Google Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation, Copper – Smart Thermostat – A Brighter Way To Save Energy
The brighter way to save energy.
The 3rd-generation Nest Thermostat learns the temperatures that you like, turns itself down when you’re away and connects to your phone. It has a big, sharp display. It controls your hot water tank. And it helps save energy. That’s the most beautiful part.
Saving energy starts with your thermostat.
Your thermostat controls 60% of your energy bill. So shouldn’t it help you save energy? The Nest Thermostat does. Since 2011, it’s saved over 4 billion kWh of energy in millions of homes worldwide. Because it learns from you. It gets to know the temperature that you like while you’re at home.
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Remote control.
Change the temperature and control your hot water tank from anywhere using your mobile, tablet or laptop.
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Home/Away Assist.
It automatically adjusts the temperature after you’ve left. It can even turn off your hot water if you’re away for a few days.[1]
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Farsight.
When the Nest Thermostat spots you across the room, it lights up beautifully to show you the time, temperature or weather.
*Energy savings are not guaranteed and depend on energy usage, weather and other factors.Learn more at nest.com/eu/savings
1 Requires a compatible smart phone with location enabled
| Weight: | 24.4 g |
| Dimensions: | 8.4 x 3.2 x 8.4 cm; 24.4 Grams |
| Model: | T3031EX |
| Colour: | Copper |
| Manufacture: | |
| Colour: | Copper |
Disappointed
Having paid 185 for an electrical product I would expect it to come with the required power lead. To be then expected to pay a further 11.50 for the lead is disappointing to say the least.
Good thermostat and does all it says
Was easy enough to install if you are somewhat electrically minded, has all the features you expect it to works flawlessly with my phone and Alexa devices
the one con id give is that the actual thermostat has to plugged in or hardwired, unlike the HIVE where the thermostat it wireless so can easily be moved around the house.
Transformational device
This has been genuinely transformational. House used to flip flop between too hot and too cold. Now, we don’t even think about it – it’s put an end to the thermostat war! Paid for a professional installation, which was worth it as this was replacing an archaic “rf” thermostat, so the wiring start point was different from a more “normal” installation.
Maybe it doesn't save energy!
Don’t get me wrong, I still like the product but probably more for the fact I can pick up my phone to either turn up or down the temperature. But as for it saving money, well in my experience it doesn’t, but one year’s usage is very different from another’s, so it’s tricky to be certain. The previous combination of a timer and thermostat were actually cheaper probably because I wasn’t heating the house as much. My main disappointment has been with the going out bit. I thought it would immediately know I was out of the house and not be heating the house, but for short trips of less than four hours, it still continues to ignore the fact I’m not there as still heats the place, so that’s not as good as expected. It links well with my smoke and carbon dioxide detectors and integrates well on Google. I like the look but its a toy rather than being as smart as they pretend.
CONS: The learning function is pretty pointless and a gimmick, you can set up a manual schedule which works better and ends up using less energy. It ends up giving you a strange and sporadic schedule where the heating usually comes on too hot and for too long, at essentially random times. It’s much easier to set a basic schedule and adjust as needed.
In addition ‘Home and away assist’ is buggy and doesn’t work most of the time. If you want to use it freestanding a separate stand and micro USB charger and cable need to be used which aren’t included, disappointing for the price.
PROS:
That said, the thermostat looks and feels amazing to use. The communication with the heatlink is excellent even through 3 brick walls. Controlling it from the app is brilliant as well as you can warm the home up before you arrive.
Hopefully the supposedly “smart” features will improve in future firmware updates.
CONS: The learning function is pretty pointless and a gimmick, you can set up a manual schedule which works better and ends up using less energy. It ends up giving you a strange and sporadic schedule where the heating usually comes on too hot and for too long, at essentially random times. It’s much easier to set a basic schedule and adjust as needed.
In addition ‘Home and away assist’ is buggy and doesn’t work most of the time. If you want to use it freestanding a separate stand and micro USB charger and cable need to be used which aren’t included, disappointing for the price.
PROS:
That said, the thermostat looks and feels amazing to use. The communication with the heatlink is excellent even through 3 brick walls. Controlling it from the app is brilliant as well as you can warm the home up before you arrive.
Hopefully the supposedly “smart” features will improve in future firmware updates.
easy fi
i have been looking at the nest for some time but had no reason to replace my thermostat until the wireless sender started playing up. the nest arrived next day and was very easy to fit it was done in ten minuets if your going to have the nest on a table stand you will need to buy a power lead and of course a stand the sender unit needs just 4 wires which are clearly marked .once you download the nest app put the alexa skill on your alexa you can run the nest from anywhere i will have see now if it learns the routines of the house
Make sure you get the correct one.
I gave this thermostat 5 stars because after a lot of research I got it right.
I had Passiv System which controlled heating and hot water very well and also monitored my solar panels. I could see everything from anywhere in the world.
Sadly after 9 years the Passiv hub failed and there was no way to get a replacement or equivalent. I could only control heating and hot water with manual override.
Research guided me to Google Nest. I already had nest products so was familiar with the products. Even with the previous knowledge of Nest products there are pitfalls.
1. Make sure you get the right one. There is one which doubles as heat sensor. This means your thermostat has to be there and for me it would be the utility room which has a washing machine and tumble dryer producing heat and upsetting the thermostat.
Most people need the one with the separate heat sensing plate so that you can choose anywhere within 30 M to put the thermostat.
2. Get the stand!! To my mind this is vital. It is not just something to sit it on. It means you can put it anywhere near a power plug, you don’t have to bore holes in your wall and it is easily powered by USB. It does come with a USB lead and plug contrary to a lot of reviews
Perhaps they didn’t get the stand. The stand uses USB so there is no chance to fry your new appliance by attaching 230v mains leads. The pro. who fitted mine told me fryed thermostats are a common call-out.
3. Get it fitted by a professional. The man who did mine was in the house for half an hour. He explained my S plan heating which I had feared might make my system incompatible. Wired everything up very quickly, tested all functions and spent 15 minutes explaining everything and showing me how to get the best out of the system. He also left me card to get in contact if there were any problems.
So far it is faultless. Also works well with voice controls on Google devices.
Make sure you get the correct one.
I gave this thermostat 5 stars because after a lot of research I got it right.
I had Passiv System which controlled heating and hot water very well and also monitored my solar panels. I could see everything from anywhere in the world.
Sadly after 9 years the Passiv hub failed and there was no way to get a replacement or equivalent. I could only control heating and hot water with manual override.
Research guided me to Google Nest. I already had nest products so was familiar with the products. Even with the previous knowledge of Nest products there are pitfalls.
1. Make sure you get the right one. There is one which doubles as heat sensor. This means your thermostat has to be there and for me it would be the utility room which has a washing machine and tumble dryer producing heat and upsetting the thermostat.
Most people need the one with the separate heat sensing plate so that you can choose anywhere within 30 M to put the thermostat.
2. Get the stand!! To my mind this is vital. It is not just something to sit it on. It means you can put it anywhere near a power plug, you don’t have to bore holes in your wall and it is easily powered by USB. It does come with a USB lead and plug contrary to a lot of reviews
Perhaps they didn’t get the stand. The stand uses USB so there is no chance to fry your new appliance by attaching 230v mains leads. The pro. who fitted mine told me fryed thermostats are a common call-out.
3. Get it fitted by a professional. The man who did mine was in the house for half an hour. He explained my S plan heating which I had feared might make my system incompatible. Wired everything up very quickly, tested all functions and spent 15 minutes explaining everything and showing me how to get the best out of the system. He also left me card to get in contact if there were any problems.
So far it is faultless. Also works well with voice controls on Google devices.
Great! But get it installed by a professional
We moved I to a new house recently and stop bickering over the heating we decided to purchase a nest.
We paid a nest installer which we found via the nest website to get it installed (80). I’m clued up with tech and what not, but would highly recommend getting it installed professionally.
It’s been about a month now and being able to track our heating along with changing it on our phones has been fun, helpful and hopefully cost saving.
looks grea
for the price your paying you expect it to do bit more – not sure what but something extra other then being a thermostar
it’s does what it’s supposed to well
My third property with Nest, Replaced Honeywell ST699B (detailed instructions)
USE AT OWN RISK – IF IN DOUBT GET A PROFESSIONAL – TURN OFF AT MAINS / CONSUMER UNIT / ISOLATOR BEFORE STARTING – THIS IS 240V!!!!
Wiring this up was a bit of a challenge as I had not installed a hot water option before. I needed to consult YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFT1AJsbMfo&ab_channel=JohnWard @ 13:34).
I replaced a Honeywell ST699B with this on a system with a system boiler and hot water system.
Nest connected as follows:
Power
Live and Neutral – L & N to respective terminals
Bridge Live to common for heat (terminal 2) and hot water (terminal 5) using small additional cable loops
Heating
Call for heat (Normally open) to terminal 3
Terminal 1 (Satisfied – normally closed) NOT REQUIRED as thermostat decides when to turn off
Hot Water
Call for heat (Normally open) to terminal 6
Terminal 4 (Satisfied – normally closed) REQUIRED as thermostat in tank decides when to turn off
Wiring mapping was as follows:
Honeywell (Left to right) / Nest
8 / 5 (Hot Water – Common)
7 / 4 (Hot Water)
6 / 6 (Hot Water)
5 / 2 (Heating – Common)
4 (not connected)/ 1 not connected (Heating)
3 / 3 (Heating)
N / N
L / L
L to 5 to 8 / L to 2 to 5
Works great as usual!
Great device
Great device and works well, only thing to watch out for is when doing your research most install videos is for the US and not the UK. Here in the UK you will need to install a heat link (comes in the box) so lots of people would then need it professionally fitted which is around 90.00 extra cost.
Check it’s definitely brand new! Works well though
I would give this 5 stars if the purchase had been a bit more transparent – didn’t realise until the installer opened the box that someone had already tried to fit this thermostat previously so not technically brand new. But works fine
Worth the extra money
I can’t believe I didn’t just spend the money in the first place, this is my 3rd smart thermostat, the other 2 being much cheaper models.
I wish I had just bought this one in the first place, the quality the fit and reliability is all far superior to anything else, it was a doddle to fit and looks great with some really nice features
Nest Is The Best!
Installed by an electrician. Great product with which we can control the C/H even when on the other side of the world. We no longer come home from holidays to a cold house. We can even ask Alexa to turn up the heating tempurature without having to get up. The original unit failed after a few weeks as it wouldn’t pair to the Router. The replacement had the same problem and finally the replacement for the replacement was OK. It seems that many people have had this problem and the agent seemed to be aware of it.
Customer Support was excellent and I had replacements from Poland in 2 days!!
Great set up process
Very easy and fast to install. Took all of a few minutes. Linked to Alexa within 5 minutes and can now control home heating quickly and easily from anywhere in the world.
The only thing is that this does not come with a power cable so you will need a Misco USB cable and plug adaptor for USB.
Liking it so far.
Great app controlled thermosta
The nest 3rd gen thermostat is great.
Simple to use after professional installation, and the app nest app and Google Home integration works well.
I bought a separate stand for the unit as it is mounted away from the receiver. One thing to keep in mind is the stand needs a psu so don’t but a stand without one! (like I initially did and tried a normal micro USB charger)
Will not work out of the box, needs a separate power supply.
This is a great device, easy to use and the app is great. One problem the actual thermostat needs to be plugged in to a 12v power supply via a cable (older android mobile phone charger cable is compatible) THIS IS NOT IN THE BOX. A stand and charging cable is available separately for 30!
Once set up a great bit of ki
Oddly when i moved into my house we didn’t have a thermostat. My plumber/electrician recommended the Nest over the Hive. I took his word for it. I can’t do a direct comparison but I can say it integrates nicely with Alexa as long as you have the Alexa app on your phone tablet. Just tap the + icon to add a new device. The design is sleek and easy to operate manually and via the Nest Home app.
Nice to have
Being lazy just got easier. There’s no point to having this. It solves a problem that I didn’t know I had and has a mind of its own but its nice to have
Pretty slick but lack of info on manual schedule
All installed by electrician and does what it says on the tin, at which it is pretty slick. But, not wanting a lot to do with smart auto ot home/away I just need a manual schedule. Which can be done (switch off auto).
BUT – what no one tells you until you find Youtube videos by smart fellas – is that you do not set simple on off points. The first night I thought I was and then wondered why the heating came on at 1am. Having read so many ‘why does my heating come on in the night?’ complaints/questions I have discovered the answer. Which may be useful for future buyers.
Unless you have ‘heat off’ your heating is not switched off, there is no off point. When you set a heating point, say 20 degrees at 8am, it will stay at 20 until it gets told to do something else. So when I thought I was setting an off point at 9pm for 20 degrees, what I was actually doing was telling it to maintain that temperature. Hence the heating comes on periodically.
SO – what we need to do in manual mode is to set a point when you go to work and when you will go to bed that is low enough not to actvate the heating, say 12 degrees. It will then keep quiet until it gets your next point – be it early morning or as you come home from work.
Before anyone tries to set your own manual schedule from Google instructions- watch a couple of Youtube videos by experts. It will save you hours
Nest is amazing.
Awesome product. Well built, feels good quality and looks stylish on the wall. The interface on the dial is simple. Rotate the dial and push in to accept. The app is very simple to use and it integrates with Amazon Alexa very well. We paid for an engineer to install it, best 50 spent. Installed professionally and works great. It learns what you like in terms of heating and predicts your heating requirements. Cleve
Back of the nest!! Hav-it!!
A great product for convenience and design. It was very easy to swap out the old and somewhat buggy 1st generation Nest. Quick 15 minutes to switch out the old heat link and thermostat. The heat link box was a little bigger than the 1st generation one but that only meant a need screw plug but the thermostat fixed securely into the old screw plugs without any hassle. Always worth taking a photo of the old wiring if you’re confident, competent and upgrading.
Does what it says on the tin... almos
It’s a Google product, so works better with their software.
It’s a no-go with ifttt unless your nest account hasn’t been migrated.
You can’t tell it to turn on for 10 mins as a boost, just set the temp.
Time will tell how much money it saves by knowing when I’m at home or not…
Will be experimenting with Alexa routines to get it working how I want…
Nest is fab however... Please check what you need before you buy!
The Nest is fab, works like a charm. However, even after all my research I didn’t discover I needed a stand and power cord until the guy came to fit it. I thought I was paying 95 to have an electrical wire to the unit on the wall, using an engineer recommended by Nest. What work he did to took him around 20 minutes, (took the old unit off the wall in the airing cupboard, wired-in the new unit) the equivalent of changing a plug and I could have easily done myself. Check what you need. I’m not suggesting it’s a scam, just misleading.
I’ve had to pay an extra 24 for a stand and a power cord (they come separately).
User friendly and no need for plumbers or electricians
Although took a bit of fiddling to set up, I found that even without any previous plumbing or electronic knowledge I was able to install this myself. I’d recommend YouTube tutorials to help with your current setup but once I got it working, found Nest to be really good.
Wasn’t sure whether to choose this or hive but actually I’m glad I went for Nest. Very user friendly and good support available. Looks neat on my wall and everything I needed for set up came in the box.
Went on holiday recently and loved how easy it was to turn everything off remotely at a click of a button on the app. Really pleased overall.
I got my nest heating controls today first impressions looks ok but a few things bothered me first of all I was lucky that my old salus IT500 setup had the exact same wiring so it was pretty easy to do the wiring or so you would think!
Installation asks you to mount the heatlink to the wall after installing the wiring I strongly suggest you do it this way otherwise its a right c*** to do it on the wall. The clamps for holding the cable in place were not to my liking they certainly were not designed for round cable in mind! That being said I carefully flattened a section of the outer casing on the cable so it would fit better. Then I had to tighten the screws very carefully because I think if id been a bit over zealous I would have snapped it. This plastic isnt designed for this task! See photo’s
The outer cover on the heatlink is a bit poorly designed the clip piece on the top that holds it in position to keep it on after the screw in the bottom is done up is useless and this is the main reason this product lost a star for me. You can see in the photo’s how I can easily pull the top part away from the heatlink.
Now the thermostat unit is very solid its so heavy I think there is a metal block inside it lol. Setup was fairly easy however there were no instructions on how to use the learning thermostat I had to look online to learn how t o use it. I thought it was a touch screen but its not.
I initially used a phone charger to power the learning thermostat although there must be a battery inside as it works without it plugged in. so maybe that explains the weight of it. After this I dug into my plug drawer and found a suitable 12v transformer plug those ones you typically get what I call black plug transformers. So I wired this upto the learning thermostat’s base doesnt matter which way the wires go. Im glad the base has a spirit level in it that is a nice touch it makes mounting it to a wall easy although I just screwed mine into the bottom of my staircase (wood) about 1.5m off the ground.
The app is a bit fiddly especially trying to make a schedule that was a royal pain in the a** but if you want to set the same for every day of the week you can copy monday and paste it to the rest of the days of the week.
I havent had time to look into the app in depth but it seems comprehensive. Lets hope it lasts longer than my salus did. That lasted about 5 years although I cant complain too much 5 years is pretty good. But the salus was 1st generation so it wasnt as good as this I needed an extra device powered and plugged into the router. Having said that, now I power the thermostat so I guess swings and roundabouts.
This is an early review I may change in the future but hopefully I dont need to.
Easy setup and nice looking product.
Purchased this to replace a honeywell wireless thermostat that was very temperamental.
Installation was easy enough after a little research, if you know how to change a plug socks or light switch then you can do it. (At least for outset up that already had a relay (heatlink as google call it)
Once installed the heat link, easy to pair with thermostat and ready to go.
I’ve linked ours with Google home, I can just tell it to turn on or set temperature.
As many have mentioned it doesn’t come with a plug for the thermostat, and it needs to be plugged in all time its not wireless, not providing a plug for a device that needs it to work is pretty ridiculous, currently plugged ours in to an old phone charger and seems to be fine, but still this should be included.
Really happy with the look of the nest, and ease of use.
Quality produc
Really nice, high-quality product. Very accurate with the temperature reading and management. Easy to integrate with Alexa. I got it on Black Friday and it was well worth the money, but I am not sure I would be buying it if I was paying full price. Took one star off cause they still don’t support Cyprus as a location, so I have to have it pretend it is in the UK.
A great bit of kit, but some issues setting up.
Updated: a few weeks down the line it stops connecting to the internet again with the message WiFi may be hidden or too far away. Turns out a faulty chip and needs replacing. Common fault looking at other comments online.
A brilliant bit of kit, but had a few difficulties. The first issue was wiring, the screw heads were weak and started to chew very easily, they are not replaceable and the holes for the wires very small so getting more than one wire in was difficult. The second issue was to use the nest wirelessly, you need a usb cable to charge it, guess what.. it doesn’t come with one! It cost another 30+ for the stand with plug and charger cable. Everything seem to work except for the app! It was driving me up the wall. The thermostat was connected to the WiFi router but the app said it was offline as not receiving power, when it was! Eventually with the help of next customer service, I ended up replacing the TP link router with a Huawei router and it resolved the issue straight away. Everything now works brilliantly, using Alexa to control is simple, so is the app. Overall it’s worth buying but be prepared for some issues if installing yourself.
Good system with minor gremlins
I bought this because the old manual timer on my boiler had broken.
It does a good job of switching the heating on and off, however it has an annoying habit of ‘learning’ and pre-empting when it thinks the heating should come on.
I’ve woken up many times at 5am to find the heating cranking out at full power while it decides it will preheat the house for me before I wake up!
You can fiddle with the schedule to trick it into not doing this, but it’s a real faff.
Overall it is a great system, but you have to be prepared to mess around with it to get the results that you want.
ice to use
I recently had my boiler moved and decided to upgrade my thermostat to the Google Nest one to modernise things.
Firstly the fitting – I had a plumber fit this thermostat and he was surprised that it still needed a hard wire from the thermostat back to the boiler …as was I. What i found strange was that you need a receiver at the boiler end before connecting the cable into the boiler so it can receive details from the thermostat, so if anyone else is going to buy one of these make sure you can place the receiver near your boiler.
Secondly the use. Functionality of the unit is really good. Setting up with my Alexa was simple and i can operate it via voice. I did however turn off the learning facility as it seemed to have a bit of a mind of it’s own and i just use the standard way with the smart features.
Overall it is a nice thermostat but could do with simplifying a little
Good, but not home/away not great for cold climates.
Really great device but the home/away function doesn’t work in colder climates where it takes an hour to heat the house up. What you find is that the heating comes on as you walk in the door and you then have to wait in the cold. We reverted to using a schedule and Google home integration to turn it on/off instead.
Great purchase!
It’s really handy to be able to turn the heat on and off from a work, on the way home and even from the airport and abroad. During the icy weather I was concerned about the low temperatures and using the app I was able to turn the heat on for an hour whenever I needed to when in Spain. I couldn’t do without it now! It’s also great that you get an email every month showing your usage and how you compare against others in your area. I have been told that this doesn’t work well with gas on Valliant boilers so might be best to check it out first before buying!
Very impressed with Google Nest!
Super easy to use and very smart thermostat!
Within a first week of using it, Nest learned the daily schedule and automatically adjust the temperature now, no need to manually setup (but you can still do this).
Very elegant design and great mobile app!
UPDATE AFTER USING FOR 12MONTHS:
Still very impressed, we had no issues so far.
We can only use it for heating as our boiler has a water tank, it cannot be used for water.
Great quality, would definitely recommend!
Hope you find this helpful 🙂
Good but smart home integration is not grea
The installation was easy. For a novice such as myself going to a combi boiler, I just followed instructions in the box and watched a YouTube video to confirm. That seemed to do the trick. After that everything was straight forward.
Schedule was automatically set on the first week. Adding family members for auto shut down when not in really helps.
Integration with alexa is good but not great to be fair. It is absolutely usable though.
Iftt integration has now been lost, Google really messed up there, but what can you do. Wanted to fully integrate into a smart home with alexa, blink etc… But the services don’t seem to be talking to each other. I removed one star for that.
New Nest Learning Thermosta
Had this fitted by a professional recommended by Nest after purchasing from Amazon on Prime Day!
It cost 85 to fit and took around an hour with the engineer taking a further 20 mins to explain full functionality.
Very pleased with it so far as it is so much easier to use and particularly when away from home it goes it to energy save mode switching back on when you return.
It works on location from my phone and of course I can override at any time from the really clear and functional app .
No negatives to date and I have been using it for just two months.
Independent review I love i
Love this have wanted one for ages and bought this for 156 as box damaged it’s an absolute bargain I had my boiler services and the gas engineer fitted it for me. It was easy enoygh to set up eve though the set up was in Swedish but I have since swopped it to English. I didn’t realise how rubbish my old thermostat was as this is set to 20 and it’s cosy the old one was on 30 and still cold. Once it’s set up and aiexa is attached it’s all done by voice control I’d recommend to anyone
Great addition to your smart home
This is the best thing I think I’ve purchased for my home. Can manually schedule when heating comes on and off with the timer in the app and everyday can be different times and temperatures.
Can turn on the heating when I’m on my way home from work etc so the house is warm.
Works great with Alexa too. Lying in bed telling her to turn the heating on to 25 degrees is alot easier than going downstairs!
In terms of installation you would need to hire someone which is the only downside but well worth it 10x over when it’s up and running.
Awesome, shame about google spoiling it.
Does its job well but very unfortunate that Google have removed all its IFTTT support for it meaning far less powerful smart home integration. Sadly this means that whilst Alexa can control it, it’s nothing like as powerful as it would have been if I’d had a pre-google Nest account. It’s clear Google are just keen for us to buy Google Assistant rather than Alexa. Which is disappointing.
Great product, well made
Well this is my 3rd smart stat, started with a netatmo, that lasted 3 years, then tado that broke in ten months.
Decided it was time to go for a best. The build quality is totally different to the others. Much more premium.
Was wired up by a spark as I have a more comprehensive mokexed heating system.
I did the set up on app and system. One thing to note is that after installation your hot water will probably be on for 2 hours no matter what your settings are, this is due to the legionnaires setting on the nest.
Has worked great since installation.
Took some time to setup
Recently bought this nest had it for a few weeks have to say first week we hated it didn’t go well at all the learning thing didn’t learn what we wanted.
But now after two I think we have it just fine the app works really says it is a diy job I disagree!
But the nest works well it’s sleek Morden and looks good also the screen is bright to!
Overall 4.0/5
Make sure to get it on offer to
Jury is out on this one
Expensive for what it is but it’s great! I wouldn’t get it if I didn’t need remote control of my heating systems. Smart features to me are useless and I have switched them off (suspect most people will do same)
I’m always out of the house and most of daytime out at work so no matter how smart it is.. Won’t be able to keep up to my schedule.
Would I recommend? After nearly using it 2 years I have decided to post review.. The jury is out on this one..
If I could turn back time I might even have gone for Hive since it’s cheaper and would be enough for me. But overall it’s been working fine.. But expensive!
Clever piece of technology, finally got a warm house
It took me some time to figure out what to do to install it especially with the connection between the boiler and the primary controller. I would advise anyone that is unsure of what they are doing to get an electrician to install it for you. Other than that, I set up the thermostat to control wirelessly from the living room. Our existing thermostat was upstairs and it always seemed keep upstairs warm and downstairs freezing. This thermostat has now made the whole house a lot more comfortable to live in. I used the self learning option and the home away assist function both of which are working very well. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a smart thermostat.
Looks Great and Cut Our Energy Costs
The NEST controller looks great and we have already seen a significant fall in our costs because it gives us remote control and also recognises when you have left the house so turns your heating down. A great feature. We replaced an old 240v Honeywell thermostat and timeclock on a conventional heating system with no extra kit required. I have seen a review about “where’s the charger” which is not needed if you use the DC feed from the Heatlink. The positioning of the Heatlink unit is the critical thing. For me the wiring came together in the airing cupboard so we sited the Heatlink there and then reused the thermostat wiring by connecting it to the DC feed. Of course if you want the thermostat to stand alone and not be wall mounted then yes you need a stand and charger but by working out your wiring you can normally reuse the wiring to connect your thermostat to the DC feed. The Heatlink is what switches the 240v to the boiler when the thermostat says so but there is that all important DC feed for the thermostat – once you get your head around that its easy to fit.
If you are fed up of having to go switch on your heating or water then get one of these. This is a great product and we are really pleased with the features and heating/hot water control. It was recommended to us by our boiler engineer. We had it professionally installed and we are so glad we did the engineer had to do some rewiring to get everything working. Best feature on this is link it to your mobile phones and if everyone’s out it knows so doesn’t put your heating on. It also learns your routines and modifies your programme to suit. ( but you can turn off this feature). We use ours wirelessly so had to get the stand and charger for it.
Fantastic kit - initial installation costs.
You’ll likely need a professional for this. It doesn’t come with a stand or power cable.
Be prepared for your professional to say you need boiler adaptions if it’s not 100% compatible. Not nests fault. But nothing on their site about my boiler needing a relay switch because it’s itialian :S. Approved installer said it was absolutely necessary. So bang on 30quid for that and another 30quid for a plastic stand and cable plus his installation fee.
But let’s face it if you’re buying one of these for your own home you’ll manage the extra cost, it’s just a pain and takes away from the nice new experience.
Reassuringly expensive - but not perfect for the price
When our old Heatmiser Thermostat started to experience issues after we upgraded our Wi-Fi to a mesh network it was time to upgrade our ageing thermostat.
After carrying out extensive research and also taking the recommendation of a friend that works in home automation I settled on the Nest Thermostat.
PROS
– Amazing build quality
– Bundled back plate provides great coverage when fitting over previous thermostat recess
– So far I have experienced no connection issues either to the unit from my phone or between thermostat and boiler (thermostat is in the hallway and the boiler is in the loft)
– Despite reviews of the app I’ve not experienced any Alexa integration issues
– Auto screen wake (turns on when you walk past it) is a nice feature
– Accurate temperature readings (our previous thermostat needed calibrating)
CONS
– Painful Wi-Fi set-up if you have a long and secure Wi-Fi key
– No holiday mode
– No charger or micro USB cable in the box
– The app needs so work, trying to set a weekly scheduled (I have turned off auto-away and learning features) is clunky and time consuming.
– Schedule copy and paste feature does not work on the iPhone X version of the app
– White finish might pick up dirt from hands (should have gone for the stainless steel version) although I’ll more than likely use Alex voice control or the app to manually turn it on/off
This is a great item, but for the price paid it should have a much smaller list of cons in my opinion.
Brilliant thermostat, disappointing HW control
Classy bit of kit, the dial and display look and feel really high quality.
The heating control is excellent, after just a few weeks it’s auto-scheduled such that I never have to touch it and it’s using the boiler a lot less than before.
Only let down is the hot water control which is simplistic and can only be manually scheduled to a granularity of 30 mins.
Good Buy
As expected. It needs to be customised, and search for its options, but it is by far, superior to conventional thermostats. The only hitch back is that i also bought a Nest sensor, only to realise later, that it does not work with the Nest thermostats outside USA. I hope that this will change in the future, since most of the people in Europe that made the same mistake are furious. Nevertheless, their fury is highly correlated with the amount spend for the sensor(s) they bought, with many of them to be in the purchasing category of more than one….. Seems that Nest regards the thermostat owners outside USA as second rate buyers… Too bad…
Saw a guy at work switch his heating on before he left for an early finish and I was intrigued.
So I bought this on Black Friday, and got a Nest Pro company to install it properly. There’s a 5 year guarantee with this and it’s a standard fee of 120.
Few things to note prior to purchase – you will need a USB cable and plug for the thermostat/controller, as it needs mains power, but you can easy get them here or at Curry’s.
The first week we had this it drove me nuts. We like a cool house when we sleep and it kept activating in the early hours making it too hot to sleep. I set the schedule but the Nest just seemed to ignore it. I’ve realised you don’t switch it “off”, but after a few weeks my temperature schedule looks like an attack of measles. This isn’t a bad thing, it is just the system learning what we want. I work shifts which makes it hard for the system, but there’s still less faffing than I ever had with my conventional thermostat.
Now after about 3 weeks in, the device really does seem to be learning. As one of us is generally up at 06:00 it switches itself on so the house is warm when we wake up, more than that it reads the weather and only uses the heat required to get the temperature set. By the time we wake the house is at the temperature, no ifs or buts.
One thing we’ve noticed is that we set the Nest for 19C and it registers at about 21 inside on our weather station. This is possibly due to the location I have sighted the Nest, but either way it works.
And yesterday having got my New Years Eve flier I switched the heating on as I left work. It’s a very easy thermostat to work, and the App seems to do the job on the phone also. It was nice to come home to a warm house.
My tip – be patient with this and it will do the job. Highly recommended.
Saw a guy at work switch his heating on before he left for an early finish and I was intrigued.
So I bought this on Black Friday, and got a Nest Pro company to install it properly. There’s a 5 year guarantee with this and it’s a standard fee of 120.
Few things to note prior to purchase – you will need a USB cable and plug for the thermostat/controller, as it needs mains power, but you can easy get them here or at Curry’s.
The first week we had this it drove me nuts. We like a cool house when we sleep and it kept activating in the early hours making it too hot to sleep. I set the schedule but the Nest just seemed to ignore it. I’ve realised you don’t switch it “off”, but after a few weeks my temperature schedule looks like an attack of measles. This isn’t a bad thing, it is just the system learning what we want. I work shifts which makes it hard for the system, but there’s still less faffing than I ever had with my conventional thermostat.
Now after about 3 weeks in, the device really does seem to be learning. As one of us is generally up at 06:00 it switches itself on so the house is warm when we wake up, more than that it reads the weather and only uses the heat required to get the temperature set. By the time we wake the house is at the temperature, no ifs or buts.
One thing we’ve noticed is that we set the Nest for 19C and it registers at about 21 inside on our weather station. This is possibly due to the location I have sighted the Nest, but either way it works.
And yesterday having got my New Years Eve flier I switched the heating on as I left work. It’s a very easy thermostat to work, and the App seems to do the job on the phone also. It was nice to come home to a warm house.
My tip – be patient with this and it will do the job. Highly recommended.
Its worth the money it has features are great.
Ive had this working with my heating system for the last 2 years. Never had an issue with it. Easy to setup (electrician installed it at a cheaper rate than buying the installation) Its worth it and features are great.
Issues – Nothing really until the wifi goes down BUT this is NOT the products fault.
We have it on eco most of the time and have setup a schedule on the Nest. When you install it make sure its in a non drafted place. Keep it central to your home as its a thermostat! People have installed this in areas which it will not work too great. We get reports on how much heating we have used to the email address we registered it with. I would highly recommend this.
I deliberated over this for months, looking to replace my old thermostat.
Luckily my dad is an electrician so I didn’t have to worry about paying someone to install this- I would definitely not have tried it by myself.
I’ve had it just over a week, every morning my alarm goes off at 7.15 and I immediately set the nest app on my phone to heat. In 10 minutes I get out of bed to a cosy house, sorted. This morning I woke up and my nest had learned what I do and did it itself- what a glorious moment.
I use eco mode while I’m away and it’s also learned that I like to keep my house around 15 degrees.
19 /20 when I get home from work.
It’s honestly ridiculous how clever this thing is!
The fact it works with my Amazon echo is just the cherry on the top. I feel very much in the future and it’s all good.
I’m using this to replace the conventional ‘stat and clock on a Ferroli I25 combi boiler.
I live in a small 2 bed semi, with thermostatically controlled radiators. I work unsocial shift hours and my shifts are never the same from one week to the next and the clock on the boiler would only accept a single timed programme and I’d use the standard boiler thermostat in manual mode. I also have a school age child living with me and I was desperate for a more flexible heating control.
Although I do most of my own home projects, I paid for the optional installation service after reading the reviews.
The electrician completed the job in about an hour. I’d asked for the Nest to be located in the living room (rather than in the hallway, where the original ‘stat was located) and there was some additional wiring to run.
Setup was fairly simple (although it took me a few minutes to find the location of the QR code – it’s on the back of the Nest!) and everything worked first time.
I’m very happy with the simplicity and flexibility of the Nest!
Update after 8 months use:
After monitoring the Nest against a laboratory thermometer, the Nest reads between 2 to 2.5 degrees high. When you’re paying almost 200 for a thermostat, this inaccuracy is unacceptable.
I’m using this to replace the conventional ‘stat and clock on a Ferroli I25 combi boiler.
I live in a small 2 bed semi, with thermostatically controlled radiators. I work unsocial shift hours and my shifts are never the same from one week to the next and the clock on the boiler would only accept a single timed programme and I’d use the standard boiler thermostat in manual mode. I also have a school age child living with me and I was desperate for a more flexible heating control.
Although I do most of my own home projects, I paid for the optional installation service after reading the reviews.
The electrician completed the job in about an hour. I’d asked for the Nest to be located in the living room (rather than in the hallway, where the original ‘stat was located) and there was some additional wiring to run.
Setup was fairly simple (although it took me a few minutes to find the location of the QR code – it’s on the back of the Nest!) and everything worked first time.
I’m very happy with the simplicity and flexibility of the Nest!
Update after 8 months use:
After monitoring the Nest against a laboratory thermometer, the Nest reads between 2 to 2.5 degrees high. When you’re paying almost 200 for a thermostat, this inaccuracy is unacceptable.
Extra parts required for installation - does not come with power cable
If you’re planning DIY installation, get familiar with your current system as, depending on its set up (eg: wired thermostat) you’ll probably need a 12 volt transformer to power the Nest thermostat.
This model does NOT come with plug and cable as advertised, although these are widely available and would need to be purchased along with a stand if putting the thermostat on a side table for example. In short – you’ll need some extra parts to complete the installation.
As far as the product goes, initial impressions are that it’s well built and very intuitive to set-up and run. It took only a few minutes after switching on to be controlling both heating and hot water on my ageing oil fired system boiler from the app.
Change the heating from your sofa
We love our learning thermostat. Admittedly we chose Nest over Hive in part due to Hive’s irritating tv advert but we’re very happy with our choice nonetheless! We’ve paired this with our Amazon Echo so we can change the temperature in the flat by voice control alone. Handy when you can’t be bothered to get off the sofa! We have an unusual boiler setup and were lucky that we had a handyman round for another task who’d happened to have installed one before – he still had quite a bit of trouble getting it up and running. We’d originally planned to do this ourselves but we wouldn’t have stood a chance! Love that we can also turn the temperature up from our mobiles so the flat will be warm when we get home! The learning element seems to work well and it’s picked up our heating habits pretty quickly.
This looks great, I was a little concerned this would be more suited to a modern style of interior,ours has large heavy wood skirting boards and doors, but this fits in nicely.
It took a little while to connect the heatlink, but that was mostly because the original wiring was shocking – no pun intended! Its pretty easy to wire up & the booklet gives you good diagrams for several wiring plans. If you are fairly competent at wiring things a little more complex than a plug, you should be fine with this.
Once connected everything else was intuitive. The app was easy to install and easy to use, there were no issues connecting to the thermostat.
It took about 2 days for it to figure out how long it takes to heat up the house, now the thermostat can predict what time to switch on & get the temperature to the desired setting when we get up in the morning. This must save some gas as the mornings get warmer.
The evening temperature settings is a little less accurate, I suspect its still getting used to our patterns. There may be some settings in the schedule I can tinker with when I get time, I’ve only had this for 4 days so I’m sure both the thermostat and myself have more to learn about each other.
Pricey but excelle
The nest thermostat was our first foray into smart home devices. Got for a great price on amazon prime deal.
Packaging, unboxing and first impressions good, feels and looks high end. Set up and installation was quick and easy with good paper guides in the box.
Fairly intuitive to set up and no need to program the thermostat just set Desired temp every day for 2 weeks and the algorithm learns your preferences. Hugely customisable in the app to create any schedule.
The ability to check if the heating is on and switch off after leaving the house or switching on in advance of coming home is excellent. The thermostat also learns how long the boiler takes to heat the house and factors this in – on our 5th day after installation we noticed that the house was already warm for us getting up.
Has worked flawlessly since installation, nest products have a high cost but this works very well.
Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend
was so easy to get configured and hooked into my smart systems
Unfortunaetlty, I was lucky enough to have one of the boilers you can’t self install – but after getting it hooked up, was so easy to get configured and hooked into my smart systems.
This is easy to use and responsive.
Screen wakes up correctly and I’ve yet to have it woken up by a “ghost”.
I’m still not sure if I trust it’s internal thermometer, but I’ve integrated it with SmartThings and sensors all round the house, so they tell it when to come off and on.
If does give interesting stats and estimates as to when it thinks it’ll reach the temperature, which is good.
Def helps manage energy a bit better.
I oredered the Nest thermostat after some very positive experience using the Nest Protect products (3 units) and the Nest application. The thermostat it replaced was about 30 years old so quite a technology leap.
I had it installed by a Nest Pro Installer who went above and beyond the norms and did a great job (50 installation with some additional wiring work as the hub is located near my water tank upstairs not near the boiler). Everything went well without any hiccups and my system (even though its 30 years old) allows the unit to control the heating too.
I really like the thermostat – nice look and feel to it and fairly easy to use and set up. The schedule is easy to use too and I appreciate the ability to look up the previous days usage on the app.
The only thing that I don’t like is that you can’t turn the heating off – you have to set a very low temperature at the times you want it off. You can turn the unit off but then of course it won’t heat up the house when you need it. Seems to work ok though but I guess after years of using analogue technology its a different thing but can’t see why it can’t do this.
I often get told by the app that useage is down/up due to weather or due to manual changes which is good to know. It also advises that the temperature has been reduced by the ‘away from home’ function when it detects you’re not around – so I am really hopeful that this will save me some money in the long run.
Of course, being able to turn on/off the heater or boost your water from your phone is great and certainly makes things easier.
The only other minus is connectivity – if my wifi drops (service provider issue) this means that i can control the heating and water from the hub only.
Overall, I can fully recommend the Nest thermostat.
This attractive well build piece of kit looks good and contains an incredible array of functions and controls. It is well worth getting a Pro to install the Nest and discuss the basic functions. The Nest website contains a wealth of information and the Support guys called me to answer a question i had.
It takes a couple of weeks to start and understand how the Nest works but it is definately worthwhile spending the time. I would definately recommend have a qualified Engineer check and balance your system especially if you have radiators installed as this will help make everything more efficient and economical.
I am very happy with my purchase and look forward to adding the extras that are available.
Fantastic produc
First off I recommend having a Nest pro install your Nest. Once installed they will input their details onto the thermostat that yoi can quickly look up to contact if you have issues in future.
The display looks fantastic, and is very simple to use. To adjust temperate simply turn the dial up of down like a conventional thermostat. Once hooked up to a smartphone setting a heating and hot water schedule is easy.
The thermostat also learns. If you get home at 4 and turn the heating on, it begins to programme the heating to come on at 4 every day.
I have linked my Nest to Alexa. The set up was easy and using the feature is simple. Simply ask Alexa to set the heating to a desired temperature and away you go.
Excellent product. Installed it myself. Don’t believe the online guides showing how easy it is. That all depends on your individual home boiler and thermostat setup.
Once installed you need to set it up and let it learn how you use your energy consumption. This is an ongoing process that is constantly updating itself. I fully expect to reduce our bills by far more than the advertised 30% as there was a lot of wasted energy.
If you can take the time to read the specifications and features on this product, it’s got everything and does more than you could possibly imagine.
Unlike a lot of products this is a very high quality item and has a great all round finish. So if you can pick one of these little bad boys up for under 200, they’re well worth the money.
Great Nest Thermostat, takes some time to learn the app
Super quick and easy installation. The app takes some getting used to, with a variety of different options that you have to work out if they suit you, so it’ll take some time to find the right settings. You only have the option to be at Home or Away, and if you’re Away, it will not respect your schedule of the heating coming on at a certain time. This is annoying as if I’m Away but home in 20 minutes I want the thermostat to be on and heating for when I arrive at Home, that needs some work.
I deliberated for ages about buying one. They’re not cheap. I’m not a plumber so could I install myself? My plumber pushed me down the Salus route as he knows and fits them. The Salus was crap. The heating just came on whenever it felt like and nothing I could do rectified it. I had wanted one of these originally so did loads of reading and bought one. As I say they’re not cheap but I think they’re worth it. The design and build is superb. It looks amazing on the wall and the display and GUI is first class. I spent hours online researching the wiring till I was confident I could do this myself. It’s not simple. If you’re not very comfortable with your boiler or wiring then get an expert. If you are this is a 10 minute fit. Once it’s running, the thermostat controls are a breeze, the phone and browser apps are so useful and the overall features and cleverness is so worth having. I’ve had it one day and I love it already. Can’t wait to see how it learns over time and starts saving us money.
Excellent bit of electronics
Arrived well packaged and the thermostat feels sold and well built. It reminds me of an Apple product, well designed and engineered. I did a self installation and it all went well but if you are not sure about safely wiring electrical items it would be worthwhile to arrange for someone to do it for you. The iPhone App works well and does everything I want.
It is a fairly expensive item but as I did not have a thermostat fitted to my existing system it was worthwhile for me, especially as it could be transferred to a new boiler if I have one fitted at a future date. If you already have a working thermostat, mounted in a suitable place, then unless you need the remote access, I’m not sure it is worth buying this.
Great quality smart-heating solution for those with a single zone.
Brilliant. Has learnt our heating habits, works well with Alexa and Google Home and is a quality piece of kit. I like the ‘HAL 2000’ look of it, even if my wife is unsure. The face plate to fit to the wall is good to cover the old square back box. I was replacing an existing generation 1 smart thermostat, so this was a revolution in form and function.
Really pleased so far.
If I wanted to independently control multi zones in the house, I might have opted for a different solution, as the only way to do this with nest is to fit a nest per zone. That’s not the case with me, as most our rooms are occupied when we are home.
Whilst I am competent with all things electrical I would not really encourage novice installation of this device. In principle it’s easy to install; in practice it can become challenging. Heating system variables are many and varied. Factor In differing manufactures and the many and varied wiring looms and it can become tricky. However if you are inclined definitely view the videos on YouTube first. This is a very functional and adaptable device which does work very well. We’ve never had an environmental thermostat so our CH just endlessly pumped out heat at significant cost so this device has made our home much more comfortable and will definitely save us money. It’s dial display is user friendly and it’s menu easy to navigate. The accompanying App is simplicity in itself. Like other Nest products I’ve bought (smoke alarms) this is well built. Recommended for professional installatio
I have been using Nest Thermostats now for two years, retrofitted into the house as room thermostats to control and existing ground floor under-floor heating system and as thermostats to control radiators and hot water elsewhere in the house. They have worked brilliantly with just one problem, below.
Pros: relative to the cost of new boilers and the function offered etc the cost is really low. The interface to the boiler controls is excellent and although our boiler installer had never used them before they had no problems. The thermostats themselves look good and are simple to install and the functions are easy to use, both at home and remotely via my iPhone and iPad. The apps are excellent and the function has been enhanced during the time we have had the system. When we go away we simply tell the system to switch to “Away” mode and before we return we switch a day before to “Home” mode and the thermostats are all adjusted automatically.
Con: just one and it will probably not be a problem for most people. Retrofitting in an existing house was made so much easier by being able to link the room thermostats wirelessly to the boiler controls. But we discovered that the wireless signal did not reach from the boiler to all the rooms in the house. Nest have their own wireless link and there is no signal extender as there is for wifi. (With the Nest Protect smoke alarms each alarm “boosts” the signal so there is no apparent distance limitation, but this is not the case with the thermostats.) We happen to have a long narrow house. But this will not the a problem for most people.
Otherwise the Nest system is brilliantly simple to install and use.
I have been using Nest Thermostats now for two years, retrofitted into the house as room thermostats to control and existing ground floor under-floor heating system and as thermostats to control radiators and hot water elsewhere in the house. They have worked brilliantly with just one problem, below.
Pros: relative to the cost of new boilers and the function offered etc the cost is really low. The interface to the boiler controls is excellent and although our boiler installer had never used them before they had no problems. The thermostats themselves look good and are simple to install and the functions are easy to use, both at home and remotely via my iPhone and iPad. The apps are excellent and the function has been enhanced during the time we have had the system. When we go away we simply tell the system to switch to “Away” mode and before we return we switch a day before to “Home” mode and the thermostats are all adjusted automatically.
Con: just one and it will probably not be a problem for most people. Retrofitting in an existing house was made so much easier by being able to link the room thermostats wirelessly to the boiler controls. But we discovered that the wireless signal did not reach from the boiler to all the rooms in the house. Nest have their own wireless link and there is no signal extender as there is for wifi. (With the Nest Protect smoke alarms each alarm “boosts” the signal so there is no apparent distance limitation, but this is not the case with the thermostats.) We happen to have a long narrow house. But this will not the a problem for most people.
Otherwise the Nest system is brilliantly simple to install and use.
New boiler necessitated an upgrade to a programmble thermostat which wasnt easy to program. Did some research and thought the Nest would suit my needs. However, at nearly 200 when I started looking I thought I would wait and see if any special offers came around. Managed to bag 3rd gen and a stand for 150 which was still a little expensive but hey ho. Bit the bullet and had it installed along with a new combi boiler. Luckily my brother went on the NEST registered installer course so the install wemt smoothly and without a hitch. Easy to set up and register. Cant really find fault with it but hope it lasts as long as the boiler which is guaranteed for 10 years!
Wish I’d bought this years ago!! Bloody brilliant!
Installed the thermostat myself and saved a small fortune from the nest pro. First thermostat developed an issue and had to phone nest helpline. After 30 minutes they decided I needed a new system and offered a free pro install! I didn’t need the pro! Installed new new system and no problems since!
The system is smart enough to learn how long it takes my house to reach a temperature and preheats to reach it at the desired time which is brilliant!
I can’t sing it’s praises enough! I real top bit of kit! If anything im annoyed with myself that I didn’t buy this two years ago!!! Intelligent, comfortable and money saving!
Don’t give it a second thought folks… buy!
A thermostat for everyone DIY
In the previous 2 weeks i test the Nest against Tado thermostat.
Both are very good quality but Nest is a step up. In Setup Nest is 2 steps up. In operation both have plus and cons.
Tado is install and forget (geofencing is very good) and Nest is “i wanna play with you” sexy thing.
A big plus for me is the Nest Homelink who have 2 really discrete relays for CH and HW. In Tado the optional extension kit is somehow one and half relay.
In operation Nest is nice, the hot water access isn’t like Tado but more complicated. Farsight option very handful and in design is in the other hand from Tado, a minus for Nest is geofencing, isn’t so well operated but there is the presence sensor.
In Eedomus (Home Automation server), work well but sometimes doesn’t update frequently and you have some extra notifications.
Final for me Nest is working more comfortable (because i don’t like to schedule CH) than Tado and installation with setup is much easier. In Tado you must follow the online procedure and if your Boiler and previous thermostat is not included (like mine) in Tado site you will have some minor problems with setup.
Much more than a gadget. I believe it will easily save its own cost. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I like gadgets, but this is much more than a gadget. The set up is via the thermostat itself and when you get a really good electrician to set it up like ACJ Electrical Ltd in Hertfordshire at a fraction of the Nest recommended installers it makes it a great product less expensive. Instructions are easy to follow, and the phone app can be used to control it if necessary. I get monthly reports about how much energy I have used.
I don’t really have to do anything, it just switches itself on and off in accordance with me being at home.
I am really happy with it. If anyone has a query, I would be happy to try to help
I do love the nest having had one in my previous house. The best feature by far is it learns very well when it needs to start heating the house to get to the temperature you want at the time that you want. It learns how to adjust this according to the temperature outside.
The second really good feature is that if you are away for the weekend you can remotely turn on the boiler on the way back home to get the house warm by the time you return.
From a Money saving perspective I think the main advantage is the away feature. If you and your partner leave the house then it detects this either by sound and movement in the house or you can configure your phones so that when both of you leave the boiler will turn off.
From the moment you take this out of the box it oozes quality. The dial feels nice to use, well balanced and smooth. Installation is not for the novice electrician but if you have moderate wiring skills and work out whet the term “call for heat” means in your system, then you should be ok following the you tube tutorials. Everyone else should get a qualified plumber electrician to do this as you are dealing with mains voltages.
Once installed the system just works. Have some fun tweaking it if you like but otherwise let it get on with it and just use it to turn the heating up and down as you wish. Over time the learning system will start to anticipate this more and more and while I won’t claim it will never need adjusting, it gets pretty good at guessing what you are going to want.
Oh and get used to your guests stopping to play with it as it lights up when they go past. The thing just invites you to turn it.
Beter looking than Hive and much easier and more efficient than Tado. What’s not to like…
Amazing Nest - Thermosta
A very nice and smart product which controls your gas boiler (mine being a 20 year old Potterton model) using auto setup for the entire week. I went for an Nest approved engineer to fix the unit and they did a great job in installing the product in less than an hour and explained the features and controls and that includes setting up to your wi-fi network.
It’s been approximately two month since this product got installed at home and I really see the benefits of controlled heating at required times rather than 3 – 4 hour duration of general heating with my old thermostat fixed with the boiler.
Pro’s
1. A big advantage with Nest is that this device can be controlled by mobile, ipad and other family members who are connected to it. So, if this needs to be switched on while you are away, you can do it at your own convenience without any hassle. I have tried and it worked absloutely in a way I expected.
2. Also, this model comes with a remote sensor which detects the movement and enables the display which allows the current temperature it’s been setup. This is very useful if you forget to switch off the heater if its on Manual setup.
3. Got the monthly report from Nest which includes daily usage of central heating and how much it costed. This is very useful to compare the usage with my meter readings that I get from the device provided by my gas provider.
Cons
1. Bit expensive to pay upfront plus the installation charge from gas engineer
2. User manual not that friendly to start unless you are a real geek.
All in all, its a great device to control your heating and hot water and in turn your electricity and gas bills 🙂
Superb
This thermostat with the stand was bought and installed by me to replace an ageing Honeywell wireless LED programmable thermostat. The differences between them can be measured in decades. If you appreciate Apple iPhone sleek, glossy, substantial, well-made products, this will appeal to you very much. I installed it myself as the wiring to the boiler was already in place, all that was needed was to understand the wiring diagram and it was up and running in a couple of minutes. You may be forgiven if you get the feeling that there is something of a ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’ and HAL-9000 feel to the device, it fades from black to greet you as you walk in the room, it knows where you physically are with the mobile app and i’m sure it will be commenting soon on my energy usage! On a Hal-9000 note, I’m thrilled the heatlink attached to the boiler has a green glowing light and not red. The benefits are to be seen however they are obvious; the thermostat learns when you are home and when you are not, learning your movements and smartly sets the temperature. The benefits are obvious and this will save money. You will love the control from the mobile app and the statistics will satisisfy. I’d recommend it.
Had it for about eight months now and very impressed. Dropped a star because it discnnects from the home wifi sometimes.
Controlling the heat settings remotely using smart phone is excellent as is the history. Like the geo function that shuts it all down when it sees the registered smart phones are away from the property and switches the heating on when it detects a phone returning.
I installed it myself and found it fairly easy. If you aren’t confident with electrics I’d go for the professional install though.
Our house temperature is certainly more accurate now and I recommend this product if you are in the market for a remote thermostat.
Installed and working and this just oozes quality, stat was very easy to program to Wi-Fi and setup and even has a program schedule to work with the auto learning. Stat body has some weight which just backs up the quality feel and touch.
With the installation I wall mounted my nest room stat in place of the old stat, for this you need a 2 core cable but most existing room stats will have this so should suit everyone who wants a fixed or mobile installation. I mounted my receiver base in the loft to the side of my combi boiler. To install the base for the Nest the base requires 230v power and the room stat connection contact wires for the boiler and hot water demand cables if using to control water as well, on a combi boiler you would install this next to the boiler or in place of a wall mounted programmer while a Y or S plan system you would install this next to the wiring control centre that is normally found next to the copper tank.
Installation time with all wiring on place should take no more than around 1 hour in total for a skilled person including a few trips to the van / shed for tools and materials, I personally did this in around 25 minutes and had never done installed a nest before but I am a fully qualified electrician.
I am so impressed with this product I have now purchased the Nest Protect smoke alarm.
Installed and working and this just oozes quality, stat was very easy to program to Wi-Fi and setup and even has a program schedule to work with the auto learning. Stat body has some weight which just backs up the quality feel and touch.
With the installation I wall mounted my nest room stat in place of the old stat, for this you need a 2 core cable but most existing room stats will have this so should suit everyone who wants a fixed or mobile installation. I mounted my receiver base in the loft to the side of my combi boiler. To install the base for the Nest the base requires 230v power and the room stat connection contact wires for the boiler and hot water demand cables if using to control water as well, on a combi boiler you would install this next to the boiler or in place of a wall mounted programmer while a Y or S plan system you would install this next to the wiring control centre that is normally found next to the copper tank.
Installation time with all wiring on place should take no more than around 1 hour in total for a skilled person including a few trips to the van / shed for tools and materials, I personally did this in around 25 minutes and had never done installed a nest before but I am a fully qualified electrician.
I am so impressed with this product I have now purchased the Nest Protect smoke alarm.
Good looking thermostat with many feature - But not perfect.
Good looking and modern thermostat with some flaws.
Pros.
1. Very elegant to look at and easy to set up.
2. Very easy to use, simply connect up and rotate to get the temperature.
3. Able to control remotely using a tablet/phone.
4. Cost. Given that a Honeywell 7 day programmer is 125, for 55 more I got this better looking thermostat with more features.
Cons.
1. The schedule. It’s really bad at putting together a schedule. One look at the online schedule and you’ll realise it’s created a mess. I would prefer something far more linear and consistent.
Nice kit, Nest qualified installer recommended
This is a great addition to any home. Nice looking and fairly easy to use. We had an issue where we couldn’t fit ion the wall in the same place as the old thermostat due to only mains powered cable being there and the Nest requires a specific 12v low amp power so we have ended up using the supplied USB power adapter and have to purchase the optional stand.
Would highly recommend to contact a proper nest installer prior to buying just to check there will be no issues. And use them to fit if in doubt as it’s not that straight forward to install.
We also got two mains powered smoke/co2 dectectors for downstairs and upstairs as they will shut down the boiler if they detect co2
I have to say I’ve been really really impressed with my nest… i was stuck between nest and hive…but I’ve had nest for about two monthd now and it’s amazing…the device can be managed from my phone and the temp kicks in right away..ive managed it from work and out and about… it has its own schedule time on a time line which is handy because if you find it colder at a certain time at night you can fire it up… I’ve also notice my gas bill being reduced by a 1 a day so far which will be more in other seasons… so annually couple hundred saved.
The system is smart enough to know when your not home…so if it doesn’t sense any movements your not burning gas.
The device looks absolutely beautiful very solid and so easy to use.
We got this installed by nest they did a very clean and professional job…really considering buying more from the rang like the smoke detector.
Top of the smart thermostat league
I spent time reading reviews for nearly all for the smart thermostat systems out there and plumped for Nest in the end. I’m certainly glad I did. The system is a well built a quality one, the thermostat itself feels and looks great. Operation is very intuitive, simple yet comprehensive.
I have a combination boiler and wired this in myself after reading the instructions, it was pretty simple if you are competent DIY’er. But if in doubt, have it installed professionally.
System learns my heating preferences and sends me monthly reports too. Knows when I go out and when i’m coming home too. Oh, and I can ask Alexa to turn up or down my heating. All in all a great bit of kit.
Great gadge
I’m only 24hours in but so far I love the Nest thermostat. I had it installed by a professional, set up my account, input a schedule and that was it, very easy. The controller that came with the boiler was awful so Nest is a welcome replacement.
I’ve disabled the auto-schedule learning because I found that the heating often overshoots desired temperature (this is not due to the Nest) and the auto-schedule then adopts the higher temperature as a target.
It will detect when you leave home and automatically default to “eco” i.e. a low temperature. It takes into account the time it takes to get a room to desired temperature so you never have to get up to a freezing cold house. I’ve just reduced the target temperature in my schedule because the Nest seems to somehow make the heating feel more consistent so I don’t need to ramp it up. Long may it last.
Bought this in the sale (160) and did a self install. I have no prior electrical experience, though I can be pretty handy DIY wise. The install on my boiler was very straightforward as didn’t need any hot water hookups, just the central heating.
Doesn’t come with cable for the Heat link, so you’ll need to get down to B&Q etc. Mine just needed a live/neutral wire, no earth for my set up, though check your needs before you buy the wire.
If replacing thermostat like for like, check the voltage of your existing one, chances are the power supply is too high. Nest very good at pointing this out.
Thermostat itself is great and looks fantastic. We have it in the living room where it is much more practical than our old one which was in a hallway without heating, so that would just remain on all the time.
It has scheduling which isn’t immediately obvious, you can set a start time/temp but not an end one, the workaround is to set the lowest temp of 9 degrees.
App for the phone is very easy to use and works on multiple peoples phone. One being the primary user who invites the others to use it.
No boost option (for CH) which is disappointing, but not end of the world.
Not used the auto learn facilities.
We purchased this product last July but it’s only now that heating is required that we can truly appreciate it. This has to be one of the best purchases we’ve ever made. It does not require any programming and it’s easy to use whether in the house or remotely using your phone or tablet. And the best part is that we’ve already started to generate savings from reduced energy consumption.
One word of caution however : unless you have particular skills in electronics, this is not an item that you can easily install yourself. If it is possible to provide referrals as part of these reviews, we live in Central London and ours was installed by Leo of LJ Heating at 07796 695 551 or [email protected]
Leo worked hard to ensure that it could be installed on the wall to replace our existing thermostat. The alternative was to have it on a portable stand which was not our preference.
I hope this review is helpful for people considering the purchase of this item.
jb
Why we love our Nes
The Nest is brilliant. We love the way you can see at a glance when it is calling for heat, just by the colour of the screen, how the display comes on when you approach, how it tells you the difference between room temperature and set temperature and how long it will take to close the gap. We love how it knows what the weather is doing and if we have gone out.
We love its classy styling, simplicity of use and most of all how much it is saving us on wasted and unnecessary heat.
Just in case you are wondering we have no connection with the company, neither hard wired or through the ether, paid full price and are both silver surfers.
Great customer service and great prodcuts
The thermostat is great looking like the rest of nest products. The thermostat has a lot of options and easy to control via the app. Without going inside each feature, I want to report a great customer service. I had a problem with the sync with the heat link so I couldn’t use the thermostat straight out of the box but, one call to the customer support and after 2 working days I had the replacement with free installation. I guess I was no lucky but with this customer service it doesn’t matters. I repeat one call and problem solved now everything is great.
Very happy with the app and with the hardware the next step for Nest is adding the control for TRV valves after that the control over the heating will absolutely perfec
You need a Nest in your life if you love gadgets!
Firstly it has to be said, I absolutely love it!
Now, I did have a little problem with first one I had delivered, I opened it, all excited for my new bit of kit, and all there was inside was 2 tins of marrowfat peas!! I was so shocked I just laughed! I think the fact that they were Marrowfat peas was actually funnier. Anyway, I knew I had bought it direct from Amazon and they would sort it quickly for me. Sure enough, one call and 2 days later a new one arrived.
So the gear itself is needed by anyone who is tech savvy and wants to use the best tech around.
The Nest has so many features, it’s brilliant, I’ll let you go and look at all the stuff about it. I will tell you the 2 things about this that, for me, takes it way above all other old skool thermostats.
1. you can set really complex timer patterns from your phone app, and it’s really easy. Not restricted to a couple off and ons.
2. you can operate it away from the house. So good for when you’ve forgotten to change the timer before you leave for the day or maybe you want to turn on the heating as you’re on the way home.
All in all, love it.
Great produc
Compared to my old wireless thermostat/pin wheel timer this is a revolution. I no longer heat the house when nobody is at home and hardly have to touch the thing at all. The installer helped me set up my basic schedule and now the thing happily gets on with things and to the point where it will check to see where you are when it is due to fire up and if nobody is at home or appreciably close to home it will hold on. It learns how quickly it comes up to temperature and will start up when it needs to.
It interacts with Nest Protect smoke/CO alarms and smartphones to help work out when people are home, very clever.
Easy to use and very well designed, I recommend highly.
What an amazing piece of kit, if I am honest I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out, but with the good reviews and product spec I thought I would go for it. Firstly it replaces everything, current thermostat obviously, but the controller (programmer) and the wiring boxes as well. My system is a standard boiler, with two two way valves for central heating and hot water tank. The new core bit (Heat Link) went on the wall in my airing cupboard were the wires connect for the 2 valves, a wire to the boiler to turn on and power. The thermostat itself can be supplied power if you are replacing a wired one currently but uses a 12v from the heat link. Mine is wireless so just needs to be near a plug. I put mine in a hallway and sent the wire through the wall to a plug on the other side so looks very impressive. Set-up is very intuitive and was up and running on the wifi and app on the phone very quickly. It’s now learning what I want when.
As far as the wiring, you do need to be confident on how heating systems are wired, It does include instructions and different types of wiring and valves, but sketching it all out worked first time.
What I am really impressed with is the quality, feel and look of the Nest. This really is a heating control system for the 21st century.
This is a great bit of kit, looks good and certainly helps to reduce heating bills. An intuitive, simple to use device which has some smart functions built in. I especially like the ability to turn the heating up and down from my IPad from anywhere in the world. Also great to turn up the heating from the settee without getting up. Packaging and quality reminiscent of apple products and will install one in my next house when I move. Only reason for not giving 5 stars is the cost which I think is somewhat overpriced.
As good as it gets.
It works. Learns what your schedule is, what temperature you like it. Fit and forget.
The coming home app is an highly recommended augmentation, to turn off the heating when you leave the house, and back up when you arrive home automatically. Based on mobile phone location. The app doesn’t increase battery drain appreciably. This should be integrated into the Nest app though.
Plumber had no problems installing on my Worcester Bosch boiler in the UK.
Looks great, feels great to use, great user interface. Would be better if they had extra motion detectors for other rooms, without having to buy another Nest.
There should be a separate holiday mode to away mode, because as far as I can tell, pre heat doesn’t work if the thermostat is in away mode, which means you can have auto on/ off based on location, or pre heat, but not both.
Good, but far from perfec
Great thermostat, it looks good and is easy to fit, but it isn’t perfect. The minimum time between scheduled items (on/off) is an hour, but I’d like to see 30 min or even 15 min. Also, my heating randomly comes on at 4am, I only know this because I have a logging device on my gas meter. So over all it probably doesn’t save you money, but remove my controlling the temperature is good. But the iPhone app also sucks, could be made much smarter by working with location services, wifi detection and also some more notifications (eg. Set to auto away, motion detection etc).
This is an impressive bit of kit which seems to be very accurate and will hopefully assist with energy saving and it looks very smart too. All nest products work with the same app which is great and all are packed with features. These are a little pricey but ,connected homes are the way forward and this is a good start. Tip if you you have the hot water set to come on for 2 hours or less every day then every 48 hours for 2 hours at random times a water droplet symbol on a yellow background will appear on the screen. what is this great mystery since no reference to this can be found. Turns out its an anti legionnaires disease prevention and your hot water is being boosted to 65 degrees for 2 hours. How lets avoid a law suit American is that! On line research and talking to people in the field show there is little chance of Legionnaires disease in a UK domestic setting. So to save money and energy I have switched it off. This cannot be done via the app but only from the Thermostat itself. Go into settings, devices, scroll down to antibacterial and then you can switch it off. Finally my local Pro installer is also a friend of mine so I got a very neat installation. The small amount of money they are paid by Nest for this service means this may not be the same for everybody so keep an eye on what they do.