Let me explain the scenario that happens where Safety Temperature is pertinent and then you can explain how this would be a solution:
- Your cabin is deep in the woods, but usually has power and internet much of the time.
- The power and internet go out for more than a day, such that the Nest's batteries become exhausted and it shuts down (and thus doesn't remember what it's preview setpoint was).
- Power is restored. Internet is not (maybe there's still too much snow on the satellite uplink, maybe the cable was taken out by an avalanche, maybe the internet provider's routers blew up).
- The Nest will come back on and bring the temperature up to the Safety Temperature. That is what the purpose of the Safety Temperature is.
- Several days later, internet is restored and the Nest can now be programmed as usual.
So what's wrong with a 45° F Safety Temp you may ask? Well, in my case, it's highly likely that the power will go out again in such a scenario (usually happens multiple times a year). Since the Nest was only able to bring the temp to 45°, the next time the power goes out, the cabin goes below zero and all the pipes freeze and burst. Whoops! Over the last 35 years of owning my cabin, I've determined that based on construction, insulation, the heating system, the average time to restore power, etc, that 55° is the ideal "safety temp". What I have to do instead, is if the power goes out, I normally monitor for how long, when it's restored, I then have to monitor whether the internet comes back. Many times, the internet is out for a few more days. That then means I have to make a 2 hr each-way trek just to reset the frigging heat setpoint to 55° (instead of the safety temp of 45°).
If you read other posts, they talk about having to evacuate due to a hurricane (or something similarly drastic) and leave behind certain pets, like say, lizards or snakes. Once the Nest's batteries become depleted and the Nest shuts down, it will not remember the previous setpoint temperature when the power is restored but the internet service has not been restored. The Nest will simply maintain Safety Temperature. They want their Safety Temperature to be set to something like 68° so their reptiles won't die while they can't return - even though power has been restored, but not their internet service.
So, please explain to me how this 3rd-party integration is going to magically connect to the Nest without internet and change any of that?
It's NOT a solution to this problem! I think you are missing the point, we don't care about being notified - we already know the power was out and the internet is dead. What we want is the Nest to independently maintain a particular temperature without being told what that temperature is (rather it is programmed into the Nest locally). What we are complaining about is that Google doesn't let you program it above 45°F!
