12 Things You Need to Know About Your Nest Thermostat

A Nest Thermostat is an excellent tool 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 the perfect solution if you want to manage your energy use — keeping costs down in the process.

That’s why more homeowners are considering adding devices like a Nest to their HVAC system. To add one to your home, call your nearest expert for smart thermostat installation in Georgetown.

From automated scheduling to energy efficiency monitoring, Nest is designed to make home climate control effortless.

Ready to learn more? 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 the difference between a restart and a reset.

• Restart: This process is similar across most electronics, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat simply turns it off and then back on. 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 reset erases some or all of your settings. For the most part, homeowners will perform a reset as they're moving homes and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they are moving out and want to erase their personal information 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 they're still available if you forget or erase them. Next, find Settings -> Equipment and write down the details about your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.

After writing down this information, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You will be presented with five options:

• Restart: Turns your Nest off and reboots it while saving 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 reset setting clears your entire temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you've connected it to your Nest. By choosing this kind of reset, you’ll have to input a new schedule or wait until the Nest learns your schedule.
• Away: Choosing this reset option erases all the information 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: With a network reset, it forgets connection logins and your Nest will no longer be connected to Wi-Fi. It also forgets your Wi-Fi password.
• All Settings: Self-explanatory, an All Settings reset strips away all your personal settings and learning.

2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi

Connecting to Wi-Fi is important if you want the most use of its online features.

To connect your Nest to the internet:

• Turn the thermostat ring to the Quick View menu.
• Select the Settings icon.
• Choose Network.
• After your Nest scans available networks, locate your Wi-Fi and, if needed, enter your password.

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

Nest thermostats are powered indirectly through HVAC system, but each one also features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup in case of a power outage. According to Google, Nest's manufacturer, 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. How to Turn 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 also a good option. The Off mode option deactivates your regular heating and cooling schedules, but it will still adhere to any current Safety Temperatures to keep your home from getting dangerously hot or cold.

To select Off mode on the thermostat:

• Press and hold the touch bar until it displays “Turn Off” before sliding 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 can even be accessed from your Google Home app:

• 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. Alexa voice controls are also available with Nest doorbells and cameras. You can even operate a Nest Thermostat with Google Assistant.

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

The good news is that a Nest Thermostat can still control temperatures even without Wi-Fi. However, being disconnected from Wi-FI means the Nest doesn’t have the ability to use the smart functions 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 prevent others from adjusting the settings or changing the temperature outside of a preset range. This doesn't mean you're stuck with a single temperature—a locked Nest still has access to programmed settings—but simply prevents people from changing the settings.

If you want to lock your Nest:

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

When you're ready to unlock the Nest, open the settings and choose Unlock. After you've entered the 4-digit pin, the Nest will be unlocked.

8. How to Control a Nest Thermostat from Your Phone

You can control the Nest through your Google Home app, which is accessible on 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.
• Plug in your Nest Thermostat.
• Access the Google Home app on your phone and follow the instructions to select your account, link to your new device and connect to Wi-Fi.
• Google offers a more in-depth setup tool, if you prefer additional assistance in connecting.

As soon as you've connected the Nest to your Home app, you can access it by clicking Thermostat on the home screen. Once you do that, you can make changes to the temperature 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, select Thermostat and then select Settings. At this screen, press Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. Current presets for Comfort, Eco and Sleep modes will be displayed. Select one of these options to change the temperature for that preset.

9. Making a Nest Thermostat Schedule

You can set a temperature schedule on a Nest Thermostat 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, are also controllable with the Nest app.

You have two primary ways to establish a temperature schedule on a Nest Thermostat:

• 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 gives you the option to change the temperature with a schedule. If you select this feature, it displays a preset schedule before letting you customize it. After you've made all your choices, that’s the schedule it will use.
• Temperature Presets: To change the temperature presets on your Nest, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and select Edit. Once you’ve made the changes, 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. The changes won't save unless you select Done.

10. Setting a Temperature Range on a Nest Thermostat

You can set a temperature range on a Nest Thermostat in the Eco mode. Your Nest will adjust the temperature depending on if you're at home or away.

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. Once you're finished, select Done.

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

A Nest Thermostat is compatible with most HVAC systems. The maker of Nest, Google, offers a compatibility tool that presents a few questions related to your location and current setup to determine which Nest model is compatible with your system.

If you have a Nest and believe it’s not compatible with your system, it’s best to reach out to a professional for smart thermostat installation in Georgetown. Experienced technicians 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 come with many features designed to make life more comfortable and save money. However, you have the ability to turn off the smart features if you prefer to control your Nest like it's a normal thermostat.

Bear in mind, by doing this you clear all your temperature schedules and allowing the Nest to work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and let you change the temperature, 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 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: 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.