12 Things to Learn About Nest Thermostats

A Nest Thermostat is an excellent tool for keeping your home comfortable, regardless of the season or weather. With a range of features and programs designed for maximum efficiency, convenience and comfort, a Nest Thermostat is an easy way to manage your energy use — keeping costs down in the process.

That’s why more homeowners are considering adding devices like a Nest to their homes. If you want to put in a Nest for your own home, call your nearest expert for smart thermostat installation in Ellsworth.

From automated scheduling to energy efficiency monitoring, Nest is designed to make securing your sense of comfort effortless.

Curious to learn more? Take some time to review these 12 things you should know about your Nest Thermostat.

1. Resetting Your Nest Thermostat

A key piece of information to know about resetting a Google Nest Thermostat is that there's a difference between a restart and a reset.

• Restart: This process is similar across most electronics, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat means a quick off / on cycle. This maintains all your settings and is a step to take if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
• Reset: A reset erases some or all of your settings. In most cases, people resort to a reset when they’re moving to a new home and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they just want to erase any personal details from the Nest before leaving it behind for the next resident.

To reset, it helps to record existing temperature settings so reapplying them is faster. Next, locate Settings -> Equipment and record your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.

After writing down this information, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You can choose from five options:

• Restart: Shuts your Nest down and starts it back up while remembering your settings. Another method is to press the outside of the Nest and hold it there until it goes black, at which point you can remove your hand.
• Schedule: This reset setting clears any info about your temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you have that programmed into your Nest. By choosing this kind of reset, you’ll need to create a new schedule or wait while your Nest learns your schedule.
• Away: Choosing this reset option removes anything your Nest has learned about how often you walk by, so that it can change the temperature accordingly.
• Network: With a network reset, it erases connection info and your Nest is disconnected from Wi-Fi. It also forgets your Wi-Fi password.
• All Settings: Self-explanatory, an All Settings reset clears all your personal settings and learning.

2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi

Staying connected to your Wi-Fi is important for making the most of your Nest's features.

To connect your Nest to the internet:

• Turn the thermostat ring to the Quick View menu.
• Find the Settings icon.
• Choose Network.
• After your Nest scans available networks, locate your Wi-Fi and, if needed, enter your password.

3. Does a Nest Thermostat Use a Battery and How Long Does It Last?

Nest thermostats are powered indirectly through HVAC system, but they also include a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup power in case of an outage. According to Google, who manufactures the thermostat, a Nest Thermostat battery will generally last several months. Recharge it with the USB cord that comes included.

4. Shutting Off a Nest Thermostat

If you aren’t going to be in your home for a long time, you can set your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode would be another option. Using Off mode will turn off all of your regular heating and cooling schedules, but it will still adhere to any current Safety Temperatures to keep your home from getting particularly hot or cold.

To select Off mode on the thermostat:

• Press and hold the touch bar until it displays “Turn Off” and then slide the bar to highlight Turn Off, and then touch the bar to select.
• You can also go to Mode from the main menu and select Off.

Off mode is available on the Google Home app as well:

• Select Thermostat from home screen
• Tap Temperature mode
• Select Off

5. Is Alexa Compatible with a Nest Thermostat?

Yes, Amazon's Alexa is compatible with a Nest Thermostat. This voice control function is also available with Nest doorbells and cameras. And of course, you can use Google Assistant to control your Nest.

6. Does a Nest Thermostat Work Without Wi-Fi?

Yes, your Nest Thermostat will still be able to adjust the temperatures without Wi-Fi. At the same time, without Wi-Fi a Nest doesn’t have the smart thermostat functions that most people enjoy.

7. Are You Able to Lock a Nest Thermostat?

If different members of your family can't agree on the ideal temperature, Nest can help you bring a little order back to your household.

Users can lock the Nest to prevent others from adjusting the settings or changing the temperature outside of a preset range. This doesn’t lock in a specific temperature—a locked Nest continues to use existing program settings—but simply prevents other users from constantly changing the settings.

If you want to lock your Nest:

• Press the Settings icon, scroll to the bottom and find Lock.
• Enter a 4-digit pin number you can remember, and keep in mind this has to be entered twice.
• To lock your Nest in Heat or Cool mode, fine-tune your maximum and minimum temperature range and then press Lock at the bottom of the screen.

For unlocking it, open the settings and choose Unlock. As soon as you've provided your 4-digit pin, the Nest will be unlocked.

8. Adjusting a Nest Thermostat from a Phone

You can control the Nest through your Google Home app, accessible through your phone or other smart device, including a computer. Other versions of Nest, including the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, are also controllable through the Nest app.

Before you can control a Nest on your phone with Google Home or the Nest app, you need to follow a few steps:

• Download the Google Home app or, if you have an advanced model, the Nest app to your phone.
• Connect your Nest Thermostat.
• Start the Google Home app on your phone and complete the setup process, link to your new device and connect to Wi-Fi.
• Google offers a more in-depth setup tool, if you would like more assistance in connecting.

As soon as you've connected the Nest to your Home app, you can access it by clicking Thermostat on the home screen. Once you do that, making adjustments is done by dragging your finger along the screen or tapping on a plus or minus sign.

The preset temperatures on your Nest can also be changed from the app. From the home screen, find your Thermostat and then select Settings. Once there, press Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. Current presets for Comfort, Eco and Sleep modes will be displayed. Choose the appropriate setting to change the temperature for that preset.

9. Setting a Nest Thermostat Schedule

You can set a temperature schedule on a Nest Thermostat either on the device or on the Google Home app. Newer and advanced models of the Nest, such as the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, also can be controlled via the Nest app.

You have two primary ways to establish a temperature schedule on a Nest Thermostat:

• Quick Schedule: Quick Schedules are based on the national average schedule for energy efficiency. When you are setting up your Nest, the Google Home app gives you the option to change the temperature with a schedule. If you select this feature, it presents a preset schedule for you to customize as you wish. Once setup is complete, that’s the schedule it will use.
• Temperature Presets: To change the temperature presets on your Nest, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and choose Edit. As soon as you're finished making updates, select Done.

To make tweaks or changes to your current schedule, open the Google Home app, select Thermostat and then tap on Schedules. Choose the day of the week where you want to make changes. After the day is selected, tap Add and select the preset you want. Finally, select Time before touching and dragging the numbers to change the time. Your update won't be applied until you select Done.

10. How to Set a Temperature Range on a Nest Thermostat

The Nest features an Eco mode ideal for setting custom temperature ranges. Your Nest will adjust the temperature depending on if you're at home or away.

To create a custom temperature range in Eco mode, go to Settings and select Eco. The thermostat's display should list existing “Heat to” and “Cool to” temperature settings. You can select each and make your preferred changes. When complete, select Done.

11. What Should I Do If My Nest Thermostat Isn't Compatible?

Nest thermostats can be integrated with most HVAC systems. Google, Nest's manufacturer, offers a compatibility tool that asks a series of questions about your location and current setup to learn which Nest model is compatible with your system.

If you have a Nest and believe it’s not compatible with your system, consider reaching out to professionals for smart thermostat installation in Ellsworth. Experienced technicians evaluate your system and, if your Nest is compatible, get it installed and on the road to saving you money in no time.

12. How Do I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?

Nest Thermostats come with many features designed to make life more comfortable and save money. However, you can actually turn off the smart features if you want to control a Nest manually like a normal thermostat.

Remember, by doing this you clear all your temperature schedules and letting the Nest work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and let you change the temperature, but that’s about it.

You can achieve this by disabling the settings in a series of steps:

• Auto-Schedule: From the main screen, go to Settings and then scroll to Nest Sense. Go to Auto-Schedule, select No and click Done.
• Eco: From the main screen, go to Settings, scroll to Eco. Once in Eco, select Off for both the current Heat to and Cool to temperatures, and select Done.
• Home/Away Assist: From the main screen, go to Settings and select Home/Away Assist. Then, select Stop Using and click Done.
• Reset: Once you’ve turned off the settings, reset your nest. From the main screen, go to Settings and select Reset, highlight Schedule and then select Reset to clear out any saved scheduling data.