topic Re: Nest Boost Heating Workaround in Nest Thermostats

Nest Boost Heating Workaround

AntSneath — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 10:42:24 GMT

I thought this might help some people in the future with regards to heating Boost not being a direct feature of the Nest.

I spent a bit of time looking into the Boost function for Nest and only found a lot of disagreements and moaning in forums, so I'm hoping this will help.

I'm sure this work around has been posted before but I figured having another thread can't hurt.

Most decades old thermostats have a boost function, you push it and get heat for an hour or so then afterwards it reverts back to the schedule. It's odd that this feature doesn't exist but I have a work around. (Pic at bottom of post).

On the Google Home app, hit the "routines" button. On the bottom right click the + icon.

This currently shows 2 options, Household and Personal. Currently you HAVE to use Personal as time delays aren't available on Household for some reason.

Give your routine a name "Heating Boost" or whatever.

For the starter, choose "when I say to Google Assistant". Add one or more starting commands such as "boost the heating" and/or "boost the thermostat".

For actions, you might need a couple. I have chosen firstly set the thermostat to heat mode (in case it is off or on eco) then add another action setting the thermostat to your desired temperature. (I added an announcement one as well that tells me it's boosting the heating).

Follow this up with another action, the time delay, set the delay for your chosen time to boost (mine is 1 hour).

After this, you'll need to add another action that resets the thermostat back to a low temp. (You could also have it change to eco mode or even turn off afterwards but if you do this, then your normal schedule won't run).

So here's how mine works..

I say: OK Google, boost the heating
Google announces: Boosting the heating for 1 hour
The Nest sets itself to heat mode (if not already)
The Nest changes the thermostat to 18 degrees
The Nest waits 1 hour
The Nest turns the heating back down to 14

Optional: If you require different times of boosting then you can make a separate 1 hour routine, a 2 hour routine etc. But your commands will have to contain the specific times. So rather than just "boost the heating" you would need the command to be "boost the heating for 1 hour" on the 1 hour routine and "boost the heating for 2 hours" on the 2 hour routine.

Personally I find 1 hour to be enough, so I have only set up the single routine.

I hope this helps someone.

Re: Nest Boost Heating Workaround

Snewb — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 23:08:46 GMT

@AntSneathwrote:
I thought this might help some people in the future with regards to heating Boost not being a direct feature of the Nest.
I spent a bit of time looking into the Boost function for Nest and only found a lot of disagreements and moaning in forums, so I'm hoping this will help.
I'm sure this work around has been posted before but I figured having another thread can't hurt.
Most decades old thermostats have a boost function, you push it and get heat for an hour or so then afterwards it reverts back to the schedule. It's odd that this feature doesn't exist but I have a work around. (Pic at bottom of post).
On the Google Home app, hit the "routines" button. On the bottom right click the + icon.
This currently shows 2 options, Household and Personal. Currently you HAVE to use Personal as time delays aren't available on Household for some reason.
Give your routine a name "Heating Boost" or whatever.
For the starter, choose "when I say to Google Assistant". Add one or more starting commands such as "boost the heating" and/or "boost the thermostat".
For actions, you might need a couple. I have chosen firstly set the thermostat to heat mode (in case it is off or on eco) then add another action setting the thermostat to your desired temperature. (I added an announcement one as well that tells me it's boosting the heating).
Follow this up with another action, the time delay, set the delay for your chosen time to boost (mine is 1 hour).
After this, you'll need to add another action that resets the thermostat back to a low temp. (You could also have it change to eco mode or even turn off afterwards but if you do this, then your normal schedule won't run).
So here's how mine works..
I say: OK Google, boost the heating
Google announces: Boosting the heating for 1 hour
The Nest sets itself to heat mode (if not already)
The Nest changes the thermostat to 18 degrees
The Nest waits 1 hour
The Nest turns the heating back down to 14
Optional: If you require different times of boosting then you can make a separate 1 hour routine, a 2 hour routine etc. But your commands will have to contain the specific times. So rather than just "boost the heating" you would need the command to be "boost the heating for 1 hour" on the 1 hour routine and "boost the heating for 2 hours" on the 2 hour routine.
Personally I find 1 hour to be enough, so I have only set up the single routine.
I hope this helps someone.

I have a similar one but change the heat mode to eco then again to heat to resume the schedule. I'm new to nest but am worried if I just set it to a lower temp after an hour would it revert the schedule ever?

I don't get the same options with Amazon routines. I can only manually set the temp so not sure if the schedule will resume.

Re: Nest Boost Heating Workaround

Jake — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 20:07:58 GMT

Hey there,

Thank you so much for posting this for others to see in case they are having the same issue. I wanted to check in, and see if you had any questions from here. Please let me know, as I would be happy to review.

Best regards,

Jake

Re: Nest Boost Heating Workaround

Jake — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 18:26:20 GMT

Hey there,

I wanted to check in, and let you know that I will be locking the thread in 24 hours.

Best regards,

Jake