Why is the Nest thermostat so energy inefficient?

[philosurfer]

I apologize if this sounds harsh, but the NLT (Nest Learning Thermostat and, I'd guess, all their thermostats) displays a fundamental ignorance - and a lack of ability for the owner to get around that - about winter weather. By and large (unless there's a massive snowstorm going on), in winter the humidity lessens for most places in the world. There's a relationship between indoor humidity, temperature and comfort. As the humidity goes down (below a certain point) it takes a higher temperature to maintain comfort; as well, the drier it gets, the more the negative impact on health.

Figuring that Google/Nest was so well connected - and that it can show the humidity - I bought it with the intention of linking to IFTTT if the Nest app didn't take humidity into consideration (and if not, why offer the humidity reading at all?) ... but I was shocked to find out that you can't access humidity via IFTTT; nor can you even set an alarm for low or high humidity; nor, apparently, can the Nest send voice warnings via your Google Home devices (as far as I can tell). So Google - if you read these things - why is the system so limited? And if you're reading this, I live in an area where, during winter, the humidity in my home can drop to the low 30s and 20s; to be comfortable without doing anything about it, I'd have to crank the temperature up to 75 degrees; when the humidity is in the 40s, I'm fine with a temperature of 67 to 69 degrees - so please think of how much energy it could save if you let me (everyone) at least have access to the humidity without having to repeatedly ask Home for the reading.

And if you helped enable the data retrieval via IFTTT, I could set lower and upper limits on humidity to turn on/off my vaporizers (in a dry winter environment, a furnace humidifier isn't going to cut it). I hope you'll consider modernizing the thermostats; in theory, since the data's already there, it's just about opening the interface just a little bit, isn't it?

And while I'm venting (sorry, but it's not a HVAC pun), how about a real connection with Home to set up upper/lower limit notifications via Home devices (as one who doesn't have a cell phone on most of the time)?  Thanks for reading this.

[IowaninMo]

I would totally agree with you here.  While the NLT is “neat”, it is lacking some of the features you mentioned.  I’m not sure if the algorithms were designed by HVAC professional engineers or if they just asked the local heating contractor what would be cool to have in an app/device.  I just had a whole home humidifier installed and now have another display to deal with and mine will run the fan without the furnace to maintain humidity.  It’d be nice to have just the one thermostat/humidistat able to control it all since they’re all wired together anyway.

As far as Google Home, what a crap implementation.  In order to add my NLT, I had to install the Nest app.  Then I get a Nest wireless battery doorbell because I don’t have wiring to it and not only does it not support an indoor chime but you have to add it via Google Home app but doesn’t show in the Nest app.  All my Nest Protect, Yale/Nest door lock show in both.  Just don’t understand their thought process here.

[MelbaDT]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for posting and for sharing your feedback. Rest assured that we're always open for ways to improve so we'll pass these along to the team. 

Keep an eye out on this Community page or follow our social channels for news and updates. 

Best, 

Melba

[MelbaDT]

Hey there, 

Since it's been since this thread was last updated, we'll be locking it if we won't hear back from you again within a day. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one should you have more questions or have other concerns in the future. 

Best, 

Melba