Yahoo Finance The smart thermostat tested: Can it really cut heating bills by 30%?
The Nest thermostat claims it can knock up to £235 off energy costs, our reporter gives it a go
When I was a child, I always imagined that my adult life would be more like The Jetsons, that futuristic cartoon from the 80s where robots took care of the housework. As you can imagine, I’m pretty disappointed that by 2014 my vacuum cleaner is still not a robot in a maid’s outfit.
So I jumped at the opportunity to trial a Nest Learning Thermostat and inject a little high tech wizardry into my home.
Unlike my existing dial, this would be a gadget that could learn about my house and use that knowledge to heat it more efficiently. But would it save me money? I’ve been investigating.
Why did the thermostat need an upgrade?
So here’s the thing. The Nest Learning Thermostat is like a normal thermostat but much, much smarter. It remembers the temperatures you like and when, it turns the heat right down when you’re away and it can be controlled from anywhere using your smartphone, computer or tablet.
You can program it to set the temperature you want at different times and it provides an energy report tracking your data use, as well as automatically detecting when the house is empty and switching off.
Heating your home is responsible for more than 60% of the average UK energy bill, which is £1,342 a year.
According to the Nest’s manufacturers, the device could save me between 4% and 29% on my heating bills, depending on how I programme it and use it. This would mean a saving of almost £235 a year on an average energy bill.
How much does it cost?
You can buy the thermostat for £179 including VAT; however, the manufacturer recommends you have it installed by a professional at a cost of £249 for both the gadget and the installation.
If you need a stand then that’s an extra £29, but most people don’t as the device simply fits onto location of the current thermostat.
What does it look like?
It is an undeniably beautiful gadget. Sleek, circular and with an LCD screen that lights up as you walk past, my Nest thermostat has actually become a bit of a talking point in my hallway.
The attractive design and satisfying noises (it clicks reassuringly when you use it) can be traced back to the creator Tony Fadell, who is better known for his work developing Apple’s iPod.
As the Nest is smaller than most blocky thermostats, it also comes with a plastic rectangle to cover up the mark where the old device went. That can be removed the next time the wall is redecorated.
How does it save you money?
The Nest is so efficient because it doesn’t waste any energy. Normally, if you want the house to be warm for 6:30am when you get up, you’d set the thermostat to turn on at 6am regardless of the specific temperature that night.
However, with this smart thermostat you tell it what time you want the house to be at what temperature. It uses an algorithm based on the external temperature, internal temperature and what it’s learned about how quickly the house heats up in order to come on at the optimum time.
That means that you don’t waste energy by heating the house up sooner than necessary.
With the Nest thermostat, you also have a lot of information on how to save. You receive a monthly report and can examine your daily heating use by your phone, tablet or computer.
Not only that, but it rewards efficient energy decisions with a little image of a leaf, so you know you’ve made a good choice.
A feature that I have found particularly helpful is that when I turn the heat up, it tells me how long it will take to reach that temperature. Sometimes it will take just 40 minutes to reach 20 degrees, but would take an hour and a half to reach 20.5 degrees. Using that information I often choose the lower temperature, which also saves me money.
Let’s say this gadget saves me 10% of the average £1,342 energy bill, so at the lower end of the potential savings. That would be £134 a year, which would it paid for itself within two years. At 29% savings, it would easily pay for itself within one year.
But what I quickly learn is that the Nest does more than save money. Driving home late at night with our children we were able to switch on the heating before we got in; and on particularly cold mornings the house is always at temperature when we get up no matter how cold it is outside. It’s not just an energy saving device, it’s about convenience and control.
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Are there any downsides?
Yes. While I have enjoyed using the Nest and found it has changed the way we heat our home, it’s not perfect. It’s difficult to programme it via a phone or tablet, so you really need to have access to a computer.
Ours also has a habit of switching itself off occasionally, although it hasn’t yet left us without any heating first thing.
This is a rapidly developing technology and it seems likely that there will be a few creases to iron out before the design is perfected.
A major downside to our Nest thermostat is that my husband can control it from work. Now our battles over the heating have turned high tech, with me turning it up during the day and my husband threatening to switch it off entirely from his (heated!) office.
Thermostat battles and minor gripes aside, this has been an excellent investment.
Where can I buy it?
The Nest is available via the official website, from Apple, Amazon, B&Q and John Lewis. If you buy it via the official website then you can also book a certified Nest installer, which is what I did.
If you’re an npower customer and you upgrade to its dual fuel Intelligent Control fixed tariff, you can get the device for free and installed at no extra cost, so if you’re considering it then it’s worth a look.
Are there any alternatives?
There are a few smart thermostats available in the UK. British Gas offers the Hive, which allows the householder to control the home’s temperature using their smart phone or tablet but the device does’t attempt to pre-empt your decisions.
ScottishPower has also issued a wireless thermostat; the Connect.
However, for an alternative gadget that also learns from your heating behaviour, the tado° is probably the nearest competitor. It also detects when the home is empty, tracks weather conditions and can learn about your energy habits, and the manufacturers claim it can save as much as 26% on your energy bills.
If you want even greater control of your home’s heating then the Honeywell evohome gadget allows you to control eight heating ‘zones’ in your home. So, if you work from a home office like I do then you could simply heat that one room throughout the day, without any fiddling with radiators.
As you’d expect, it’s also more expensive with prices starting at £249 plus £70 for each zone-specific device.
Is my heating spying on me?
Okay, when I rave about a gadget that can sense when I walk past and is connected to the internet, you might start to wonder if Big Brother Is Watching You. It’s a fair question and one that I put to the installation engineer.
He explained that it contains sensors to detect when people are moving around, but not a camera or microphone. In short, the only information it is capturing is about how easily my home heats – and it’s hard to see how that could be used maliciously.
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What do you think? Would you trust a smart thermostat? Does it look like a beautiful gadget or a creepy camera? Have your say using the comments below.
