A Nest Thermostat is a great investment for keeping your home comfortable, no matter what the season or weather. With a number of innovative features meant to maximize 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 people are looking to add devices like a Nest to their homes. If you're interested in trying a Nest yourself, get in touch with an expert for smart thermostat installation in Front Royal.
With everything from automatic scheduling to monitoring your home’s energy efficiency, Nest helps make securing your sense of comfort effortless.
Want all the details? Here’s a look at 12 things you should know about your Nest Thermostat.
1. Resetting Your Nest Thermostat
A key piece of information to know about resetting a Google Nest Thermostat is that there's a difference between a restart and a reset.
- Restart: Similar to restarting any electronic device, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat means a quick off / on cycle. This records your existing thermostat settings, ad can reapply them once you're done confirming if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
- Reset: A more drastic function, a reset should restore your Nest to its original settings from the manufacturer. People normally only use a reset as they're moving homes and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they just want to erase all personal info from the Nest before leaving it for the next homeowner.
If you want to perform a reset, it doesn't hurt to write down current temperature settings so you have them if they get erased. Next, find Settings -> Equipment and record your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.
Then, to manually restart or reset your Nest, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You can choose from five options:
- Restart: Deactivates your Nest and starts it back up while remembering your settings. Another way to restart is to press the outside of the Nest and hold it there until it goes black, and then pull your hand away.
- Schedule: This type of reset clears all scheduling information—including for your hot water, if you've connected it to 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: An Away reset removes anything your Nest has learned about how often you walk by, so it will be able to change the temperature even when you're not around.
- Network: By selecting a network reset, it will remove all your network information and your Nest is disconnected from Wi-Fi. Use this option if you want your Nest to forget your Wi-Fi password.
- All Settings: Self-explanatory, an All Settings reset removes all your personal settings and learning.
2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi
Staying connected to your Wi-Fi is important to getting the most out of your Nest.
To connect your Nest to the internet:
- Turn the thermostat ring to the Quick View menu.
- Find the Settings icon.
- Press Network.
- After your Nest is finished scanning for local networks, select your Wi-Fi and, if needed, enter your password.
3. Does a Nest Thermostat Have a Battery and How Long Does It Last?
Nest thermostats receive power from your HVAC system, but also have a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup in situations where the power cuts out. According to Google, the maker of Nest, a Nest Thermostat battery last an average of several months. The Nest's battery is rechargable with a USB cable included with the thermostat.
4. Shutting Off a Nest Thermostat
If you aren’t going to be in your home for a long time, consider setting your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode is another solid choice. The Off mode option deactivates your regular heating and cooling schedules, although the Nest will still use your Safety Temperatures to keep your home from getting particularly hot or cold.
To select Off mode on the thermostat:
- Hold the touch bar until the display reads “Turn Off” before sliding the bar to highlight Turn Off, and then touch the bar to select.
- Or, from the main menu, go to Mode 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. Is Alexa Compatible with a Nest Thermostat?
Yes, you can use Amazon Alexa to control a Nest Thermostat. This voice control function is also available with Nest doorbells and cameras. You can even operate a Nest Thermostat with Google Assistant.
6. Does a Nest Thermostat Function Without Wi-Fi?
The good news is that a 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. Can You Lock a Nest Thermostat?
When family members can't stop bickering over temperatures, Nest offers a handy feature that keeps things simple.
Users can lock the Nest to keep it from making any adjustments outside of a preset range. This doesn't mean you're stuck with a single temperature—a locked Nest continues to use existing program settings—but simply prevents people from changing the settings.
If you want to lock your Nest:
- Select the Settings icon, scroll to the bottom and tap on Lock.
- Enter a 4-digit pin number you can remember, and do so twice.
- To lock your Nest in Heat or Cool mode, define your maximum and minimum temperature range and then press Lock at the bottom of the screen.
For unlocking it, open the settings and choose Unlock. Once you enter your 4-digit pin, your device will be unlocked.
8. Controlling Your Nest Thermostat from a Phone
Nest thermostats can be controlled by your Google Home app, which can be accessed from your phone as well as a computer. Other versions of Nest, including the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, are also compatible with remote control via the Nest app.
Before you can make adjustments for a Nest on your phone with Google Home or the Nest app, there are a few steps to complete first:
- Download the Google Home app or, with premium Nest models, the Nest app to your phone.
- Hook up your Nest Thermostat.
- Open the Google Home app on your phone and complete the setup process, link to your new device and connect to Wi-Fi.
- There is a guided setup tool on Google, if you prefer additional assistance in connecting.
Once you’ve added your Nest to your Home app, you can access it 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 preset temperatures on your Nest can also be changed from the app. From the home screen, select Thermostat and then select Settings. At this screen, select Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. This will display your preset Comfort, Eco and Sleep temperatures. Select one of these options to change the temperature for that preset.
9. Setting a Nest Thermostat Schedule
You can set a temperature schedule on a Nest Thermostat either on the device or on the Google Home app. More advanced versions of the Nest, such as the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, can also be adjusted by using the Nest app.
There are two ways you can set up a schedule on your Nest:
- Quick Schedule: A Quick Schedule will be based on the national average schedule for more energy-efficient use. When you are setting up your Nest, the Google Home app allows you to change the temperature with a schedule. If you select this feature, it displays a preset schedule for you to customize as you wish. After you've made all your choices, that’s the schedule it uses.
- Temperature Presets: For changing the Nest's preset temperatures, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and choose 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 select 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
Your Nest's Eco mode is great for setting temperature ranges. Your Nest will adjust the temperature depending on if you're at home or away.
To access Eco mode for customized temperature ranges, 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 to Do if a Nest Thermostat Is Not Compatible
A Nest Thermostat is compatible with most heating and cooling systems. Google, Nest's manufacturer, has an online compatibility checker that asks a series of questions about your location and current setup to learn 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 Front Royal. 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. Can I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?
Nest Thermostats are packed with features designed to make life more comfortable and save money. However, there is a way to turn off the smart features if you prefer manual controls similar to normal thermostats.
Take into account, by doing this you are turning off all of your temperature schedules and allowing the Nest to work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and allow changes, but that’s about it.
You can achieve this by disabling the settings in a series of 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 Heat to and Cool to temperatures, before selecting Done.
- Home/Away Assist: From the main screen, go to Settings and select Home/Away Assist. Then, select Stop Using and click Done.
- Reset: After you've cleared 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.