Nest thermostat turns up heat whenever someone walks past

[NicolaCullen44]

We specifically bought this thermostat four years ago so that we could adjust our heat when we were out of the house for the day, or on vacation. While it has worked well for turning the heat up before we come back home from a day out, it has cost us a fortune being out of town in winter. The first time it happened, I set the heat to 50 when we left the house, only to return home and discover that it had put itself back up to 68 for the entire duration of our trip. Somebody had walked past the thermostat while we were finishing loading, which I guess had tripped it to start again. The same thing keeps happening this year, every time that the chicken sitter comes into the house. I have the automation turned off, I have Eco turned off, I have the thermostat set at 50. But anytime that she walks past, it resets to 68, heating the house until I next remember to check in and turn it down again. It's an incredible waste of energy. Nobody is there, she just runs in to use the bathroom occasionally when she stops by. Why is it turning itself on?? This makes no sense! All automation is turned off, it is set at 50. Why is it not staying there?

[johnmorris2208]

I have the same problem but worse: even if no one comes in the house, sometimes it just turns itself up to 78 degrees, which is FAR warmer than we have ever adjusted the heat. I tried the best I could to turn the Eco function completely off, but just tonight we came home to find it cranked up to 78 again. I posted a "help" question to Nest about this and got no response. This is a terrible product. 

[Markjosephp]

Hello folks,

I can understand your frustration with the Nest Thermostat not behaving as expected, especially when it comes to unexpected temperature adjustments during your absence. I understand it's frustrating to come back home to a higher heating bill due to the thermostat resetting itself.

Considering that you've already taken these steps, it might be the Home and Away Routines/Assist settings that trigger the thermostat to activate your system unexpectedly. Please disable them and remove all thermostat actions available in the Routines. If the issue persists, you could also consider a factory reset on the thermostat. Keep in mind that this will erase all your current settings, so make sure to note them down before proceeding.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Mark

[johnmorris2208]

This doesn't say anything good about the device if we have to completely disable most of its functions to get acceptable performance. Anyway, I did disable the Home/Away Assist and the problem still persists.

I have contacted the contractor who installed my Nest and requested a refund.

[Markjosephp]

Hello johnmorris2208,

I understand your frustration with the performance of your thermostat, even after disabling certain functions.

In situations like these, you may need to turn off the presence sensing. Please check out this article for a guide and monitor your thermostat's behavior. Restart it once the changes have been made.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,
Mark