The new Google Nest Thermostat was announced this morning at the expected price of $129, making it Google Nest’s most affordable smart thermostat to date.
As a smart thermostat, you probably know most of the story here (works with Assistant, has an app, is smart), but Google is promising a handful of new features for this unit. For one, you control this through the Google Home app (instead of the Nest app), where you’ll get to setup a Quick Schedule to have the perfect temperature at all times. The new Nest Thermostat will also try to constantly find you little optimizations that will help you reduce your energy use and save money or that might make you more comfortable. It’ll try to monitor your HVAC system for issues too, and recommend you change your air filter regularly (other Nest Thermostats do both of those things).
Heard that rumor about it having Google’s Soli radar? Well, it has that, but it’s not used like we hoped. Instead of you gesturing from across the room to adjust the temperature, Nest Thermostat uses Soli radar for motion sensing to detect if you are at home or not.
Like other Nest Thermostats, Google claims that this should work in most houses and can be installed in around 30 minutes. They even have an online compatibility checker to help you figure it out. Google estimates that 85% of households will work with this new model, which is down from the 95% of older Nest Thermostat units.
As someone who owns other Nest Thermostat models and the Nest Temperature Sensor, I should point out that this new model does not work with the Nest Temperature Sensor. So if you planned on switching to this new Thermostat and have Sensors, they won’t work, unfortunately. Oh, this new Nest Thermostat also only includes a 1-year warranty, while the Nest (3rd Gen) comes with a 2-year warranty.
The new Nest Thermostat comes in Snow, Charcoal, Sand and Fog colorways for $129, plus there are matching trim kits available in matching colors for another $15. Those trim kits will come in handy should you remove your old thermostat and notice that it left a mess on your wall.
You can pre-order Google Nest Thermostat today with shipping expected in the “coming weeks.” Amazon says October 30.
Preorder Nest Thermostat:
This post was last modified on October 12, 2020 8:19 am