Nest Temperature Sensor Review: Almost Great
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- The Nest Temperature Sensor might make sense in some homes, but it's missing a few key features. In this review, we cover the Nest Temperature Sensor setup, pros and cons, and features to help you decide if it's worth buying.
We also compared the features of Nest Sensor vs Ecobee Sensor and give 4 alternatives to help regulate the temperature of your home.
LINKS (affiliate)
Nest Temperature Sensor: amzn.to/3tLoX5P
Nest Thermostat 3rd Gen on Amazon: amzn.to/2YMriRE
MY SET UP & GEAR
See the list of everything I use in my smart home and other favorites:
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Disclaimer: Smart Home Solver purchased the Nest Temperature Sensor with their own money. They received the Nest 3rd Gen thermostat in exchange for an unbiased review a few months ago. As always, our opinions are 100% our own and not influenced.
Do you think the Nest Temperature Sensor is worth it to heat or cool your entire house so one room can be more comfortable?
I think it depends on the residence size, amount of people in the house, and the house layout. I have a total of 6 remote ecobee sensors 8 including the thermostat itself. It does improve if more sensors are added I learned that as I did increase the amount of sensors in the house. To get the most out of the system I would suggest having more than one sensor whether it's the nest or ecobee. I know ecobee states that the more sensors the better the ecobee will perform. I am sure it's like that with the nest only makes sense to have more than one unless you live in a one bedroom apartment. The more sensor the more comfortable the house is.
I have them on a hydronic forced air heater in a cold climate and it works well. The old thermostat would allow the house to cool to the thermostat and then overheat the bathrooms. We used the nest temperature sensor in a strategic location and it keeps the whole house (single story) within 2 degrees
I like to sleep cool but my thermostat is in the living room. I would like it IF it will override the heating from coming on because the living room is cooler than bedroom.
Whats the point of this when you can turn your nest thermostat a few degrees higher than normal to make the one room more comfortable? Isnt this what this temp sensor is doing?
Can't tell, no use outside of US or Canada... In europe, we can't use it...
You kept saying in this video that it would cost you more money because you would be trying to get to your comfort, this is not necessarily true. In my case the heat blows into the room and the thermostat is in a common area with a high ceiling. Currently the master bedroom gets overheated because the common area is trying to reach 74 degrees and never can because no heat is blowing out there, the result is I wake up in an over heated room. If the sensor is in the room I actually care to warm, I can be more exact and save myself some money.
True. Perhaps, people are used to heating at a high setpoint to compensate for their colder rooms. People with these sensors should lower their heating setpoint to save 💰.
Been thinking about getting this since the bedrooms in my house get hot faster than the rest of the house when I turn on the heating. So I could then have the heater turn off based on the rooms instead of the kitchen where the thermostat is located.
Interesting perspective of a smart thermostat. I always thought of them as a convenience device and any power savings are a plus.
I have one of these and we enjoy it only because our nursery tends to be the coldest room in the house so in order to keep the baby comfortable, we put the sensor in his room and run the heat off of that sensor all night long.
That's a great use case and idea!
Nice video it was very informative. I'm an electrician but not into this smart house stuff yet. One main thing I didn't hear about this sensor is this: If the room with the sensor is colder, and you use the app to warm that room up by switching to the sensor temp. it will also warm up the zone where the main thermostat is located. So if you raise the temp in the basement room 5 degrees you would probably raise the temp upstairs around 5 degrees. If people locate this thermostat in a room without heat, then the heating system will heat the rest of the house (heat zone) and never be satisfied at the sensor room location, causing the main heat zone to overheat quite a bit. So the idea of a separate electric space heater could be the only way to go in some rooms.
Your comment is exactly what I was looking for in this video. While I get the sensor can tell you what the temperature is in it's location, it isn't capable of providing "zone" heating/cooling without also affecting the temperature in the rest of the house.
@@ThePecanTan I've been trying to figure out the same thing. I've always been wondering how it can change the temperature of one specific room, but I guess it just runs the AC until that room is the temperature you want, irregardless of what the main thermostat is reading.
This is a must if you have a house like mine. I live in a 2 story house. Basement, Ground floor, and second floor. The problem I run into is my top floor gets really hot while my middle floor is cool which causes the heater to work overdrive thinking the whole house is cold.
So I assume it worked well for you? My basement is freezing and the second floor is always so hot.
how would this work for you because if you put this on the 2nd floor it will just make your 1st floor cooler
Do you have a baseboard hot water heating system? closing the vents on the heaters would help if both floors operate on one thermostat. Same with vents in the ceiling if you have forced hot air. There should be a wired thermostat on each floor though.
To me, this sounds like the same thing as turning your nest temp down 4 degrees cooler at night to compensate for a warmer bedroom upstairs on the opposite side of the house. Making the bedroom cooler of course but most of the lower levels 4 degrees colder. It's just a convenience factor and no, "complex algorithms" like the nest temp sensor litature states. I think the proper way to do things is to balance out the home if your ducts have dampers otherwise control the flow by the registers. Even better, a smart system that opens and closes dampers/registers is ideal, but not practical for everyone. This is more of a bandaid. I was hoping it'd be a little more sophisticated rather than just virtually relocating the temp reading. Thanks for the video!
This was a welcome overview as I just got a Nest from Costco and it came bundled with a temperature sensor (probably to address the fact that Ecobee comes with a sensor or two). I would just add one comment; the value I can see is if you want to monitor the temperature of a space you use consistently in the house, such as a family gathering space, or a home office. Often, a person gets cold or hot and adjusts the thermostat, but is really only spending time in one or two rooms. As the guy in the video says, you can then gain knowledge about these specific spaces and perhaps localize your strategy with heaters/fans. This would particularly be relevant for older homes which do not heat uniformly based on window surface area, proximity to external walls, etc.
In order, to manage different temperature in the different rooms, the Nest, must to have an ability to manage the cold/ hot air distribution to the particular room.
As others have mentioned, not all rooms cool and heat at the same rate. Some of this can be compensated for with laborious manual manipulation of the ducts or perhaps electromechanical ducts (expensive). I agree, it makes no sense to run heat for a sensor calling for heat and then overheat other rooms. Perhaps the next generation of Nest could provide an optional function that would simply run the fan on the air handler until all rooms are equilibrated. This would satisfy the sensor calling for heat without overheating other rooms?
A proper duct system would size each duct to provide a desirable amount of air flow per room. The thermostat has no effect with this issue.
Thanks you answered my question. I have a single zone heating for duplex apt. The upstairs is freezing and downstairs is too warm.. but the thermostat is upstairs. So getting one of these I can have it only use the downstairs temp
I completely agree with you about the frustration with the scheduling, or lack thereof, for when the sensor is used vs the thermostat. I have contacted Google/Nest a couple of times to see if they are working on it and i get no good answer. So dumb for a smartdevice.
These are great when the main Nest E thermostat is located in the Master bedroom that we want to keep cool around 55 degrees at night when sleeping ( windows partly open in the winter ) but the rear bedroom we want at 65 degrees when sleeping ( windows closed of course in the winter ) so we put the sensor in the rear bedroom. Perfect solution for us ! These are great !! and a perfect solution.
My nest thermostat reads 3° higher than the actual temperature in the house so my wife keeps cranking the AC thinking that the house is warmer than it actually is. Can I use the nest sensor to display a different temperature on the nest thermostat on the wall so she sees a lower temperature from another room?
Maybe this is a dumb question but how does Nest enable my home's air system to adjust different room temperatures independently? Like, with a regular thermostat I'd be setting the temperature for the whole house. I could manually close the vents in certain rooms, but that's the limit of how I could customize things. I assumed that was just the limitation of the whole system, not the thermostat.
What it means is the temperature display so you know what it is in that room
The points you make in your video are the same issues I sent to Nest. It fell short for me. I was disappointed. I love Nest and I’m heavily invested with them. But I’m so close to switching over to Ecobee for the added functionality on the thermostat.
Can I use the sensor just outside of my door in the backyard in a protected area to tell me the outside tempreature? Serving just as a remote informaiton with no other function?
I am debating trying one of these sensors. My thermostat says it 58 some winter days, but there is no way it’s 58, feels way colder than that.
Thanks for the review. After watching it yes the scheduling is too much. The ecobee is definitely a plus especially the follow me feature sensing what room your. Ecobee also had the geo fencing that does a pretty good job for the home and away feature.
I need vents in the house to divert HVAC flow to optimize air flow during the 24 hour period. Would need temp sensors a each location. Integrated with thermostat.
I am interested in using two sensors upstairs to augment the one in the upstairs hallway (all upstairs is one zone/AC unit), which thinks its warmer than the rooms if AC has been running a while, and thinks it's colder than the rooms if AC has been off for a while. So I need it to know what it is in the rooms and ignore the hallway. Also I am hoping it can use sensor 1 during the day (office) and sensor 2 at night (bedroom).
Your system should evenly cool and or heat your home. Check to see if you have dampers in the ducting system and adjust them accordingly. Closing vents is an easy to try and change airflow but is not the correct way or a permananet solution. You should not know your system is running while in your home. A nest temperature sensor would be good to help get your system adjusted correctly.
I wouldn’t say it uses more energy, I would say it makes the Nest more efficient. We have a 2-story house, bedroom upstairs, and in the winter I’m with the thermostat being downstairs, it’s colder and the temp fluctuates like crazy. If we have the sensor in our bedroom, the heat kicks on less since the sensor is higher (heat rises). Again, in the summer, if you’re upstairs, it may be hotter, so it’s nice to have that sensor in the room you’re spending 8-9 hours of your day in.
That makes sense! I think the Nest sensor is good for certain setups like yours. I have a one story house but even my house has some fluctuating temperatures.
I'm looking at getting a sensor for my bedroom it's on the far side of the house and gets cold in winter. Especially if I use a fireplace which heats up main floor and hits the thermostat causing it to not kick in. Lol
I'm in a two floor condo. The system is heat-only boiler and the thermostat is on the first floor. The whole condo is one zone. If I interpret the video correctly, can I configure the system to run only off the remote sensor? I'll put it on the second floor. The temperature difference between floors is 4 degrees which can make it really hot for sleeping unless the downstairs is set to 66 .
Weekdays for the Office sensor would be a no-brainer...
I am looking for recommendations for temperature sensors that will work with Home Assistant. I have a large box fan that sits by my patio door during the summer, when the outside temperature drops below the inside temperature then I turn the fan on and it pulls the night air in. Then in the morning I turn the fan off. The fan is connected to a TPLink power bar that is in Home Assistant. So with a couple of temperature sensors I could write a script in Home Assistant that turns the fan on and off.
Ecobee always had it and I love it. I wish Ecobee would sell one sensor instead of a pack of two.
Can i use it without thermostat?
2:03 This video is >3 years old ... is this still how it is? You can't program a schedule for when you want the temperature sensor to be the main sensor?
My YT studio gets pretty cold but I just use a space heater. No sense in heating up the rest of the house more.
Hey, any chance we could get an updated version of this video, please? I'm after some temperature sensors that work well with home assistant and the Nest temperature sensors never got released for the European Market. Thanks
I want to be able to monitor the temperature in my garage but not control the house HVAC (I do have a Google Nest thermostat for the house). My use case is to be able to ask my Google Home "What is the temperature in the garage?" Can this device do that?
I think for 33 dollars or even a 100 bucks for a 3 pack, it's too expensive for what it does...
Great video, where did you get that LED cloud light in the background ??
I think it's actually a Switchbot hub plus www.switch-bot.com/
Has the functionality improved in 3 years?
Can you tell me if you know how to reset the 4 digit pin on nest thermostats if you forget the pinto originally set? Thanks for all your other videos on smart devices as well.
I'm nor sure I understand how this works ... Say we are trying to air condition the upstairs sleeping rooms and your upstairs thermostat is in the master bedroom, and let's say you want the sleeping temperature to be 72*, and let's say you have a kids bedroom and they want the temperature to be 68* If I use a sensor in the kids room to bring the temperature to 68* isn't it going to also drop the temperature in the master bedroom? I just don't see how this can work without adjusting the air dampers.
There are also other responsibilities in getting to regulate the system. Like vents, windows insulate properly, some closet aren't insulated so leaving a closet door open in a room doesn't help. If your not getting enough heat to one room then check the vents for blockage or adjust them where you can direct more heat or air to the coldest room in the house. There's always something that can be done to help.
Hey do you know anything about the products that are out there that would work with nest to block the airflow to a certain room, or for example, block the airflow to all of the bedrooms when we are in the living room? I know there is something like this out there, but I would like to see a review and make sure I know how it integrates with nest / Google home. Thanks for your help.
Do they work with Gen4 thermostate?
Can you use Nest Temperature Sensors strictly as a means to monitor the temperature in other locations in a home without activating the main Nest Thermostat. I have tried but the sensor activates the main thermostat.
So does this work with every hvac
I have the nest learning thermostat and I love it. The only problem is I feel that the ac runs more than normal. I live in Arizona and it’s summertime so yes it’s hot, but four of the five rooms in our house feel extremely cool, bjt the unit continues to run. Do you think this sensor would be beneficial to put in one of the cooler rooms, so that the unit stops running?
Yes, that's a great example of how you could use the sensor to have your air run less!
I need to control the heat shunting associated with the sensor. Only sensor is not convenient enough.
with forced air, in order for this to work don't you need to install gates or whatever into your ducts, so the system can close off rooms and open other rooms to heating/cooling?
Need an answer to this
This is not available in my location, is there an alternative that's compatible with nest thermostat?
hay buddy, do you need 4 wires , at the nest thermostat to connect the remote wireless sensors ?
Reid, has there been any movement in this space? I have a nest learning therm and half the house is freezing while the other half of fine. Issue is my 1yr sleeps in the freezing part and keeps waking up. May buy the mini heater you mentioned but wondering if any other options are available since you uploaded this vid. Thx
Hey, cool video! Where can I get that cloud lamp? Any links would be appreciated
Thanks! It's a hub for the SwitchBot. Here is a link. www.switch-bot.com
I have a 2nd gen on one floor and NestE on the other. I know I can use the nest sensor for the NestE, but what can I use with the 2nd gen?
Yep
I have question in two story house will it work on normal furnace i mean i have confusion furnace or duct will blow air equally its not two way furnace so how it works in normal furnace or duct
Four years ago and they've made no progress. It should have an option to average all sensors, figure out sensor use by occupancy, turn on the HVAC fan to equalize when there's too much temperature differential, and it should definitely let you see the temperature at each sensor.
Then the learning part, it should know how long it takes temperature to make it from one sensor to the next with and without the blower so it can run the blower for a bit before and after turning on the heat/AC. And then it could give you a report about which rooms are the least efficient and how your house differs from the average home, average home for the area, and well insulated homes. It could then use that info to detect if a window was open and could optionally turn off the system if it detected an open window.
Nest is "smart," but it's really freaking stupid.
I have a nest thermostat upstairs and downstairs at my townhome. I have the downstairs to heat up to 70 and the upstairs to cool to 68 (which it’s the temp I prefer to sleep) I also had selected this 68 temp upstairs to start around 9:45pm is when I would usually would go to bed, however it runs all day which it’s weird and annoying, I don’t want to blow up my electric bill by having both temps fighting.
I’ve noticed that it works better for me to go on ECO mode during the day for the upstairs and have the temp at 70 during the day downstairs and then switch at night, eco downstairs and 68 cool upstairs. Is there a way to teach the thermostat to do this?
Most two floor homes have TWO A/C units and also have the separate thermostat controls... so I don’t understand why you would have a nest sensor upstairs managing or overriding a first floor thermostat.........
You are probably right about most two-story homes having a thermostat on each floor. Our last house was two story and only had one thermostat upstairs. I agree that if you had a thermostat on each floor then a temp sensor overriding the other floor wouldn't make sense. Only if you had one thermostat like ours controlling two floors.
i dont know what zip code you are from but this is definitely not true anywhere around here... greater Dayton/Cincinnati area...
Tech2188, Florida... I know.. most things in Florida aren’t at all like the rest of the US. But it makes no sense to have a thermostat not be in the floor it puts out into. If the thermostat is upstairs, the lower floor would always be cooler than the reading the thermostat (being upstairs) would read. So it is pointless to have a thermostat with actual degrees on it since they would not represent the entire house’s actual temps. Most homes here in FL have a smaller Central A/C unit for upstairs and a larger (in tonnage) one for the downstairs. This also permits throttled nights downstairs when nobody is there and having the upstairs bedrooms be dialed in for optimum night comfort without wasting energy on the first floor.
Tech2188 apparently he lives in baller-ville where every house comes with a split HVAC system. This is highly uncommon and expensive where I live in Canada. These individual room thermostats having the ability to control your furnace seems like a bad idea to achieve the effectS of a split system.
@@egibson2266, here in Arizona you won't any homes built after the 80's that don't have dual systems for multi level homes. Heck, some larger homes have 3.
As far as this would go in your 2 story home, let's say you spend the days downstairs in the family room, sleep upstairs, and your thermostat is downstairs in a hallway.
You have a sensor in the family room and that is the temperature control for the day so it is nice where you are at. At night when the family is upstairs that temp sensor takes over so the upstairs isn't boiling just to get your hallway thermostat to the temp, let it be cooler if nobody is down there.
The point of this isn't to have 3 sensors all jostling for control, bit to have a sensor where you actually are versus where your thermostat is located.
I use it to keep my sun facing room cool as it warms in the sun, but my hallway thermostat across the house stays low as it is not getting that sun. I have the schedule set to reasonable temps where maybe the hall is 2 degrees cooler than it used to be but the room is better. Or in the day, the room can get warmer so that the system isn't running too often. It just helps balance comfort a bit better .
I’m so lost on how this works and what it does
Will the Nest Gen 3 Thermostat with Room sensor work to replace existing two wire thermostats?
Bro... Google: nest thermostat compatibility and they have a great compatibility checker
I just installed an underfloor electrical heating. I have 7 zones in the house that I can control separately. Can I use a sensor to act like a thermostat ? I’m thinking of placing a Nest Thermostat and 6 sensors. Can Nest Thermostat manage a sensors like an idependent thermostat ?
Hi Ciprian, The Nest Thermostat has wiring connected to a heating device like a furnace or heat relay or AC unit. So that is the control the remote sensor has no wiring so it can't control anything except the main thermostat. so the short answer is no.
Wish it would average the temperature between thermostat and one or more sensors. Common Nest. Ugh.
4:32 IFTTT???? Is that what you meant to say?
how to i set an alert pop up whenever someone changes the setting? for example i have it set at 70 but I noticed its at 75.. can the app alert me anytime the temperature is adjusted?
Google ITTT.
So would you recommend adding a temp sensor in a 2nd story house vs buying a Nest thermostat unit? ($40 vs 200)
Currently, I have a Nest thermostat in the bottom floor and a normal thermostat in the top floor. - but only have one unit outside.
Each thermostat cools/heats a level. - Not sure if this will work for mine. - Thoughts?
If each thermostat controls a level you probably need a second Nest thermostat. Some houses only have one thermostat that controls both up and down stairs which a Nest temp sensor would be ideal for.
Hey do you know anything about the products that are out there that would work with nest to block the airflow to a specific room? Or for example, if you are in the livingroom, you could stop the airflow to all of the bedrooms? I know that this exists, but I was confused when I looked it up and wasn't sure how it works. I would like to see a review and see how well it integrates with nest or google home. Thanks for your help!
The only way I have seen this done is with a multi-zone HVAC that has control of doors/dampers to direct airflow to multiple zones. I've been told the Nest can do this, but honestly I would suggest calling a Nest Pro.
Sounds like you might need HVAC guys to install some dampers, wiring, and controls. similar to these. www.amazon.com/s?k=zone+damper&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjOrtBRCcARIsAEq4rW7kMvNtMgE6wSLImTTSjC_zWJovncrUrd1b37_SYLfE6EYW_zQlc-MaAma5EALw_wcB&hvadid=177809075176&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9002139&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t3&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7367347096177357706&hvtargid=aud-646675773986%3Akwd-617714552&hydadcr=7987_9886452&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_44yg7c4zeu_e
@@edwardmerry you also need a zone control board that can support each of your dampers.
5 years later, still no "software update" from Google
Stopped watching after “works with nest 3rd gen”.
I got 2nd gen. Sad...
Haha scrub
Super lame they don’t have motion sensor built in. Part of the reason to get one of these is to wake the system up when you are In the room of choice. Nest failed here. I’m disappointed I got this without checking for this basic feature. (Echobee had it years ago)
Hey can you pair nest to smartthings
You used to be able to. Nest has updated their API and you can't anymore. That may change in the future though.
Well that was confusing!
Bought 6 of these and i feel there not accurate with the actual room temperature and i hate the fact i accidentally hit the wrong room now im cooling the house based off that one room that i didn't realize i clicked
Who the fuck wakes up at 7am during the weekday??? I wake up at 5am...so I need to program the sensor to work from 9pm-7am? There goes the "energy savings." How stupid
Motion sensors are worthless for me because my two Labradors would just keep setting it off.
So the ecobee is way better... Nest simply is not practical. How do you not have motion detected sensors by now?
I think it is a great idea but not available in the UK... where is the love
Only US and Canada NEST can work with this, this is crazy and stupid, like people in the rest of the world do not own big houses... :/
Too complicated. I just walk over and set my thermostat a little higher or lower depending on what I want. The exercise (walking 10 feet) doesn't hurt me. Besides, who needs a thermostat smarter than their kids?
That's just feature but the Google nest better than the ecobee
Man! I bought this but have the second gen. I wish there was a disclaimer on the product! 😡
taquetta mitchell there is . It’s on the back of the box lol
Greg Wilczynski ha ha! Yeah! I found it after and Im actually able to use it because I have the Nest E.
Random question, but what is that cloud lamp you have? :)
Yes I would like to know this too please...
It's actually a hub for the SwitchBot. I did a review of it a while back if you want to check it out.
Question: my Nest always shows wrong temp (it's 5F off the actual ambient temperature and for whatever reason there is no adjustment via software). If I buy this sensor, place it somewhere else in the same room, have Nest thermostat always follow that sensor, will the ambient temperature reading on Nest itself show the sensor ambient temperature or the thermostats?
I want to walk to thermostat and see current temp, it's kind of annoying that you always have to deduct 5F from it
@Ilya Elis yes you could do that. When you select the temperature on the sensor the temperature displayed on the Nest thermostat is from the sensor so it would show correctly. That would be annoying to always have to remove 5 deg.
@@SmartHomeSolver Thanks
Same, I theorized that since my thermostat was placed on a wall with ductworks buried behind 🙄 the wall is a different temperature than ambient. I want to get the sensor and place it in the middle of the room.
Hello I have a question my room temperature shows 90 degrees but that’s not accurate so now my heater won’t turn on. Can you help please
Since my Nest is not reading correctly, I just drink ice water if it’s too hot in the room. If it’s too cold, then I build a fire and wear a coat.
Don’t like it so far it was much cooler with The one the regular stuff
Thanks. I almost bought this crap
To me it sounds like a useless product