Multiple houses all with separate nests, can you control from one app?

[Lakeland]

Hi 

I am looking to install Nests in multiple holiday properties, my questions are 

1. Can I view each nest on one app with one sign in or do I have to have separate accounts and logs in for each nest.

2. As learned heating will be no use for a holiday property, is it easy to just use schedule heating and control via the app.

[David_K]

Can I view each nest on one app with one sign in or do I have to have separate accounts and logs in for each nest.

You don't necessarily need separate accounts. If the thermostat is setup in the Google Nest app:

• Maximum of 20 thermostats per "home" in the app
• Maximum of 5 "homes" per email address/account (workaround for this is to create and sign in with a different email address if you need to create more "homes" than 5)

It's pretty easy to switch between "homes" using the menu arrow at the top left corner of the home screen. You will want to create a different "home" for each physical location, otherwise it will try to connect to the Wi-Fi of a different location when you try to setup the thermostat at a new location.

More info: Manage homes and products in the Nest app

If the thermostat is setup and managed in the Google Home app, I've not managed to find the same devices and number of home limits documented. The guidance remains the same, create a separate "home" in the app for each different physical location to avoid issues.

As learned heating will be no use for a holiday property, is it easy to just use schedule heating and control via the app.

For Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat models, your options are explained here:

Disable learning for the temperature schedule

For the Nest Thermostat (2020) model, see the options explained here:

Temperature schedules for the Nest Thermostat
Hold the temperature on the Nest Thermostat

[trevordlyle33]

having to logout and log back in for a separate count of 5 homes for property managers who use your products is incredibly painful and defeats the purpose of a 'smart' solution. When is Google going to wise up and increase the max number of homes so that users don't have to create bogus accounts just to manage all of their homes.... or scrap Google products altogether and switch to other streamlined smart solutions? 

[Brinnan]

Is there a reason, if the WIFI is the same, I couldn't just put all my rental property thermostats in one "home" as long as I stay under 20 thermostats? We have over 5 rentals but under 20 thermostats. We don't use any of the learning functionality so knowing where I am is not important.

[David_K]

The Wifi information being the same doesn't matter. My understanding is that still wouldn't work when it tries to get the Wifi information from the other devices already setup.

[Brinnan]

I’ve done it with a nest camera and it worked. Nothing to lose because I refuse to use multiple logins. I’ll be trying it soon.

[David_K]

Let me know how you get on, I'm interested to know the result!

[Brinnan]

Will do! Closing on the next one Sept 14 so it will be that week. 

[Jake]

Hey Brinnan,

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to follow up and see If your issue has been resolved. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further. 

Thank you so much davidking for the helpful replies.

Best regards,
Jake

[Brinnan]

Hi Jake,

The 5 house limitation is super frustrating. I was able to "trick the system" by setting up a camera at a previous house and then moving it to another that had the same WiFi credentials. However, I then couldn't get my thermostat/doorbell/lock to work because they were looking for a different Nest Assist device other than the camera I had brought over. I was able to add more cameras no issue. So in short if you have multiple houses with just cameras, you can make it work. This should be fixed because requiring a "nest assistance device" for the "nest network" seems pointless especially if Nest is going to limit us to 5 houses. I had to make a secondary username and now I have to login to multiple accounts to access my houses. When these age out, I may look at other options. I would not recommend nest to people with > 5 houses.

[Jake]

Hey Brinnan,

I am sorry for the frustration, and do appreciate the feedback. Feedback like this helps us improve our products, and you are more than welcome to submit feedback to our Team as well. You can follow the link here if you are unsure how to do that.

Best regards,

Jake

[Jake]

Hey Brinnan,

I wanted to check in with you, and let you know that I will be locking the thread in 24 hours.

Best regards,

Jake

[JonB76]

Try Heatmiser instead. I had the same issue in choosing a system for our portfolio of student properties. I have Nest in my own home but couldn't go with it for my rental properties unfortunately because there are far too many. Google must be doing themselves out of millions of sales due to this limitation.