We thought it fair and appropriate that the last two comments (see below) on this blog string, originally posted June 5, 2012, scores one for Honeywell and one for Nest.
We are really getting excited about the thermostat story again, but it’s not only about the thermostat. The goal is to get smart thermostats on the wall as fast as possible and save energy-grief and money. The utilities need the information from as many residential thermostats as possible, as quickly as possible, and the incentives being offered are real motivation. Both Honeywell and Nest, as well as a few others, are doing a great job enabling the process — and making some smart money while they’re at it. Now that the Department of Energy is ready to go door-to-door and give free energy audits, which will (or should) undoubtedly recommend a smart grid-talking thermostat (with rebate coupon), this thermostat race is just heating up!
But who will connect all the smarts dots the soonest? If there’s a magic wand to do this, it’s probably a red wand. Did you know that Honeywell, a Sponsor Member of OpenADR 2.0, bought California-based Akuacom (May, 2010), a huge player in the Demand Response and Smart Grid arena? And that Honeywell shipped over 350,000 UtilityPRO Demand Response Thermostats to 33 utilities in the USA and Canada, back in 2010? Talk about all over it already. We can only image what’s coming next from out of the big red sleeve.
Meanwhile, from the Nest corner, On April 22, 2013, Earth Day, Nest announced its future plans. Nest intends to roll out its Nest Energy Services this summer and put its smart thermostat’s information to work with some utility-friendly programs of its own.
Along with good looks, smart thermostats still need to eliminate DIY wire surprises, offer fan control, maintain accurate temperatures, and have the ability to add IAQ accessories to the base thermostat. Maintaining set points is still a BIG part of the best thermostat equation. As the year progresses, and new products, features, and services are introduced, we’ll be watching, listening, and blogging all about it!
June 12, 2012 Post: The Nest Thermostat, The GOOD, The BAD, and The UGLY
Don says:
April 13, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Meow. Sometimes facts matter and this story has almost none.
Let me give you a little hint. You could listen to music on your phone and surf the web on the phone before the iPhone. The iPhone put all the product development pieces together in the right way…. and BOOM. The NEST has done the best at doing that too in the area to date.
This story is written by someone who seems to have no experience in product development.
Also…. guess what…. people can learn a lot more from your credit card and phone records data then they could ever learn from any data taken from your thermostat
Lisa Jasper says:
April 26, 2013 at 5:41 pm
I bought The Nest because of what I read about how Nest handles radiant heating. Even though my boiler is only 3 years old, the nest wouldn’t work with it. We had to hire a heating professional and he couldn’t make it work. I’m guessing the problem was the lack of a ‘c’ wire. we only had a white wire and a black wire. Anyhow, long story short, we had to get a honeywell ($70). What a massive disappointment. I was looking forward to seeing my energy usage, and I was looking forward to having a thermostat that would finally work on a radiant heating system. It took the heating professional 2 hours to determine he couldn’t hook it up. I’ll bet he’s going to charge about the same amount as it cost to buy The Nest 🙁
2 Responses
An interesting comparison about Honeywell and Nest. Be interesting when reading your article. Hope to see more necessary information in your next articles.