Using NEST Temperature Sensor for logging

[DogBob]

I have a Nest 3rd gen Thermostat. It works correctly.

I would like to also log temperature 2x per day over the year, at three places in the house.  Can I do that with three Nest Temperature Sensors? If yes, how can I set this up? Thank you.

[virnab]

Hi DogBob,

Thanks for reaching out to our community.

I understand that you are looking for a way to use your Nest Temperature Sensors to track and log historical temperature data from three different locations in your home. I appreciate you providing more details about your plan and letting us know that you want to use your sensors with your Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen). I'd be happy to assist you with this concern.

How Nest Temperature Sensors work.

• Your system works the same way, except that it can take the temperature reading from the sensor instead of the thermostat.
• You can add one or more temperature sensors to the Nest app and choose a thermostat for them to report to.
• The sensor tells your thermostat what the temperature is in the room where it's placed.
• You can also choose which sensor controls your thermostat and schedule your thermostat to use different sensors at different times of the day.
• Whenever the sensor is active, your thermostat uses its reading to control when your system turns on and off. Your thermostat ignores its own built-in temperature sensor during those times. To learn more, you can check this Google Help Center article: How to change Nest temperature sensor settings.

How to check the temperature for all your sensors

When you tap on a thermostat in the Google Home or Nest app, you can check all the Nest Temperature Sensors connected to that thermostat.

You can also compare your sensor's temperature reading to your thermostat's reading.

Your thermostat also shows if your sensor is usually warmer, colder, or about the same as your thermostat. This can help you learn more about your home, optimal places for your temperature sensors, and when you want your thermostat to use them. You can refer to this Google Nest Help Center article for more information: Nest Temperature Sensor.

Schedule Your Thermostat to Use Sensors at different times

You can set a schedule to have your thermostat use a different sensor at different times of the day. For each thermostat, you can select the temperature sensor you want to use for each time of day. You can find the instructions in this Google Nest Help Center article: Nest Thermostat temperature schedules.  

Set two or more rooms to different temperatures at the same time

You can only do this with a zoned system or special vents installed in your home.

Single-zone systems turn on and heat or cool all parts of your home at the same time. For example, you can't stop heating one room and continue to heat another. In most homes, all the rooms continue to heat or cool until your system shuts off.

For Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen), you can attach up to six sensors per thermostat. However, your thermostat can only use one at a time.

Nest Temperature Sensors let you choose which room in your house is most important. They can also set a schedule so your thermostat uses different sensors at different times. Your thermostat then uses the sensor you chose to keep your home comfortable.

If you have a zoned system with multiple thermostats, you can set these thermostats to different temperatures. Here is a useful Google Nest Help Center article where you can find the instructions: Nest Thermostat temperature schedules.  

Feel free to keep us posted if you have more questions.

Best regards,

Virna

[DogBob]

Virna,

Thank you. This is very helpful. You are saying that I can have up to 6 temperature sensors connected to my NEST Gen3 Thermostat, any one of them can be used to regulate house temperature, and I can see all sensors using the NEST app. 

In my case, I want use the NEST Gen3 to regulate house temperature and use two other sensors to monitor air temperature coming out of the air conditioner vent and air temperature going into the air conditioner return. Will the NEST app automatically log these three readings so that I can view history?

I have tried to use Google Takeout to view thermostat readings in the past.  Is this where data would be logged? In the past, my Takeout files for the thermostat were incomplete. Some months are there and some are missing. Is this a known issue?

[virnab]

Hi DogBob,

Thanks for keeping me updated. I'm so glad to hear that the information I shared was helpful to you. I understand you're looking for more information about using temperature sensors with your Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd gen and how to view your data history. I'd be happy to help clarify things for you.

You're correct that you can connect up to six temperature sensors to your thermostat. You can then choose which sensor to use to regulate the temperature of your home. You're also able to see the readings from all connected sensors in the Nest app. To learn more you can check this Google Nest Help Center article: Thermostat Energy History.

However, the Nest app does not automatically log the temperature readings from the sensors or the thermostat in a viewable history. The thermostat and sensor data are not saved in a log within the app itself. The main function of the sensors is to control your home's temperature from a specific location, not to provide historical data logs.

Please consider sharing your thoughts directly with our development team through this feedback form. Your input will help us prioritize features and ensure that we're meeting the needs of our diverse user base.

Keep me posted.

Best regards,

Virna

[DogBob]

@Virna Thank you. Yes, I just posted this suggestion on the feedback form.

Three year old house with A/C and Nest Gen3 thermostat. Thermostat alerted me that A/C was running too long. I called service. They said freon was low. I looked back at my power bills and for the past two months, I was paying too much for electricity because of low freon.

Service advised me to watch for this problem in the future by looking at A/C output and input air temperatures. They should always be very different.

Nest could have seen this earlier and helped IF it was monitoring A/C output air temperature and A/C return air temperature. Two Nest temperature sensors would do that, along with software that looks for a reduction in temperature difference.

I speculate that this could also be observed with just one air temperature sensor on the A/C output, but don't have data to confirm this.

Catching this problem one month earlier would have saved me the cost of two Nest temperature sensors! If you add this feature to your software, customers will gladly buy Nest temperature sensors. That would be a win for Nest and a win for consumers!