Nest Thermostat

[TeaLeaf]

I've been interested in these for a while but they've been USA only so far with only the smoke alarms being available here (yes you could import the USA one but you lose out on functionaility).    Perhaps with today's purchase of Nest by Google we might see a faster worldwide roll-out of the product.

https://nest.com/thermostat/life-with-nest-thermostat/

https://nest.com/uk/

[suicidal_monkey]

I recall reading about this ... would be interested to know if you do get one! I wonder how easy it is to integrate, whether you could use it to control existing systems...

[smilodon]

Looks interesting. I wonder how it works with people who don't work regular hours and might spend a few days at home working and then a few on the road? I imagine it would be hard for the system to find any patterns there. Still it looks very impressive and I do like the app.

I think British Gas do something a bit like this called Hive. Although I think it's just a remote control service rather than an adaptive system.

[Gandalf]

And now in the news: Old people freezing to death because malicious crackers break into remote heating controls and turn them down while they sleep... Seriously though, nice idea, but I'd want to see what sort of security they use on these things before thinking about anything like this.

[smilodon]

There's an interesting article about 'The Internet of Everything' on Ars Technica (can't find the article sorry). The concern is that as we hook heating, fridges, home alarms etc into the 'Net' we're at the mercy of the manufacturer and how long they support their devices. So for example Samsung make a fridge that connects to the Internet to restock itself. In five years they abandon the old models, in favour of new stuff with new software and ignore future bugs and exploits that may be found. Hackers use the un-patches exploits to cause havoc, order you 10,000 goose eggs etc. As is probably going to happen with Windows XP, millions of non technical users will keep using the appliance/software even though it's a hackers playground, with disastrous results for the user.

[BrotherTobious]

And with another turn some interest from the google one

http://hexus.net/ce/news/gadgets/64861-google-plans-buy-nest-labs-32-billion/

[Blunt]

This is funny

[smilodon]

Yep, people are stupid and buy the wrong stock and then clever people buy the wrong stock too just to ride the upswing and make a bundle selling it to more stupid people.

[no peanuts]

Nest now available in the UK. Clicky Linky

[albert]

Is there a list of boilers this is compatible with, both the new UK and existing US? We have a wifi thermostat in our rental apartment and when the upstairs is perfect the downstairs or either hot or cold. Totally nonsense.

Sent from my LG-F320S using Tapatalk

[Penfold]

I wouldn't have thought the boiler matters. It's more to do with the thermostatic control.

For example we have a remote thermostatic control which you can move around and use to set the temperature. It's got a remote unit which links to a control connected to the boiler which controls the flow.

I'm no plumber (at all) so I may be talking total rubbish.

[Liberator]

I replaced the old boiler that was in the house when I bought it with a combi, that just came with a 24 hr pinwheel timer. I took that out and replaced it with a remote receiver and have a radio linked 7 day thermostat that, in theory, fixes to the wall of the main room, but I have it sat on the mantle and can move it about if needed. That has programmed on/off times but also a minimum temp that it will come on at if it gets too cold and a holiday setting.

It looks from the installation instructions on the Nest site that this is to replace a wired static room thermostat with a docking base station for the wireless part that you can move around.