"Nest"ing

Believe it or not, this post has nothing to do with babies. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

HOW RELIEVED ARE YOU? Sweet Jeebus knows I am.

Anywhoozie, at the end of last year, husband and I realized that our power bill had gone up like whoa crazy whoa. We were regularly shelling out $400 a month in the Floridian winter for utilities. In the summer, that's not totally unheard of. In winter? It's downright ridiculous.

We got one last exorbitant bill and decided something had to chance. We're both Macs, so we had heard about the Nest thermostat. Up until then, we were hesitant to purchase because the $249 price tag was a little too steep.

In hindsight, it wasn't anywhere near steep. Everything is better when it's free, but the thing has paid for itself several times already.

Disclaimer: I have received no compensation from Nest for this post. I am just a happy consumer who likes to talk about products that have actually helped to make life easier. 

This is the Nest learning thermostat.

Nest.
This is what it looks like when it's cooling.
Image courtesy of Nest.com

It's small. It's unobtrusive. It's dark until you walk by it, and then it lights up.

Sidenote: I'm really short, so I've tried to walk past it without it waking up, and it isn't possible. That ish is sensitive to movement. Evem when I'm crouched down well below it, it still knows I'm there. It's like a worried mother waiting up for her teenager. You know, who wants to house to be nice and cool and energy efficient.

Setting up Nest was fairly easy and not nearly and confusing as I thought it would be. Hubs and I did it together, and just had to switch the wires from our old thermostat to Nest. It isn't something I would have been able to do on my own. My husband is handy and has done things like this before, so he knew what he was doing. When in doubt, ask someone who won't break your air conditioner or the $250 "toy" you bought.

The thing that I liked most about Nest was that it has an app for your iPhone that allows you to change the temperature from anywhere with data or WiFi. I ALWAYS forgot to turn the air conditioning down before I left the house, and it cost us a fortune. Futhermore, using the app, we could put in our weekly schedule and Nest would change the temperatures without us even telling it to. On top of that, if you have it scheduled, but then start manually changing the temperature around the same time or with any pattern, Nest actually picks up on the patterns and starts changing it FOR YOU. WHHAAA??

Either this thing is awesome or we're all SkyNet-ed out over here.

The iPhone scheduling app.
Image courtesy of Nest.com

Okay, now to the proof of why this thing is awesome. The bells and whistles are nice, but if we didn't get the results we needed out of it, it would just be an expensive thermometer.

Between November and December, our power bill went down $120. One hundred twenty dollars. American money. 120 of them.

I couldn't believe it.

Since, our summer power bills have been higher, but it's summer and ALWAYS stinkin' hot around here.

We have had a few minor issues with Nest, but I don't know if they were a flaw in the device or user error. They have all since been resolved and were an issue with battery power or something. Once we realized how awesome it was, we ran out and bought one for my parents house. Installing it there was more difficult because the wires on their old thermostat were labeled wrong, but that is not, by any means, a flaw of the device. Their power bills have gone down substantially as well.

Another added bonus for my parents was the display. My dad's vision isn't good, so the simple and brightly colored display has been fantastic. Oh, and he's a total iPhone nerd, so sometimes I catch him changing the temperature from his phone just because he can.  It's counterproductive for the power bill, but it makes his heart happy, so whatevs.

I love finding products that do what they say without complication or upsales. Nest does what we need it to while saving us money. There are no necessary add ons or added value products. It's just an awesome product that gives me piece of mind and lets me keep more of my hard-earned money.

And that? That I like.

As always, it's hip to be square (or round!), kids.