new tstat from ipod creator

http://www.nest.com/
http://goo.gl/cJA4O

I like the design, but only 1 stage cool/ 2 stage heat, so a no go for me at this point.

Looks like it uses power stealing with a rechargeable lithium, I always thought HAI should do a battery like that for their OmniStats to reduce power supply issues. Also much nicer physically and with Wifi/Direct IP rather than serial like a OmniStat for about the same cost, HAI might have to step up their game if this is successful.

Will be sold at BestBuy with optional installation service by Geek Squad. Interesting.

I like their web-site's thermostat compatibility checker. Check off all the wire-codes that are connected to your current thermostat and it'll tell you if the Nest Thermostat will work for you. Clever.

I'm not convinced that manually setting my thermostat's temperature for a week (so that it learns my preferences) is easier than just programming it in one shot using a schedule. According to their marketing pitch, 90% of programmable thermostats are never programmed using their scheduler so that's why a 'learning thermostat' is better. I guess I'm one of the 10% who have used the scheduler ....

A built-in motion detector determines if the house is inactive (over a period of two hours) and then adjusts the temperature (Auto-Away). Nice touch and without the need for an HA system.

Built-in WiFI so that simplifies remote-access issues. No idea if they plan to offer connectivity (i.e. an API) to HA software ... I kind of doubt it.

We're clearly wrong audience for this particular thermostat. But it sure looks sexy. If the HTTP commands will be useable without their software, might be cool to use it just for the looks. Though unless it has some kind of notification, it will not be the best option even then.

Yup - looks pretty slick. I'm one of the 90% who's never programmed a thermostat, but after a summer of $800+ electric bills, I'm ready.

Funny - I've had an RCS zoned system to replace my existing zone system sitting on the shelf for 6 months - finally installed it today... only fitting that a cool announcement like that would surface same day!

I wonder how well it would work in my house. My tstat is located in the hall and normally has an open door that blocks it from view for the most part. Seems this type of location would cause issues with its light sensor and occupancy sensors. I could not find any info on the site about installation location requirements.

As the 'iPod of thermostats' I doubt it can be integrated at all. They want it to work, and work well, at a cheap price, with no tech support. I wonder if you can change the battery, or you have to buy a new one every 5 years.

6 years after it's released, other thermostat companies will follow suit with more easier configuration, same current specs.

I want my thermostats hidden, but I'm the exception. Trying to reduce wall clutter, not add more bling.

Work2Play, I hope to hear more about your RCS install.

Tony Faddell, the guy behind this thermostat and the origniator of the ipod, was a fraternity brother of mine in college. I knew him quite well. He was quite the character. Another good friend of mine in college who was also a EE and who knew Tony quite well told me, "that guy is a genius, he is going to make something incredible some day". At the time, I thought, yeah right. Tony was best known for getting duck taped to the floor on occasion (I have photos). Turns out he was right. However, good thing I didn't stick with him, he went bankrupt a couple times before he took his idea to Apple. Surprisingly, he already had the ipod concept in college. That was 1990. Well before there was any possible way to actually store songs on any micro drive. He certainly was thinking ahead. At the time everyone was using those little goofy mac se's. Those things barely had a big enough hard drive to hold music, let alone a little pocket device.

I can only imagine the Steve Jobs/Tony Faddell intercourse. There is no way those two got along. Or maybe they did, Steve Jobs of couse is well known for being a bit of a tyrant and Tony was never short on being blunt. Supposedly Steve Jobs actually liked all out arguements and Tony I'm sure was more than willing to provide the other half.

Hopefuly Tony will do well with this device. The difference this time is he has a lot of personal capital (I think he has severl hundred million in apple stock options) plus now that he is "the father of the ipod" people will certainly stake his gambles.

Neurorad said:

Work2Play, I hope to hear more about your RCS install.

Click to expand...

All in all it's a boring story, but I went ahead and wrote it up here... If you have any questions about the system you can always catch me in Chat.

firstone said:

We're clearly wrong audience for this particular thermostat. But it sure looks sexy. If the HTTP commands will be useable without their software, might be cool to use it just for the looks. Though unless it has some kind of notification, it will not be the best option even then.

Click to expand...

couldn't post the link since I'm new...
techcrunch dot com slash 2011 slash 12 slash 22 slash nest-arm-zigbee
Nest Thermostat Teardown Reveals Beautiful Innards, Powerful ARM CPU, Zigbee Radio
They immediately sold thru all their inventory. I got one of these for Christmas and it really sparked an HA kick for me. Just like apple, the design, quality, and even the packaging was top notch. You get a simple iPhone app to control it. A website provides some charts and graphs of your energy usage.
I ordered another one for upstairs and it finally shipped this week. I have read rumors that Nest is working on more HA stuff and I think with zigbee in the box this is likely.
I think someone will figure out how to send it commands... Directly or thru their cloud.

Looks like they are getting sued now by Honeywell for patent infringement.

Dan (electron) said:

Looks like they are getting sued now by Honeywell for patent infringement.

Click to expand...

And the winner is. . . . the lawyers.

My bet, this will go nowhere, take 2 years, and cost both companies money and consumers better products.

feel free to contact honeywell and tell them how you feel about their preference to litigate instead of innovate https://honeywell.co...contact-us.aspx #occupyhoneywell

Honeywell's response:

"Thank you for contacting Honeywell and expressing your concern about Honeywell's patent infringement announcement. Your concern has been shared with the appropriate team. In accordance with our policy, we do not comment on pending litigation."

just got the same message. their "appropriate team" is probably the trash can. but i feel better after i vented. i will probably tweet at them too.