- 11 Comments
- HOTNESS UNHOT
Lowes has the Nest Learning Thermostat 1st Generation (T100577) for $198 with free shipping. Learns your schedule to keep your home a comfortable temperature without wasting energy. Can be controlled via Wi-Fi from your smartphone or laptop. Former Apple and Google engineers are involved at Nest. Amazon has it for the same price.
$198
Amazon: $235
Retail: $249
If you have a Heatpump system, you do not want a thermostat that raises and lowers the temperature setting. Raising the setting more than a degree or two will kick on the backup heat which is usually electric, using far more energy than leaving the temperature at a set point.
#1 is missing the main selling point of this thermostat. This *is* the thermostat to use if you have a heat pump system because of its revolutionary intelligence. The programing helps you properly manage such issues.
More info..
What is Heat Pump Balance?
http://support.nest.com/article/What-is-Heat-Pump-Balance
"It lets you choose how much expensive auxiliary heat to use according to your preferences for comfort or savings"
A lot of the smart thermostats can anticipate when to turn on the heat pump ahead of time so the aux heat won't have to come on and will also sense if the temp is rising when turned up and not bring on aux heat if it is. I was an HVAC contractor for 15 years. I just don't hook up my aux heat unless it gets really cold, but thats not for everyone.
And just how much energy is truly saved with this device, compared to any 5/2 timer of the pat 20 years when programmed with your "usual" schedule. Is it really that hard to press the "hold" button when you're going to be out for the day, or the week?
But this is cool, #4...
Considering the expense of home heating and cooling, even if this only increases efficiency by 1% it would likely pay for itself in < 2-3 years.
The national average for monthly heating & cooling seems to be around $275/mo., saving 1% off that or $2.75 means it'll take 6 years for this to pay for itself.
If you have the old mechanical *dumb* style of thermostat then I'd expect you'll save more than 1%, but if you have a modern programmable thermostat then you may not save even that 1%.
A surer way to save 1% is to just turn the thermostat up 1 degree in summer and down 1 in winter.
rodeo cowboy gimmick for ultradorks
Well, my average monthly natural gas bill over the last 12 months was $106.8133. The months of Nov. Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr average $142.51 while the other 6 months average 71.1167. Since I use NatGas for cooking, water heater, clothes dryer, I think it is fair to say the home heating usage is 142.51-71.1167= $71.39333/mo. for 6 months or $428.36 a year.
So, using the 1% number that's $4.28 a year savings. Hummmm.
Oh, did I mention that I live near Buffalo NY? Pretty cold here.
I got one of these for Christmas. It sits here still in the shrink wrap.
#2, I could type paragraphs explaining why my above statement is correct, but to keep it simple I will remind you that I am not trying to sell thermostats, Nest is.
Most heatpumps are sized to run most of the time when it gets cold, when this all matters the most. If you turn the heat down, you must be able to bring it back up without using backup heat, to be cost effective. If the heatpump is already near capacity it will take hours longer to reach the normal temperature. That would mean that this thermostat would need to shorten the setback time so much that there would be no point. On the coldest days, it would not set back at all, or if it did you would still use expensive backup heat to recover. Now the best part, if you save roughly 3% for every 1 degree you permanently set back your heat, how much would you save for a brief setback of only a few degrees average? Remember your house temperature drops slowly, so the average degrees of setback is not really what you see. So if it never caused you to use backup heat to recover, how much do you think you would save anyway?
With a heatpump, you might get the wow factor with the Nest but you will not likely save money and you most likely will waste energy. Don't make me list my years of experience
#3, I also have my backup heat disconnected through toggle switches I installed. I choose none, one, or two stages if needed. In the last three years, I have never needed any backup heat, even in -17 degree weather. I must be doing something right?
Brought to you by former Apple types so naturally priced twice what it's worth! The 2nd gen runs $250 - 300.