How does ECO interact with schedules.

[dburnham]

It isn't clear to me how the ECO setting interacts with the temperatures I've established in my schedule.  For example, the current temperature in my home is 71º.   The ECO cooling limit shows as 76º, however I have a schedule that is set to maintain a temperature of 71º from 11pm until 6am the next morning.   Assuming the indoor temperature will rise about 71º, I don't know whether the defined schedule will operate or if the ECO setting will allow the indoor temperature to get to 76º before any cooling begins.

I understand that ECO would make sense if I am not at home, but if I am at home and fast asleep, how does it know the difference between my being here or being in a hotel 1,000 miles away?

In other words, does it make any sense to use ECO settings if I am at home?

[Patrick_Caezza]

Here are a couple of help articles that should help you better understand the ECO function.

Learn about Eco Temperatures and how to change settings 

Nest thermostat temperature modes 

[dburnham]

Hello Patrick.   I already read both those articles before I wrote my question.  I would not have written if either of those articles has the answer.  They don't.  Would you please re-read my questions and answer it directly? To save you some time, here they are again,

1. If I am home fast asleep, how does the Nest Learning Thermostat know the difference between my being at home or being out of town at a hotel when the overnight temperature in my schedule is different than the upper limit of the ECO cooling range, or lower limit of the ECO heating range?
2. When ECO is turned on, which setting takes precedence:  the schedule or ECO upper and lower limits?

[CBFox]

The answer depends on whether you're using the Nest as a "smart" thermostat, i.e., with Home/Away Assist turned on, or as a plain programmable thermostat, i.e., with Home/Away Assist turned off.

If you turn Home/Away Assist off, then the Nest follows the schedule you set, unless you manually turn Eco Mode on.  Eco Mode is Nest's name for a permanent hold.  So if Home/Away Assist is off, and you turn Eco mode on, the Nest ignores your schedule and just aims at whatever Eco temperature you've set.  If you turn Eco mode off, the Nest follows your schedule and ignores your Eco temperature.

If on the other hand you want to rely on the "smartness" of Home/Away Assist, then the Nest will decide whether you're home, in which case it works to the schedule, or away, in which case you get your Eco temp regardless of the schedule.

Caveat:  My answer is based on owning a Nest, not any other expertise.  Other caveat:  I don't use Home/Away Assist because I find it's tricky.  So I can't explain how it works.

[dburnham · Accepted solution]

Thnak you for that knowledgeable answer.  In my case, I have Home Away/Assist turned off and I turned Eco mode on manually.  So I suppose what you mean by "aims at whatever Eco temperature you've set" is not a specific temperature but rather something withing the lower and upper range that you specify for the ECO behavior.   And that means that I really have no control over the actual temperature because ECO will just behave like "OFF" unless the temperature exceeds either of those limits.    If that's correct, then it really is only practical (for me) if I am away from home because the Settings don't allow me to bring that range closer to what I could be comfortable with while at home.    

As an example, I can bring to cooling temp down to no lower than 76 which means I'm only going to be comfortable if the actual indoor temperature doesn't exceed 73 or 74.

So if I understand it correctly, I think I'll go back to using the schedule instead of ECO when I'm at home.   Thanks again.

[CBFox]

Yes, that's the intent:  use Eco only when you're not there.  It's not designed to save money while you're home.  It's designed to let the house get to uncomfortable temperatures when there's nobody to care.

[MelbaDT]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for answering, Patrick_Caezza. Appreciate your responses as well, CBFox. 

Rossoreed, sorry to hear about your experience. Rest assured that we'll raise this over to our team to ensure that we'll deliver a better experience next time. 

dburnham, hope you've found the answer to your question. Feel free to let us know if you have more in mind. 

Best, 

Melba

[Rossoreed]

@MelbaDT it would be good if you could come back with an answer!

[dburnham]

I gave up and turned ECO off.  Makes no sense

[Rossoreed]

Any update @MelbaDT ?

[dburnham]

Yes, I did determine that my solution is to not use ECO.   At least, until something new is developed to address what is being discussed here.

Could I also take this occasion to request something else.   Where I live, the weather is so pleasant that I enjoy having the windows open for fresh air rather than running the A/C.   But by the time it gets to 5pm or 6pm, the indoor temperature has risen.  I've tried adjusting the schedules, and that works OK by switching the AC temperature back again, but it would reallly be great if it could send me a notification with a message I could customize, e.g. "It's time to close the windows".    The notification could be attached to each scheduled temperaure shift, but optionally, because I only need to be notified of certain changes.

Hope this can someday be implemented.   Or if it already does, tell me how to use it.😁

[Brad]

Hey there,

In an attempt to keep content in these forums fresh, we'll be locking and closing this thread. If you still need assistance with this issue, feel free to start a new thread. Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,
Brad

[Rossoreed]

I asked support a similar question recently;

Using just the thermostat sensor to detect if I'm home or away (NOT using phone location), why doesn't it go into AWAY mode when I'm asleep in bed.

The 'experts' answer was "I have no idea"...

[Rossoreed]

@MelbaDT Why are you not answering my question??