12 Things to Learn About Nest Thermostats

A Nest Thermostat is a great investment for keeping your home comfortable, no matter what the season or weather. With features designed around maximizing efficiency, convenience and comfort, a Nest Thermostat is an excellent choice to help you manage your energy use — keeping costs down in the process.

That’s why more homeowners are considering adding devices like a Nest to their homes. If you're interested in trying a Nest yourself, call your nearest expert for smart thermostat installation in Marshalltown.

From automated scheduling to energy efficiency monitoring, Nest helps make securing your sense of comfort effortless.

Want all the details? Here’s a look at 12 things you need to know about your Nest Thermostat.

1. How to Reset a Nest Thermostat

One of the first things to know about resetting a Google Nest Thermostat is that there's a difference between a restart and a reset.

• Restart: This process is similar across most electronics, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat turns it off before starting it right back up again. This preserves current settings and should be attempted if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
• Reset: A reset erases some or all of your settings. People normally only use a reset when they’re moving to a new home and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they just want to erase any personal details from the Nest before leaving it for the next homeowner.

To initiate a reset, first write down your temperature settings so reapplying them is faster. Next, locate Settings -> Equipment and record your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.

Once you have recorded your preferences, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You will be presented with five options:

• Restart: Shuts your Nest down before rebooting it with your settings. Another method is to press the outside of the Nest and hold it down for a few seconds until it goes black, at which point you can remove your hand.
• Schedule: This type of reset clears your entire temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you have that programmed into your Nest. By choosing this kind of reset, you’ll need to create a new schedule or wait while your Nest learns your schedule.
• Away: This kind of reset erases all the information your Nest has learned about how often you walk by, so that it can update the temperature on its own.
• Network: If you select this reset option, it erases connection info and your Nest can no longer connect to Wi-Fi. It also forgets your Wi-Fi password.
• All Settings: This reset removes all your personal settings and learning.

2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi

Connecting to Wi-Fi is important for making the most of your Nest's features.

To connect your Nest to the internet:

• Access the Quick View menu. This is done by turning the thermostat's outer ring.
• Locate the Settings icon.
• Choose Network.
• As your Nest scans available networks, find your Wi-Fi and, if necessary, put in your password.

3. Does a Nest Thermostat Use a Battery and How Long Does It Last?

Nest thermostats receive power from your HVAC system, but each one also features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup in situations where the power cuts out. According to Google, Nest's manufacturer, a Nest Thermostat battery will generally last several months. It can be recharged using a USB charger that comes with the Nest.

4. Shutting Off a Nest Thermostat

If you aren’t going to be in your home for a long time, you can set your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode would be another option. Using Off mode will turn off all of your regular heating and cooling schedules, but it will still adhere to any current Safety Temperatures to keep your home from getting particularly hot or cold.

To choose Off mode on the thermostat:

• Hold the touch bar until the display reads “Turn Off” and then slide the bar to highlight Turn Off, and then touch the bar to select.
• You can also go to Mode from the main menu and select Off.

Off mode is available on the Google Home app as well:

• Select Thermostat from home screen
• Tap Temperature mode
• Select Off

5. Can Alexa Control a Nest Thermostat?

Yes, your Amazon Alexa can be used to control a Nest Thermostat. This voice control function is also available with Nest doorbells and cameras. Google's own voice control technology, like Google Assistant, can be used to operate your Nest.

6. Does a Nest Thermostat Function Without Wi-Fi?

In short, yes. Your Nest Thermostat can still control temperatures even without Wi-Fi. However, without Wi-Fi a Nest doesn’t have access to all the key features that most people enjoy.

7. Are You Able to Lock a Nest Thermostat?

If you’re having a battle over the thermostat in your home between people who like things hot and others who prefer them cold, Nest has a function to give you the upper hand.

Users can lock the Nest to stop any temperature adjustments outside of a preset range. This doesn't mean you're stuck with a single temperature—a locked Nest will still continue to run the programmed settings—but simply prevents other users from constantly changing the settings.

If you want to lock your Nest:

• Press the Settings icon, scroll to the bottom and find Lock.
• Enter a 4-digit pin number you can remember, and do so twice.
• If locking in Heat or Cool mode, fine-tune your maximum and minimum temperature range and then tap Lock at the bottom of the screen.

To unlock a Nest, open the settings and choose Unlock. Once you enter your 4-digit pin, the Nest will be unlocked.

8. Controlling Your Nest Thermostat from Your Phone

A Nest Thermostat is controlled by the Google Home app, which can be accessed from your phone or other smart device, including a computer. Other versions of Nest, including the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, are also controllable through the Nest app.

Before you can make adjustments for a Nest on your phone with Google Home or the Nest app, you need to follow a few steps:

• Download the Google Home app or, with premium Nest models, the Nest app to your phone.
• Connect your Nest Thermostat.
• Start the Google Home app on your phone and select the account, link to your new device and connect to Wi-Fi.
• There is a guided setup tool on Google, if you would like more assistance in connecting.

After you've added the Nest to your Home app, it's accessible by clicking Thermostat on the home screen. Once you do that, making adjustments is done by dragging your finger along the screen or tapping on a plus or minus sign.

The app also allows you to change the Nest's preset temperatures. From the home screen, choose Thermostat before selecting Settings. Once there, select Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. Current presets for Comfort, Eco and Sleep modes will be displayed. By selecting one of those three options, you can change the temperature for that preset.

9. How to Set a Nest Thermostat Schedule

Your Nest allows you to schedule temperature programming either on the device or on the Google Home app. Newer and advanced models of the Nest, such as the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, also can be controlled via the Nest app.

There are two ways you can set up a schedule on your Nest:

• Quick Schedule: Quick Schedules are based on the national average schedule for energy efficiency. As you complete your Nest's setup process, the Google Home app allows you to change the temperature with a schedule. If you select this feature, it presents a preset schedule and allows you to make changes. After you've made all your choices, that’s the schedule it will use.
• Temperature Presets: For changing the Nest's preset temperatures, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and select Edit. After the changes are complete, select Done.

To make tweaks or changes to your current schedule, open the Google Home app, select Thermostat and then tap on Schedules. Choose the day of the week where you want to make changes. After the day is selected, tap Add and find the preset you want. Finally, select Time before touching and dragging the numbers to change the time. Select Done to save changes.

10. How to Set a Temperature Range on a Nest Thermostat

You can set a temperature range on a Nest Thermostat in the Eco mode. A key part of this feature is the Nest's ability to adjust the temperature based on whether it detects you at home or not.

To customize the Nest temperature range in Eco mode, go to Settings and select Eco. That should display the current “Heat to” and “Cool to” temperature settings. You can select each and adjust them to your desired temperature. When complete, select Done.

11. What Should I Do If My Nest Thermostat Isn't Compatible?

Nest thermostats are compatible with most heating and cooling systems. Google, Nest's manufacturer, has an online compatibility checker that presents a few questions related to your location and current setup to determine which Nest model would be compatible with your system.

If you have a Nest and believe it’s not compatible with your system, consider reaching out to professionals for smart thermostat installation in Marshalltown. An experienced technician will be able to evaluate your system and, if your Nest is compatible, get it installed and on the road to saving you money in no time.

12. How Do I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?

Nest Thermostats come with many features designed to improve comfort while keeping costs low. However, you have the ability to turn off the smart features if you want to control a Nest manually like a normal thermostat.

Don't forget, by doing this you are turning off all of your temperature schedules and your Nest will work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and allow you to make changes, but that’s about it.

Setting your thermostat to manual controls can be accomplished with the following steps:

• Auto-Schedule: From the main screen, go to Settings and then scroll to Nest Sense. Go to Auto-Schedule, select No and click Done.
• Eco: From the main screen, go to Settings, scroll to Eco. Once in Eco, select Off for both the current Heat to and Cool to temperatures, and select Done.
• Home/Away Assist: From the main screen, go to Settings and select Home/Away Assist. Then, select Stop Using and click Done.
• Reset: Once you’ve turned off the settings, reset your nest. From the main screen, go to Settings and select Reset, highlight Schedule and then select Reset to clear out any saved scheduling data.