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Home/Away Assist

Aquintas
Community Member

We have 2 Nest Thermostats (1 upstairs and 1 downstairs),  We would like set them up so  only the upstairs thermostat switches to ECO whenever I leave the house and when my wife and I both leave the house, both thermostats to switch to ECO.  Is this possible?

1 Recommended Answer

CoolingWizard
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

You are kind of describing a couple different features of the Google Nest thermostat. The primary feature you want to use is home/away. How do we get this to be two different home/away by two different phones? You need to make one of the phones say your phone, the owner of the upstairs thermostat, and your wife’s phone become the primary phone and owner of the downstairs thermostat. This way, when you leave the house the away feature will be turned on because your phone has left the house, the Nest will change temperature settings for energy conservation. Now whenever your wife leaves the house, the downstairs will do the same thing based on the location of her phone. This is the only way you can achieve what you’re trying to achieve and that is save money when one of you is not there, or both of you are not there.

The other feature is the schedules and you already called out one of them and that is the ECO schedule. Unfortunately schedules have to be turned on by the Nest app or using the thermostat itself.  The schedules cannot be automatically selected based on the location of the phone or inactivity of anybody being around the thermostat.

Ken, The AC Cooling Wizard

NestPro, Google Pro, Mechanical Engineer and HVAC service company owner.
If my answer solved your problem, click Recommend this Answer below, and If it helped you, please give a Kudo.

View Recommended Answer in original post

7 REPLIES 7

CoolingWizard
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

You are kind of describing a couple different features of the Google Nest thermostat. The primary feature you want to use is home/away. How do we get this to be two different home/away by two different phones? You need to make one of the phones say your phone, the owner of the upstairs thermostat, and your wife’s phone become the primary phone and owner of the downstairs thermostat. This way, when you leave the house the away feature will be turned on because your phone has left the house, the Nest will change temperature settings for energy conservation. Now whenever your wife leaves the house, the downstairs will do the same thing based on the location of her phone. This is the only way you can achieve what you’re trying to achieve and that is save money when one of you is not there, or both of you are not there.

The other feature is the schedules and you already called out one of them and that is the ECO schedule. Unfortunately schedules have to be turned on by the Nest app or using the thermostat itself.  The schedules cannot be automatically selected based on the location of the phone or inactivity of anybody being around the thermostat.

Ken, The AC Cooling Wizard

NestPro, Google Pro, Mechanical Engineer and HVAC service company owner.
If my answer solved your problem, click Recommend this Answer below, and If it helped you, please give a Kudo.

Wow the way you described it makes total sense.  I read it and I was like duh why didn't I think of that.  Thanks for the reply.  😄

@CoolingWizard I have been looking at trying to implement your solution, but in the Nest app or Google Home app I can't figure out how to assign a phone as 'owner' of a thermostat.  Is it an issue where my wife would need to create her own Nest Account and transfer the thermostat to her account?

CoolingWizard
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

I’m sorry that the language I used was confusing. Let me see if I can provide a little more clarification for you. You need to make sure that you have two separate and unique Google nest account.  One for you and a different account for your wife.  So, here are the steps.

1. you must delete the downstairs thermostat from your Nest App or your Google Home app.  
2. go to the downstairs thermostat and enter the settings, turn ring to Nest App, select it. Now delete the nest ID.

3. go to your wife’s phone and log out of the Nest and Goolge Home App.  
4. Open the nest app and create a new account that will be your wife’s.  
5.  Now go to the down stairs thermostat, you should see a yellow mark in the settings icon. This is because the thermostat needs a nest ID assigned. Now when you go into settings and go to Nest app, you’re going to see a code to add it to a phone. Follow the instructions on the screen use your wife’s phone and nest account to add that downstairs thermostat. Once this is finished, your wife’s phone will be the primary controlling phone for the downstairs thermostat, and your phone will be the primary controller for the upstairs thermostat. Now make sure both phones have the home/away feature turned on and you’re all set.

Ken, The AC Cooling Wizard 

NestPro, Google Pro, Mechanical Engineer and HVAC service company owner.
If my answer solved your problem, click Recommend this Answer below, and If it helped you, please give a Kudo.

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 

We appreciate your help here, @CoolingWizard.
@CoolingWizard, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Mel

Hey there,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Best, 
Mel

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.

Thanks,
Mel