Nest thermostat, anyone?

[audreyh1]

So no one was affected by the nest automatic update that rendered it useless and left power off?

I'm a bit leery about someone having wireless control over my thermostat for automatic updates or shenanigans in general.

 

[Hermit]

If You Use Revolv's Smart Hub, You Are Officially Screwed (Thanks Nest!)

According to this article, Nest is owned by Google. After being purchased by Google, Nest purchased other companies including one that made a product called Revolv which was an "Internet of Things" hub. Nest is shutting down the Revolv site so that piece of equipment will be dead. I'm not too crazy about retailers keeping the controls for my house in their cloud anyway.

I will have a smart home, but I will be staying away from "Inetrnet of Things" as much a possible. BTW, it is not easy. My garage door openers can only be remotely controlled through an IoT interface. I wonder how many apps you would need to work with a house full of IoT gadgets? I'm going to have to figure out how to hack into the garage door openers to be able to remotely open and shut the garage doors.

 

[braumeister]

So no one was affected by the nest automatic update that rendered it useless and left power off?

Never a problem in the three years I've been using Nest.

 

[braumeister]

I'm going to have to figure out how to hack into the garage door openers to be able to remotely open and shut the garage doors.

You could just let the door close by itself and not worry about it:
AutoCloser Automatic Garage Door Closer - Household Alarms And Detectors - Amazon.com

 

[Hermit]

You could just let the door close by itself and not worry about it:
AutoCloser Automatic Garage Door Closer - Household Alarms And Detectors - Amazon.com

Unfortunately, I believe these openers (Genie) send a signal on the line rather than just closing contacts when you push the button on the wall. I have three garage doors and three openers. I want to have a computer controlled system that will do exactly what this closer does (plus other scenarios). On my last house, when I deactivated the home security system via a key fob, the garage door would also open and when I activated the security system via the key fob, the garage door would close.

 

[Music Lover]

I just ordered a White Rodgers Wi-Fi thermostat. I currently have a programmable thermostat and don't "need" a different one, so it falls under the fun toy category:

https://www.amazon.ca/White-Rodgers...6CW2?ie=UTF8&ref_=pe_386430_188542290_TE_item

 

[harley]

My solution came about as DW seems pretty reluctant to get rid of the land line.

I bought home-sitter, a device that plugs into the phone line.
It will phone 3 numbers if: the temp drops too much, the floor gets wet, or the temp rises too much (fire?).
It also phones if the power has gone off for 10 minutes.

It has phoned me a couple of times regarding the power failure, and I can always test if the house has power by phoning the house and see if the answering machine turns on.

Got a link to that? It sounds like an interesting backup. I have a landline in MD, since I'm a retired Telco dude and get it free (plus $8 worth of taxes and fees). I wouldn't mind giving that a try, since the landline isn't actually doing anything anymore since I went to an internet fax system.

 

[Sunset]

Got a link to that? It sounds like an interesting backup. I have a landline in MD, since I'm a retired Telco dude and get it free (plus $8 worth of taxes and fees). I wouldn't mind giving that a try, since the landline isn't actually doing anything anymore since I went to an internet fax system.

Here is the company website: Freeze, Water and Temperature Alarms | Protected Home
I notice they have cellular ones now as well in case others are interested.

I bought mine at our local hardware store Menards a few years ago for $70 on sale.
http://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/thermostats-freeze-alarms/homesitter-multi-functional-home-monitoring-device-with-call-out/heating-cooling/electric-heat/thermostats-freeze-alarms/homesitter-multi-functional-home-monitoring-device-with-call-out/p-1444427409844.htm

 

[Sunset]

I also have a skype subscription, which allows the use of local phone numbers to connect to foreign countries, so I programmed into it my relatives skype number (a local call).
It worked and they were surprised to receive the voice alert telling them "there is a power failure at the protected location".

 

[rdy2go]

I've never seen the Nest thermostat but do remember reading this article in the New York Times last winter about server problems causing people's homes to get chilly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-glitch-battery-dies-software-freeze.html

 

[audreyh1]

I've never seen the Nest thermostat but do remember reading this article in the New York Times last winter about server problems causing people's homes to get chilly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-glitch-battery-dies-software-freeze.html

Yeah - that was the auto update problem I referred to earlier.

 

[misanman]

Doesn't Nest have the equivalent of ctrl-alt-delete?

 

[marko]

As we're away from home all winter I almost got a NEST. My main interest was to see the temperature in the house.

Then along the way it seemed to me that I kept reading that while you can adjust the temperature remotely, you can't read the temperature.

Is that so?

In any event, I got a three sensor Accurite system for $100 and it worked like a charm all winter. (Put one in a plastic bag in the hot tub and that worked great as well)

 

[zinger1457]

As we're away from home all winter I almost got a NEST. My main interest was to see the temperature in the house.

Then along the way it seemed to me that I kept reading that while you can adjust the temperature remotely, you can't read the temperature.

Is that so?

With the Honeywell wifi thermostat you can. It's hard to imagine that Nest wouldn't provide that information.

 

[audreyh1]

Doesn't Nest have the equivalent of ctrl-alt-delete?

Well - in this case it didn't.

 

[braumeister]

I kept reading that while you can adjust the temperature remotely, you can't read the temperature.



Is that so?

Not at all. When I check remotely, the Nest tells me the temp and also the indoor relative humidity.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Alan]

As we're away from home all winter I almost got a NEST. My main interest was to see the temperature in the house.

Then along the way it seemed to me that I kept reading that while you can adjust the temperature remotely, you can't read the temperature.

Is that so?

In any event, I got a three sensor Accurite system for $100 and it worked like a charm all winter. (Put one in a plastic bag in the hot tub and that worked great as well)

Not at all. When I check remotely, the Nest tells me the temp and also the indoor relative humidity.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

Correct, when you access it remotely it tells you the inside temp, the current set point, the outside temp and also the indoor relative humidity.

I also have a NEST security camera set to come on when we are not in the house so that I don't get nuisance alerts (email or text) while we are at home but don't have to remember to turn it on when we leave the house either on a day to day basis or for vacation.