Smart Thermostats

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I'm not sure if this would save me money.

I set the thermostat for 75 degrees when i go to work, then set it for 71 when I come home.

My highest bill for a 1100 sq foot home was $125 for electric, that was when it was 99 degrees the entire month of august.

$200 for a thermostat buys me two months of summer electricity.

One thing that I know is going to save me money is I put on energy star entry doors, and blew in foam insulation into the door jambs. It went from boiling hot in the back kitchen area to nice and cool just by putting in the door.

Solar screens are next, those are cheap and I can do that myself.

I was thinking about a solar attic fan, but I guess that is just one more thing that can wear out and break, so I decided against it.

May put one up in the garage to keep it cool.
 
Originally Posted By: racer12306

Don't you just love the holier than thou attitude some people on this forum have?


Tell me about it...
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I'm not sure if this would save me money.

I set the thermostat for 75 degrees when i go to work, then set it for 71 when I come home.

My highest bill for a 1100 sq foot home was $125 for electric, that was when it was 99 degrees the entire month of august.

$200 for a thermostat buys me two months of summer electricity.

One thing that I know is going to save me money is I put on energy star entry doors, and blew in foam insulation into the door jambs. It went from boiling hot in the back kitchen area to nice and cool just by putting in the door.

Solar screens are next, those are cheap and I can do that myself.

I was thinking about a solar attic fan, but I guess that is just one more thing that can wear out and break, so I decided against it.

May put one up in the garage to keep it cool.

Why only 75 when you're away? Pets? With smart recovery you only pay for run-time so less run-time overall means less money spent, even if it means a longer recovery before you return home.
$200 for summer seems to expect it'll only to save you money one time of the year.
As for the attic, take a look at vent amount. Sq ft of attic divided by 150 gets you how much vent area. Take the result and divide by two to get soffit vent area needed.
Also remember all those times you left home and didn't turn it back, that's money the Nest can put back in the bank because it can determine you're not home. It knows not to run the system just before temperature setback and vice versa, these fractions add up day-to-day and end up saving you money over time. It's not the times you can think about that it saves you money, it's the times you forget about and the times you don't think about. (see Airwave above)

I don't work for Nest, I'm just a nerd that rents and has to drool about the nest rather than get one since my heat/cool is split between two distanced thermostats.
 
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Yes we have house cats, and my wife comes home on lunch and doesn't want it too hot in the house.

Originally Posted By: brandini
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I'm not sure if this would save me money.

I set the thermostat for 75 degrees when i go to work, then set it for 71 when I come home.

My highest bill for a 1100 sq foot home was $125 for electric, that was when it was 99 degrees the entire month of august.

$200 for a thermostat buys me two months of summer electricity.

One thing that I know is going to save me money is I put on energy star entry doors, and blew in foam insulation into the door jambs. It went from boiling hot in the back kitchen area to nice and cool just by putting in the door.

Solar screens are next, those are cheap and I can do that myself.

I was thinking about a solar attic fan, but I guess that is just one more thing that can wear out and break, so I decided against it.

May put one up in the garage to keep it cool.

Why only 75 when you're away? Pets? With smart recovery you only pay for run-time so less run-time overall means less money spent, even if it means a longer recovery before you return home.
$200 for summer seems to expect it'll only to save you money one time of the year.
As for the attic, take a look at vent amount. Sq ft of attic divided by 150 gets you how much vent area. Take the result and divide by two to get soffit vent area needed.
Also remember all those times you left home and didn't turn it back, that's money the Nest can put back in the bank because it can determine you're not home. It knows not to run the system just before temperature setback and vice versa, these fractions add up day-to-day and end up saving you money over time. It's not the times you can think about that it saves you money, it's the times you forget about and the times you don't think about. (see Airwave above)

I don't work for Nest, I'm just a nerd that rents and has to drool about the nest rather than get one since my heat/cool is split between two distanced thermostats.
 
This thing is fantastic!

I have the thresholds set to 20.5C for heat and 22C for the A/C. This starts at 8:00AM.

After 5:00PM the thresholds change to 17.5C and 24C respectively. This should conserve some power/gas.

The occupancy sensor works as expected and it dropped down to what I had set it at on the weekend when it sensed nobody was here.

The building is far more comfortable due to the temperature actually staying within the range we want it (the heat was on this AM, the A/C is on now) and nobody needs to touch anything to accomplish that.

Also, it looks freakin' awesome! There were guys saying they want one for their house just because of how it looks, LOL!

I setup the schedule and thresholds (revised them) through the Web GUI, which is well designed and easy to use.

Overall, first day of use with it in the office: Impressed.

Will update further once we've had some more time with it.
 
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