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One Eco mode to rule them all

HonkyTonkDonkey
Community Member

Hello,

I've had a bad experience with the Nest thermostat and found what I believe to be a fairly critical glitch under specific circumstances.

 

I live in Canada and we are in the dead of winter.  We have a wood stove which we use generally as the primary heat in the house and have it set so the furnace turns on if it drops below about 22 degrees usually.  This almost never happens and its important to note I have my system in 'heat only' mode.  I have wrapped up and protected my central air unit outside for the winter.

 

Without my knowledge nest thermostat has been under the impression that I am 'away' at various times.  This is a whole other can of worms, but the important bit is this is what it believes.  When it thinks I'm 'away' it automatically kicks into 'eco mode'.  This allows the nest thermostat to override any setting it wants and do whatever it wants within the eco mode settings which I have never set or used.  I've just learned that what it has been doing is ignoring 'heat only' mode and has been cranking the AC while I sit in my living room in front of the fire when the temperature in the living room gets warm enough.

 

This is insane that such an oversight is allowed to happen.  My AC is wrapped up and looking through my history has been running at full speed straight into the leather protective wrap.  I don't know how hot it has got or how many years this has taken off the life of the central air conditioning unit.  This is not a 'safety' setting, this is nest trying to be smart and efficient in eco mode.  In the dead middle of a Canadian winter the thermostat has been thinking its most efficient to blast the AC when it knows it is -5 outside.

 

I have since changed and disabled anything to do with eco mode - temperature ranges - or even allowing 'away' mode.  It should not have been allowed to happen.  Eco mode needs to be sub servant to the other modes, not equal to them.  If you are in 'heat only' mode then eco should only be allowed to correct the temperature using only that setting.  I believe this is not how it is supposed to be used anyways and is just a large oversight within very specific circumstances.

 

A thought experiment: What if you turn the nest thermostat to 'off' mode.  If your phone or thermostat detect that you are away, is it allowed to override your 'off' mode and turn on?  or does it respect the mode you put it in and remain off?  Why is it allowed to override other modes?   This is a safety issue and a major oversight.  If I didn't catch it in time, my AC unit was wrapped differently, or it was able to run for much longer the unit outside could have easily short circuited and caught fire which would have ignited the house.  All because my thermostat wrongly thought I was away, then wrongly thought it could override what I told it to do so it could incorrectly blast AC in the middle of winter.  Honestly, I'm just shocked. 

 

Anyways I'm sure it will be rare that this impacts anyone, but people should be aware of dumb thermostats trying to be smart.  

2 REPLIES 2

thewrightbaker
Community Member

Hello 

Did you ever find a solution? Because I seem to be having your opposite problem at the moment. Middle of summer in Canada. AC on Nest set to Cool only. Come home and eco mode is on and the furnace is running and my house is 30 degrees! This has happened twice and It's freaking me out! Why the heck is it running the furnace in July?????

My solution was to disable it wherever I could.  I believe I opened the settings wide open (heat only below 10 degrees, cool over 35 degrees) just in case this useless mode ever decided to enable itself again too.

 

It's strange that you had the opposite.  It feels like you're settings might have mistakingly been changed.  Or you have a window AC in the room where the thermostat is in perhaps?  Maybe a vent that blows right on to your tstat with AC air?  Just some ideas.  In any case I suggest launching this setting it needs to be toned way back.

 

Good luck friend