermostat did. Seconds vs minutes. Now: I've saved $13 Grand. For now. It's made my furnace manageable in a two story house. I can save up the cash for a new system. It has a mode called Airwave that is supposed to save you on AC costs. I'll know in July and August if that works well. I believe it's going to save me a lot of money and allow me the time to save up for the new system that I really want. I will have my installers just leave the Nest there. It's an incredible product. I've not found one bug with it yet. It's only been about 5 days, but it is already telling me it is learning. Love this product. So glad I bought it. It's the best piece of technology I've bought so far, besides the iPad Pro. Thank you Nest. You saved me a lot of money for now. A few months later: This product is already saving me a lot of money. It's already saved me $40.00 this month on electric. One thing I wanted to mention was someone was complaining about the way it displays the temperature. I think that it is just a matter of getting used to it because there is a rare occasion that the large number in the middle and the smaller number are not the same. What I've noticed is it gets my system up to the correct temperature way faster, and so I'm really not so concerned with the smaller number anymore. I also saw that someone was complaining about the Away function if you don't walk in front of it often and waking up to a cold house. I'm retired, so I don't really need a regular Away function. I go out at really different times, so I went into the settings on the App and turned that off. Problem solved. I love that my air conditioner doesn't run as much as it used to, and I noticed I don't have as much cold air coming out of the vents when the heater is working. I also get an email of my usage each month from Nest. (see image) The leafs mean you've set your temp to an energy-saving setting and will also show up on the dial. And It's still saved me 13 grand. Win win for me.

Updated 1/11/2022 __________________ So we've had 3 of these in the house for the last couple of years. I purchased it in 2018 but hadn't installed it for months. When I finally installed the first one, it was so painless, we ran it for a few days, and it was so much easier to control than the integrated Crestron crap we had. After a while I purchased 2 more for the other HVAC zones in the house (big house) and to my delight, my HVAC systems stopped fighting each other. Having the remote sensors really helps too, since I can use a phone or tablet, tell the thermostat which zone I'm in, and it'll switch to that remote sensor, so I can stay warm or cold depending on where I'm spending my time in the house. The kitchen, for example, can get HOT AF when cooking, right? Bring a sensor with you into the kitchen, tell the thermostat to use that one instead of itself, and the AC/Heat will compensate. Phenomenal. More than that. I have paid an average of $1600 every 6 months (that's over $3200 a year) to keep gas in my tank, and we would run out, or just about run out each time, heaters running non-stop for no reason with the old thermostats right? I just checked. I still have 40% of my tank left.... that's going to last me until March, April, maybe even June. That's near a whole year! That means in 2 years, these thermostats have saved me AT LEAST $1600 in gas... for the price of 3 of these units, they've more than paid for themselves already. I expect them to keep working for years. _______________________________________ There are a few setup / calibration procedures, and some notes you might want to take an interest in BEFORE you buy. First off, this thing requires the C wire to provide power to the unit. Keep that in mind. Luckily I'm "downgrading" from a Crestron-based "smarthome" system, which luckily supplied a lot of redundant network and power options, so I have the 24v(C) wire [YAY!]. You can get someone to install them, for around $150 based on other reviews and personal experience at a previous residence. The next thing you need to know is, it's going to be bugged until you reboot it (based on numerous complaints/reviews/support requests). Mine was... and the simplest solution was to reboot it (in the settings on the device), then run it through its paces with the heat/cold/fan test, and then to let it run for a while. Removing it from the wall and replacing it didn't seem to do anything. There are also some firmware updates which might help. The next thing you need to be aware of is the placement of your sensor/thermostat wire. We determined ours was in our master bathroom. My house has 3 independent HVAC systems, powering 3 zones. Zone 1 is the Master Bath/Master Bedroom/ Study which is where our NEST Thermostat is located. If someone is in the shower, and the door is closed, the shower will remain warm from the hot water, while our bedroom will cool very quickly due to the number of windows and the deck-facing door... The thermostat said 73/74 whilst the bedroom was around 67 at one point. Once the bathroom was cooled off, the doors were opened, the temperature stabilized to an accurate reading and began heating/cooling appropriately. If you're not sure if your system is compatible, you can contact a NEST rep on their website for free, and they will help you examine your wiring for your current system(s) and see if your system is compatible, and will even prepare a wiring diagram to speed up the process. Additionally: there are extra screws and far more wire connection options than you will need. You will only need 5 wires to operate the system effectively for heating and cooling. 4 if you're only doing one or the other. Very simple instructions, don't overthink it. 1. Remove old thermostat / cover 2. Use included wire labels on wires (BEFORE DISCONNECTING THEM FROM OLD PANEL) 3. Remove wires from old panel. 4. Remove old patch panel. 5. Install metal adapter panel (I used the 2 screws from the old thermostat back panel/patch panel. 6. Install Shroud (you will only have 2 screw holes, so you will only need 2 of the 4 included mounting screws) 7. Pull wires through, before placing NEST patch panel on the shroud, and attach all of the wires with corresponding labels. (refer to the diagram your NEST tech provided you from their website... free) 8. Once you've inserted and locked all of the wires, you are ready to install the patch plate/backplate. Remove the two screws (top and bottom) holding up the shroud and install the patchplate over the backplate, without fully tightening the screws. 9. Use the integrated level to align your backplate/thermostat, then tighten the top and bottom screws. 10. Finally, install the thermostat, configure your settings, set up WiFi connection, and then run updates. It may take some time for it to accurately read room temperature, based on thermostat location, airflow to the thermostat, and a restart of the thermostat may be required. The restart option is in the settings menu. The app works extremely well for me, but also remember you can integrate NEST devices with IFTTT to further automate and enhance your experience. You can even use IFTTT with NEST thermostats to get alerts when they detect motion, so it doubles as a security device for my home. MERRY CHRISTMAS! EDIT: 12/26/2018 I purchased 2 more of these from Home Depot (don't be mad Amazon) because, well, I wanted it done NOW. Mostly so I could properly utilize the eco/away mode. With only 1 zone in a 3 HVAC zone house on eco mode, the other 2 zones would have the burdon of normalizing the temps in the home. Instead I went all in, got 2 more thermostats for the other zones, which came with 4 temperature sensors, which paired easily and work very well it seems. As with the thermostats, it takes a little while (20-45 minutes give or take) to start reading the right temps. The temp sensors are a great way to manage a thermostat which is in a dead air zone. If you feel too cold for the reading on the thermostat, put the temperature sensor in an area that feels cooler than the rest of the room, then tell the thermostat via the app or the wall device to use that sensor instead of its own temp reading... and badda bing badda boom you've got a wonderfully balanced and convenient, and elegantly climate controlled home. It only took about 5-10 minutes for each thermostat to remove/replace the old units and install the NEST Thermostats. It's too freaking easy. Update Feb 5, 2019 Installed Nest thermostats throughout the house. Dropped energy usage from 2148 kWh for Aug - September 2018 to 1834 kWh in December. All the while using the 3 HVAC systems to heat the home. After ending up with a second Crestron thermostat dying, I had already sank over 200 bucks in replacement thermostats. So, I decided to upgrade to a smart "learning" thermostat. There is a marked difference in how well (and evenly) the house is heated/cooled now. The HVAC systems are not active, nearly as often. Before, the thermostats (placed literally a few feet away from the HVAC intakes) would be cooled or heated by passing air, being pulled into the intakes. (Talk to the Contractor about that one) NEST allows you to use remote wireless sensors. So I placed one in the kitchen, one in the office, and one in the tiny "study" between the master bathroom and bedroom. Since then the thermostats have done a far better job at maintaining temps, using less gas, less electricity, making less noise, and doing a better job at maintaining comfortable temps. Not to mention being able to use eco mode when I'm not home, saving more energy. Not to mention being able to set the temperature while I'm outside, or in bed, from my phone/tablet/Alexa etc. It's a straightforward install too. Nest support provided a wiring diagram for free. Used the screws from the old thermostat. There are no buttons on the units. The unit IS a button. The unit is literally a dial you turn to change options and you press it to select. Program a schedule, or just change it. When NEST detects a pattern it "learns" and will start adjusting the thermostat before you can make it there. Oh and you can automate with If This Then That (IFTTT.com). For instance If ( Motion Detected) Then (Turn On Lights) Yeah NEST thermostats have motion detection so the screen stays off unless you're close to it. Kind-of handy actually. A neat night light when I'm fumbling my way to the bathroom. Occasionally the Living Room thermostat freaks out and goes to 55 degrees. Not sure why yet.... perhaps a firmware update is required. Not losing a star. The pros far outweight the cons here.

PURCHASE DATE: 27NOV15 PURCHASE PRICE: $211.44 COMED UTILITY COMPANY REBATE: $100.00 After purchasing a new home and watching our utility bills rise for a while I vowed to change all of that in 2015. I began to purchase LED light bulbs as a start, new energy efficient appliances, and then September 2015 the Nest 3rd Generation was released which caught my attention. I asked my father in-law who had the Nest 2nd Generation for information and he had nothing negative to say about it so I was sold. After comparing it to other competitors I was hooked on this one due to the ease of installation, good reviews, and $100 electric company rebate (ask your local energy company). Do not be intimidated to install this on your own it's not hard. The instructions it comes with and YouTube to be on the safe side did it for me. Before installing please make sure to shut your homes power panel breaker prior to uninstalling the old thermostat and installing the Nest (be safe). Take a picture of the way the wires were installed on your old thermostat prior to uninstalling. In doing so this will ensure that your connections are connected correctly. Test your wires one more time prior to uninstalling to make sure no power is running (avoid being shocked or damaging anything). I did not use/install the base-plate (pictures shown) because I wanted a modern, sleek, and clean look. The body and display (40% increase) of the 3rd generation is slightly larger then that of the 2nd generation. If you have children you can lock it so that a child touching it can not change or disrupt your temperature or any of your settings. The stainless steel dial is very smooth and allows you to navigate through the settings with ease. It takes the Nest a couple of days to remember what temperatures you like when you are home and at what times you are home. After a couple of days Nest will ask you if you want it to automatically go into Away Mode when it senses you are not home (you decide opt in or opt out - I opted in). I recommend opting in to Away Mode for better energy savings. You can control when you are home and when you are away during those few days or if you opt out of Away Mode then you control it all. Smartphone application is free and easy to use. The new Far-Sight feature is awesome and can catch me at approximately 10 feet away even in the dark. When Nest detects any motion it will illuminate with what the current temperature is. This is how it can tell if you are home or not and can automatically place itself in Away Mode for energy savings. Being able to control everything from the application on my smartphone itself is so awesome (fan, cooling/heating mode, humidity level, away/home mode, set a schedule, history, etc.). Nest will remind you when you should change your air filters on your furnace because it can base it upon how many times it turns on and off. Significant drop in energy consumption can be seen on my gas bill after month 1. Due to this my father purchased the item as well and has no complaints thus far. UPDATE: 15FEB17 Still own the item with no problems. If you are doing research and thinking of purchasing it - just do it! It is paying for itself in savings thus far. Highly recommended! (PICTURES ATTACHED) THANK YOU!

First off, I have to say that I am not only impressed with the actual thermostat but also Nest as a company. This was quite an expensive purchase and took some time making sure I was making the right purchase. One of the things that solidified my decision to purchase this thermostat was Nest's compatibility checker on their website which made the process a lot easier to know it would be compatible with my existing system. It involved me taking off the cover on my existing thermostat, looking at the connected wires and their labels, and then putting that into a checker on their website. Nest told me which models would be compatible and then also how it would look once I received it. Others here say that the installation is simple and they are not lying. I'm somewhat handy, but I hate messing with electronics like this. This was a relatively easy job that took me about 30 minutes, if that. Nest also included most of the tools I'd need to do it, minus one screwdriver but that was to remove my existing unit. Now Nest doesn't leave you in the dark once they get their money like other companies do. While going through the setup in the app (which is extremely user friendly and helpful), I encountered a problem. I called Nest support as I was directed in the app. The wait was about 7 minutes and I was speaking to someone who spoke clear, understandable English and then transferred me to their thermostat division. The call was interrupted for some reason, maybe my end, I don't know, but they called me back and the woman was extremely helpful in explaining. She didn't baby talk me nor did she use jargon most people wouldn't understand. She explained, what turned out to be, a very stupid misunderstanding on my part. Had I read the directions a little more clearly, I would have seen it, I just got confused. Once we got all that cleared up, she sent me an e-mail and directed me to take a picture and send it back to her. The e-mail arrived to me faster than she could finish her sentence, and I'm not exaggerating on that. She received my e-mail as I was done sending it and she explained to me over the phone how my wiring would be done. She also offered to create a customized diagram for me to use which showed me exactly which wires would go where. The rep offered to stay on the phone with me while I finished or encouraged me to call back if I ran into any other issues or questions as they have a 24 hour customer service line just for questions like this. I have to say I was very impressed based on that call alone. Next part was that I had a working thermostat in 5-10 minutes after ending the call with her. It really works! Setting up Alexa was no problem as well which Alexa does on her own for the most part in the app. We needed a thermostat like this for my dad who has been having vision issues. Thanks to this thermostat, he is able to control the temperature in the house much better than before, making him feel more independent and better even though he's in this nasty situation. From myself and my family, we thank you Nest for allowing this for us. The only complaints I have is in regards to the voice control, which I suppose could be changed if we really wanted to. For instance, there's no documentation I could find that tells you exactly what you need to say. But after a Google search, I found a forum on this where someone had the same issue and I found the solution. To control the thermostat using voice, you say "Alexa turn up the heat" or "Alexa turn on the cooling" depending on whether you want air conditioning or heating. I was hoping more for "Alexa turn up the heat to 80" but this is fine. We all now understand what to say and there's no real issue. The thermostat is smart and seems to be learning our habits and how we like the house and the Eco feature is supposed to save us some money on our bill, so we're looking forward to that. I can't comment on either of those features at this time since we've only had the unit for around a month now. As of now, we're extremely satisfied with this. It truly feels like we're living in the 21st century when you can turn up and down the temperature using your voice. And that thermostat is absolutely beautiful to pass by. It has a lot of useful information on the display and also lights up when you pass by. It's really awesome and I'm really excited about it.

A NEST PRO (authorized installer) said NEST removes unfavorable online reviews, so I hope this one goes through and you can search others. Bottom line: Do due diligence..... do online searches like “NEST complaints”, “c wire”, “common wire”, “NEST” And “compatibility”, “incompatibility.” What NEST doesn’t tell you, according to a NEST PRO, is that lots of systems are incompatible with many of their products (thermostats, doorbells, alarm systems). You might have major installation headaches and unexpected wiring costs. Simple one floor, one unit, one thermostat ac/furnaces might work ok (I have relatives who love their NEST for such houses). Sony dual thermostat control systems are incompatible. It will cost a minimum of $300 or more plus labor (per a HVAC expert) to change some dual systems to be compatible w the NEST thermostat. Also, NEST thermostats draw energy from your ac. In some cases, like mine, when the NEST gets power it will trigger a surge to your AC and it will cause some ac units to randomly and repeatedly turn on, even though it’s freezing cold inside and outside your house, you have the NEST turned to heat only, and all your temp settings should not cause the ac to turn on.... but it does. The only way I could stop this was to turn off my house breaker to the ac. As a temporary fix, NEST tech support had me disconnect the ac wire at the NEST and so the NEST would go to the heat (next wired connection) for to recharge the NEST but that could then cause problems with the heating system. See additional details, below. Sorry this is a fragmented review.... I’ve been writing down notes from my experience w NEST as it has gone on (a very long time). —— Generally installation seems simple, and their tech support in my experience was good at walking you through things, BUT I highly recommend doing one of the following: 1) before installing yourself, call NEST tech support and have them help you determine if your system is compatible, OR 2) Look in the NEST PRO box the product comes in, and follow their directions for finding one of their NEST PRO contractors near you to install your NEST thermostat (that’s what I did). Using their NEST PRO installer for the thermostat gives you a 5 year warranty on the product and more support. Even though I am very handy at electrical and home projects, I used a NEST PRO because I was very busy and just wanted it all “done”, fast and right. However, I got a total nut as a “PRO”. Aside from him endlessly talking (while I was trying to do other things), asking very inappropriate questions about my income, marital status, if I lived alone, him talking about his prison time, his adultery, etc, etc, and his seeming very unstable mood, and questionable know-how, the “simple” installation, took him over 6 hours and the NEST thermostats still didn’t work. He tried to pressure me to give him a 5 star rating review before he would come back to fix the problem. He said he did this with his other customers. Additional problems w this PRO with other customers resulted in him bailing on being a NEST PRO and bailing on my job (likely a good thing for me). My system was still not right & I had problems w the Ac constantly running, the fan randomly running, and furnace not responding right.... problems I never had before with old fashioned Honeywell thermostats. My electricity/gas provider sends me weekly updates my bill/usage and my usage / bill doubled with the NEST even though I had settings turned where it was not suppose to be turning on AC or heat, and no one was at the house. I read up online about such problems and figured it was possibly a “C or ”common wire issue”. The NEST PRO flake had removed himself from working for NEST and so I called NEST directly. The woman in tech support was great, and the second, higher level tech guy was also helpful. They walked me through trouble shooting steps and agreed it was likely a common wire issue. They sent out a service contractor to evaluate. This service provider was also excellent and NEST paid for his visit and would have covered the cost of installing a common wire BUT ONLY BECAUSE I had originally used a NEST PRO to do the installation. (Hence, I recommend using a NEST PRO. Various bids to do follow wire outside of NEST were $500 to $1000, according to 2 people who served as NEST PROS). However, the good service provider found that my system is incompatible with NEST. It would cost $$$$$$ to change my system to be compatible with NEST and there was no guarantee. At this point I regretted changing from the working perfectly Honeywell thermostats. I wanted to love NEST. It was not meant to be. The problems continued as I tried to get compensation for my pain. The NEST higher level tech originally said he would work to get me reimbursed for the (authorized) NEST PRO original fee and the 2 NESTs I had bought. He then told and emailed me instructions to ASAP send my NESTs back to amazon for a refund. Amazon held back $80 of my reimbursement to restock the NESTS. Then the same NEST tech said since I had sent the NESTS back to Amazon, he could not help get me reimbursed for out of pocket expenses I had (refund of my bill for the official NEST PRO who didn’t know what he was doing; full price of NEST Thermostats minus whatever amazon deducted for restocking). I would NOT have followed his advice to send the NESTS back to Amazon if I had known it would jeopardize my situation. I originally had felt pretty good about the customer support I received from NEST, but now feel like they do not support you. I will never buy another NEST product. Incidentally, my old school Honeywell thermostats that worked perfectly before, were no longer found anywhere in my house after the NEST PRO left. Perhaps they were misplaced by the PRO but they are gone so we had to buy new ones. So, for 2 NESTs, I have spent over a thousand dollars and more than 14 hours in this nonsense. Plus double utility bill. Plus $250 to put in traditional thermostats.

I am actually quite impressed by this thermostat. Our vacation home in the mountain does not have an air conditioner -- just an old furnace. I knew nothing about HVAC at the time, but the thermostat helped me understand that what I had was just that: a furnace wired with just two cables. That also meant that the existing cabling would not allow for an air conditioning unit to be installed without additional wiring. There are workarounds available, but the point is: my Honeywell smart thermostat would not work with just two wires. It needed a C (Blue Common) wire to power itself. The Nest? "No problem", my brother told me. So, I bought a Nest and sure enough, it works with just 2 wires. The app guides you on the installation: 1. Scan the QR code found on the thermostat with the app 2. Turn off the power to the thermostat, heater, and air conditioning unit 3. Locate the existing wires, take a photo so you could go back to it 4. Label the wires with included, sticking labels 5. The app then tells you exactly what each wire is for and how to connect them to the Nest. When I installed the Nest at my home later (that has so many more wires), I learned that I have a stage 1 and 2 heater and an air conditioning unit. RC is for power, C for Common wire. 6. Once wired, turn back on the power 7. Nest guides you through some questions, asking you what kind of heater you got. Then it allows you to test the heater, AC, fan 8. You can then continue with the app to configure additional options, including scheduling TWO NUMBERS? WHICH IS WHICH? I saw two numbers on the Nest. Which was the current temperature? Which was the temp we wanted the thermostat to heat up to? The outer number is the current, ambient temperature. The center one is the desired temp to reach. READ TEMP DOESN'T MATCH ACTUAL? What if the Nest's current temp doesn't match the actual temperature in your home? This happened to me. Nest showed 68 degrees. Home was actually 72. Turns out, that is normal. Nest says that the thermostat was still adjusting to the home and learning. Give it 24 hours to see if the read temp matches actual. It did for me. As long as your Nest was not near a source that could affect its temp reading (ie. near a water heater), the thermostat should learn and adjust its sensor to match actual reading. SCHEDULING I found scheduling to be quite awkward. Go to each day and click Add. Then adjust the temp by swiping up or down, time by going left or right. This can be frustrating at times: where I meant to go up/down, it registered left/right. You also can't easily see what temp you were setting because your darn finger is in the way! Try to set different temps for different days... and boy. It gets frustrating. I liked something less flashy like my older Honeywell: choose the days, type in or push arrows to the desired temp and time. SO MUCH QUICKER to configure. Function over looks. Google... The thermostat learns from your habits and schedules and adjusts itself accordingly. This should, in theory, help you save some money by only turning on the heater/AC as needed. This learning mode can also be turned off entirely. Sharing the thermostat's control unfortunately requires a Google Home app configuration to which you invite your family member to. You cannot share control via the Nest app itself. Shame on Google. For my vacation home, I do like that you can lock what temp range you want a guest to be able to adjust to. I set mine up to between 50-72F. No need for someone to go hotter or colder than that. I also love that there's a safety function: even when the thermostat is turned off, if it detects ambient temp to reach a pre-determined level (I set mine to 47F), it'll automatically heat the house to that minimum. This is important for our vacation home that's up in the mountains to help minimize the danger of our water pipes from freezing during rigid winters. Suffice to say, I liked the controls this thermostat offered, I got my own home one too. Check out your utility company to see if any rebates are available. They might have a program to help offset some of this Nest's cost.

It stops connecting to the Wi-Fi after two years. I thought it was just my problem, then I looked it up. It happens a lot. I mean it's a stangely common issue. Seems like something is defective, but Google won’t admit to it and Customer Support can’t help you after two years. So you’re stuck. Their advice is to buy the new version. I don’t really love that response. A thermostat isn't an item that should only last two years before needing "the new model". EDIT: I finally reached someone at Customer Support who offered to replace the unit. The catch is that I have to PAY for the replacement unit until they receive my defective unit in return. Yes, they're supposedly paying for the shipping. So I'm giving it a try, even though I don't love the risky $239 charge sitting on my credit card for the next couple of weeks. It feels like a trap, and there's some suspicious wording in their return policy. I'll report the results. EDIT to the EDIT: Well it wasn’t a trap. They sent a replacement within two days. It worked perfectly. Setup took 5 minutes. I immediately sent my old unit back (using shipping labels they provided). Two days later their hold on my credit card was dropped. Issue was completely resolved in under a week. Pretty impressive. Still don’t love that the unit just suddenly died, but very impressed at their Customer Service.

Learns when and what temperature to set according to when and where you are in the house. I have 2 Nest thermostats and they automatically set to when I sleep and wake up. Took about 4 to 5 days to learn.