The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.
Living in Las Vegas, our electric bills to run our air conditioner in the summer are crazy high. I have friends whose bills in the summer run up around $500 each month. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I manage to keep our bills under $100/month on the equal payment plan our electric company offers. Our highest bill in the middle of the summer is under $200. We have our air conditioning unit serviced regularly and a few years ago the technician told me that our thermostat was on it’s way out. It was a 10 year old builder grade (read: CHEAP) thermostat so I wasn’t too surprised. So I was super excited to receive a Nest thermostat a few weeks ago to replace the old one.
We received a new 3rd generation Nest, which is thinner, sleeker in design, and allows for a bigger, crisper display than the prior generation version. Nest provides alerts and reminders for peace of mind. It monitors your heating/cooling equipment, and tells you if anything is not working correctly. You can also be alerted if your home’s temperature goes above or below limits you set. Nest provides your energy usage, tracking how much you’ve used and provides tips that will help you conserve. Make an energy-saving temperature adjustment and the Nest Leaf will notify you immediately. Some local utility companies even offer rebates – find out about available rebates online at the URL provided above.
My husband installed the Nest and it took him all of about 15 minutes. Most of that time was trying to figure out which circuit we needed to turn off. The Nest walks you through the set up steps right on the unit. You can set it to accommodate your schedule and temperature preferences, but there is no need to set preferences because within a week, the Nest learning thermostat starts programming itself. It learns your habits and adjusts automatically, regulating your home’s temperature based on your schedule – which can save you energy and money.
When you’re not at home (the “Away” mode), it will automatically switch to an energy-efficient temperature. In independent studies, the Nest saved an average of 10-12% on heating and 15% on cooling bills. I can’t wait to see if I can get our bills even lower with Nest.
One of the most annoying features of our home is that the thermostat is upstairs. So every time we needed to adjust the thermostat, someone had to run upstairs. No more thanks to Nest! We connected the Nest to our existing home’s Wi Fi network and downloaded the free app.
If you are concerned that your WiFi is not exactly up to par to handle another device, check out Netgear’s Nighthawk DST AC 1900 DST router with DST adapter. Basically, the Dead Spot Terminator makes sure there are no WiFi dead spots in your home. We have our router upstairs and often the internet speed downstairs is super slow. With this Nighthawk router, we plug in the DST adapter downstairs and our WiFi is up to speed! You can purchase additional adapters to put throughout your home – and near your Nest – so you’re sure to be hooked up no matter where you are. No worries about hooking the router up either, it’s available exclusively at Best Buy and comes with Geek Squad Set Up and Support.
After two weeks of use, we’re loving our new Nest thermostat and Netgear WiFi router. I’m looking forward to saving even more on our energy bills in the months to come.
That is an incredible achievement to keep your energy bill so low in comparison to some of your friends. It will be very interesting to see the cost of your bills over the next few months. Living in places like Las Vegas, I would hope that your utility company would consider a rebate- as you are living on the front line! Have you programmed your Nest or has it automatically learned your likes and dislikes?!
A little of both!
I bet you will be really happy with your purchase by the time you get your electric bill for the month. Especially where you are living, something like the Nest is going to do wonders for you! Glad to hear you like it.