Home automation is a large playing field. You can start out with one smart switch. Maybe you purchased it because of some nostalgia for the clapper of the 80’s. Then you buy some lights because the switch was cool. Then you get an Amazon Echo and other devices.
Now you have a little bit of a dilemma. You are controlling 12 devices with 10 different applications and trying to make the best of it. This is a common theme as you start to purchase different smart home products. Often times you can purchase a smart hub, like the Wink smart hub or Samsung Smart Things. These product are specifically designed to be the smart hub of your home and bring all of your products together.
Now enter Works with Nest. This program has been put in place by Nest to help its customer purchase products that are compatible with the Nest cloud. Allowing you to connect the products together using the Nest intelligence.
This would allow you to have the Nest Learning Thermostat turn off your lights when your not home. You could also integrate other Nest devices into your home solutions. Allowing Nest Protect to use your lights as a warning beacon.
I am getting a little side tracked. Lets get back to the review at hand. The Nest Learning Thermostat. What does this have to do with it?
Nest has put in place a logo program. This means that if you see the logo on the product, you can rest assured you can connect it to your Nest account. Once connected you can have interactions between the products.
Nest has a wide range of products that have the Works with Nest logo. Wemo switches, SkyBell, Yale Linus Lock, Sleep number smart beds, Wink, and Smart things, just to name a few. With each device you can expect a different level of interaction. Just because it bares the logo, doesn’t mean you have complete control .
If you would like to see how the Nest Learning Thermostat works with the Wink Smart
Hub, click on the link to check out the review on the Wink hub. The Nest Learning Thermostat and the Wink hub were a good match.
I was able to connect my Nest account to my Wink hub. Which then gave me full control over the Nest using my Wink app.
Then once connected, I was able to configure emails to notify me when someone comes home. When the Nest Learning Thermostat detects someone home it will trigger the Wink hub to send me an email.
Having the Nest Learning Thermostat as part of a larger system allows you to use it as a trigger for events and notifications.
Perhaps you want to close the curtains if the temperature gets over 85 degrees outside, or the flip side. It may get really cold and you may want to make sure the curtains are closed so you can keep the heat in.
The list of Works with Nest products reads like a who’s who in home automation. There are even wearables from misfit and Leaf.
One name that stands out in the crowd, is everyone’s favorite assistant, Alexa. The voice of the Amazon Echo. Amazon Echo is a bluetooth speaker and voice activated assistant in one.
We had the pleasure here at SHA to review the Amazon Echo if you would like to learn more. As this review is about the Nest Learning Thermostat.
Amazon Echo brings the ability to control devices with your voice. We have all been watching a movie or reading a book and you feel a chill come over you.
You could reach for a blanket. You could get up and walk over to the thermostat and turn the heat up.
If you have a Nest Learning Thermostat you can connect it to your Amazon Echo. Then Alexa can do it. Hurray! for Automation!
As the Amazon Echo is part of the Works with Nest program, setup was easy. The first step is to make sure you have your Nest Learning Thermostat setup and working correctly.
If you can control your Nest Thermostat with the Nest app, you are ready to connect.
You also should make sure your Amazon Echo is working correctly as well. Once you have both devices working, connecting them is easy.
Open the Alexa app. Go into the skills section. With a quick search you will find the Nest Skill.
Once I installed the Nest skill for Alexa. I was asked to login with my Nest account. Once I put my credentials in, the connection was made and I was greeted with the success screen.
On the success screen was an important step. I was familiar with it, as using Alexa with the Wink hub was similar. You have to ask Alexa to search for devices.
She will respond and mention having the devices ready and on. Alexa will tell you it may take up to 20 seconds. Then Alexa will finish and tell you how many devices she found. For me, Alexa found 8 devices this time.
Once that step was completed, the Nest Learning Thermostat was available for voice control.
I immediately started issuing commands to see how it work. It worked great. The Nest Learning Thermostat would respond with in a second or two of issuing the command.
Some of the commands I tried were:
- Alexa set the dinning room to 70 degrees
- Alexa raise the dinning room by 10 degrees
- Alexa set the dinning room to 80 degrees
- Alexa cool down the dinning room by 10 degrees.
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The commands were simple and worked. I tried and asked them several different ways. Alexa did a good job of sifting through the words and getting the command done. I checked around the Nest website to see if there was any additional functionality. It didn’t seem like it. There was a note about Nest developers creating new Alexa skills to add more functionality, but I didn’t see them in the app. There was a generic thermostat skill, but I opted to not try it on this round, since it wasn’t created by Nest. All in all it was simple to connect the two. That should be what we expect from a program like Works with Nest. They should take all the guess work out of it and provide products that are meant to function together as a system when they are connected.
Now in this review, we have gone through how easy and well documented the installation of the Nest Learning Thermostat is. I went through the apps and website. We looked at the specialty features that Nest has put in its product to help keep money in your wallet. On the next page I am going to sum it all up for you and we can look at the features and functionality that qualify the Nest Learning Thermostat for such a nice award from SHA. Keep reading, don’t miss out.
