Nest Learning Thermostat

Pros: Very cool concept and easy to use interface. Great idea that you can control your temp via your Iphone or the internet.

Cons: Well, I am ususally an early adopter of technology and this seems like the early stages. I already installed 3 nest devices and all of them had issues. The main issue in my house was with the nest battery losing power.

Summary: If the nest does not receive at least 3.7 volts it disconnects from the internet and will eventually die. They don't tell you in the advertising you may need an additional common wire because the nest needs to draw power from the wires which your existing wires don't have enough power. The 4 wires on the left side of the base (R,G,Y, W) might not be enough to power the unit.

The nest is also sensitive on how the wires are seated. I had the 4 wires connected and the nest actually shows a diagram of the connection, but it was not working properly. The unit was cooling instead of heading. I took the wires out again and repeated the setup process and it was finally working.

The nest folks are very knowledgable about the product and are very helpful with troubleshooting, but that was not enough for me to want to keep the device after 3 installations. The temp needs to work 100% of the time unless power is out. Many individuals will not be confortable working with electrical wires. Nest will say things like touch the Red wire (RH) to the (W1 or Y) wire to get heat. Basically this will manually turn on the heat.

My recommendation is to wait 6 months to a year to the product matures. I will be putting back my good programmable temp control.