Last night my limping thermostat finally gave up the ghost. Unfortunately it chose to do so in the middle of the night, so there was not heat for us this morning. Luckily, there was quite a bit of cloud cover after a storm, so it wasn't as cold as it could have been.
My old thermostat was ancient, and though it lasted us for twelve years in this house (and goodness knows how many before that) it has never been very accurate or very dependable. Heat and cool went on and off at unpredictable times, and there was never any good way to program temperatures for our changing lives.
So today I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Nest Thermostat. Though about five times as much as a conventional one, this device has amazing ability to learn and anticipate changes, and best of all, it can better control temps when we aren't in the house.
After an installation that was far easier than I anticipated, I turned the device on. The first thing the program did was allow me to attach the device to the home wifi network. Through this connection the device is able to collect weather reports and to adjust to the outside temperature. Most exciting, I have an app on my iPhone that shows me the current temperature in the house and allows me to change the current temperature and the overall program. The device has built in energy saving settings, so I am hopeful that some of the additional cost will be defrayed by better energy use.
I suppose some will point out (hearing my father's voice here) that now that my thermostat is online, I am vulnerable to hackers who will attempt to burn or freeze us…only time will tell.
The connected home is an interesting new concept. I'm not going in whole hog with cameras, motion detectors, and light controls, but I'm interested to see how the nest will change the climate of our lives.
As always, I welcome your comments.
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