I just bought a thing

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
07/05/2019 at 12:08 • Filed to: None

Current model (3rd generation), brand new, for less than $90 with a free Google Home Mini . My power company is offering a $50 instant rebate and another $50 instant rebate if you sign up to let them control your power usage during peak times. Since I’ve mostly been working afternoon and evenings, I doubt that their control will have much effect on cooling in my home. I figure that I’ll set the temp into the low 80s (during the summer) when I’m at work and then cool things off remotely as I leave the office. I do a similar thing with the lighting, so why not with the HVAC as well?

DISCUSSION (19)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:16

Nice! I have 2 nest thermostats (dual zone heating), 2 nest protects and a nest cam. great ecosystem

facw > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:22

Once you get it trained, it shouldn’t even need to be set remotely, it should just know that you typically come home around a certain time and get started cooling things down on its own to be ready for that.

Arrivederci > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:24

Had a similar offer from my utility a year or so ago, so we’ve had them installed upstairs and down since. The “learning” seems a little wonky - best feature to me is basically just being able to access them from my phone. Works great for when you’re on vacation or if you have a traditional work schedule.

Arrivederci > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
07/05/2019 at 12:24

We have the thermostats and the Nest Hello. Do you like the Protect? I was thinking about getting those to replace our existing Fire/CO monitors.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Arrivederci
07/05/2019 at 12:27

I do like the protects, I love the nightlight feature. Countless stubbed toes or times being blinded when turning on the normal lights avoided while walking about at night.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:38

And this is how A.I. will take over the world...

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:47

we have had the nest for a few years now along with a nest cam and we love them. i want the nest video doorbell too

Just Jeepin' > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 12:49

I’d feel a lot better about Nest were Google not involved.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 13:20

These are well worth it even without a power company discount. I bought he 2nd gen back when it came out and it paid for itself within a year or two. The other features were a bonus and the ease of use is ridiculous - so much nicer to set thermostat with an app than messing with a typical unit on the wall. I’m back to a basic wall unit now that I don’t have AC. I miss the best to the point I’ve thought about getting one for just heat in the winter but my air handler is so old it would need major mods or replaced to work with a smart thermostat and that doesn’t quite seem worth it.

duurtlang > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 13:28

I work for a competitor to nest. It’s quite amazing what these thermostats can do nowadays. It notes when you come home or leave. When you open a window. It can start heating when the bathroom or a bedroom is too cold (and warm just that room). It can tell you when your boiler is having problems. It supports a wide array of digital boiler interfaces (Nest just 1 iirc). You can set them from everywhere in the world. Works with Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT and Apple Homekit (although the latter one is a troublesome POS ). And on and on. We have devices for ACs too, as long as they have an infra red remote that isn’t too ancient.

Our devices aren’t sold in the US though. We (officially) don’t even support Fahrenheit.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
07/05/2019 at 13:50

I’ve always wanted one, or at least some sort of networked thermostat, for some time now, but could never justify the cost. I love the feel and ease of use; it reminds me of the 1st generation iPod, which shouldn’t be surprising considering that they were both designed by the same guy.

Programming thermostats has always been a pain, especially since my schedule changes every month, but this should be easier. If nothing else, just the ability to control it using my phone will be a big help; due to chemo I often times have a hard time walking, and being able to change settings without getting out of bed will be fantastic.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
07/05/2019 at 14:00

A.I. and our feline overlords:

Kinja'd!!!

We know who really runs this planet...

Kiltedpadre > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 14:18

I got a good price on an Ecobee through our power company. The electric company was selling them at a discount, and the gas company offered a rebate that could be used as well.

It’s great to be able to adjust it when I get off work early so it’s comfortable when I get home.

Kinja'd!!!

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 14:59

Okay, Skynet and privacy ramifications aside, I was on a trip and my wife texted me that my Nest Thermostat was not enabling a/c properly . So I logged into it via the app and fiddled with it for a while, resolving the problem.

I much preferred doing that over trying to walk my wife through each individual troubleshooting step.

So score one for convenience, at least. I don’t use the eco or learning or scheduling functions. The most complex thing I do with it is having it remind me that the air filter is due for a change.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 16:31

Kinja'd!!!

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/05/2019 at 18:16

We bought ours on some minor Christmas sale a couple years ago and it paid for itself in a few months in just energy savings (I kick myself for waiting a couple weeks to install it) , which was kind of ridiculous. The dumb thermostat was just pissing money away...

I like mine a lot, aside from a handful of weird things I wish were different. Like I wish I could set the thermostat to a quasi-off state where the ventilation fan still runs on schedule, but it doesn’t run heat or cool (the only way to do this is to set it to heat/cool and either set the temperature super high when in cool mode or super low when in heat mode) when we have windows open. There should be like a “temperate” or “windows open” mode. I also wish it would detect that state and turn the heating/cooling off if it detects that the temperature isn’t changing as it should be to protect against either wasting energy due to open windows or wasting energy due to equipment that isn’t functioning properly... It should alert you and let you reset it once the problem is resolved.

Aside from that wish, it’s really nice to have.

Not sure whether giving control to the local power company is a good idea, though. I once worked at a company that decided to allow SDG&E to turn it down/off and we ended up all leaving for the day because it became unbearably hot in the office one hot day when they flipped us off . An HVAC person came out a couple days later to fix it and found nothing wrong, then about a week later they figured out what they did and canceled it... One day you’ll be home sick , it’ll be hot/cold, and it’ll become unbearable in your house, then you’ll regret that choice. Overrides are necessary.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/06/2019 at 11:42

Depending on how large your home is, and if you have areas that tend to be vary in temp, I’d recommend a couple of the remote temp sensors. Fairly cheap and extremely useful.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
07/06/2019 at 13:23

It’s only 1200 sq ft on two levels. I tend to spend most of my time in the downstairs bedroom, my home office, and in that room I have a space heater and window air conditioner and thus I rarely feel the need to cool or heat the whole house. If nothing else, I want a smart thermostat so I can change settings remotely, be that from the office or the upstairs bedroom.

Arrivederci > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
07/08/2019 at 07:51

I thought that might be reason alone to get them, lol. Expensive nightlights though (discounting all the other safety features of course).