12 Things You Need to Know About Your Nest Thermostat

A Nest Thermostat is a great investment for keeping your home comfortable, no matter what the season or weather. With a range of features and programs designed for maximum efficiency, convenience and comfort, a Nest Thermostat is an easy way to manage your energy use — saving you money in the process.

That’s why more homeowners are considering adding devices like a Nest into their home. If you're interested in trying a Nest yourself, get in touch with an expert for smart thermostat installation in Norco and St. Charles Parish.

With everything from automatic scheduling to optimizing energy efficiency, Nest makes securing your sense of comfort effortless.

Ready to learn more? Take a look at 12 things you should know about your Nest Thermostat.

1. Resetting Your Nest Thermostat

The first thing 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 means a quick off / on cycle. This preserves current settings and should be attempted if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
• Reset: Conversely, resetting eliminates most if not all of your preferred settings. For the most part, homeowners will perform a reset when they’re moving to a new home and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they just want to erase their personal information from the Nest before leaving it for the next homeowner.

To 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 can choose from 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 reset clears any info about your temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you've connected it to your Nest. With this option, you’ll have to input a new schedule or wait while your Nest learns your schedule.
• Away: This kind of reset gets rid of any programming your Nest has picked up about how often you walk by, so that it can change the temperature accordingly.
• Network: With a network reset, it forgets connection logins and your Nest can no longer connect to Wi-Fi. It also forgets your Wi-Fi password.
• All Settings: The most far-reaching option, using the All Settings reset option removes all your personal settings and learning.

2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi

A stable internet connection is important to getting the most out of your Nest.

To connect your Nest to the internet:

• Open the Quick View menu by turning the thermostat ring.
• Select the Settings icon.
• Select Network.
• Once your Nest scans available networks, find your Wi-Fi and, if you have one, put in 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 each one also features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup in case of a power outage. According to Google, the maker of Nest, a Nest Thermostat battery should last several months. Recharge it with the USB cord that comes included.

4. How to Turn Off a Nest Thermostat

If you plan on being away for a couple weeks, it's a good idea to set your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode is another solid choice. Off mode shuts down all 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 find 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 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, Amazon's Alexa is compatible with a Nest Thermostat. Alexa can also be integrated with with Nest doorbells and cameras. And of course, you can use Google Assistant to control your Nest.

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

Yes, your Nest Thermostat can still control temperatures even without Wi-Fi. At the same time, being disconnected from Wi-FI means the Nest doesn’t have the ability to use the smart functions 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.

Nest has a locking feature that allows a user 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 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 then enter it twice.
• If locking 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. After you've entered the 4-digit pin, your device will be unlocked.

8. How to Control a Nest Thermostat from a Phone

A Nest Thermostat is controlled by the Google Home app, accessible through 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, you need to follow a few steps:

• Download the Google Home app or, if you have an advanced model, the Nest app to your phone.
• Plug in your Nest Thermostat.
• Start 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, for those needing extra 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 preset temperatures on your Nest can also be changed from the app. From the home screen, find your Thermostat before selecting Settings. At this screen, press Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. Current presets for Comfort, Eco and Sleep modes will be displayed. Choose the appropriate setting to 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, are also controllable with the Nest app.

The two easiest ways to schedule your Nest are:

• Quick Schedule: Quick Schedules are based on the national average schedule for energy efficiency. As you set the thermostat up, the Google Home app enables you to set the temperature with a schedule. When choosing this option, it presents 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 select Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and choose Edit. After the changes are complete, select Done.

If you already have a schedule and want to change it, open the Google Home app, select Thermostat and then tap on Schedules. Choose the day of the week where you want to make changes. Once you pick the day, 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. Setting a Temperature Range on a Nest Thermostat

Your Nest's Eco mode is great for setting temperature ranges. 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 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. 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, features a compatibility checking tool that shares questions concerning your location and current setup to determine which Nest model works with your system.

If you don't think your Nest is compatible with your system, you should get in touch with local pros for smart thermostat installation in Norco and St. Charles Parish. Experienced technicians evaluate your system and, if your Nest is compatible, install it quick so you can jump right into the savings and convenience.

12. Can I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?

Nest Thermostats are loaded with innovative 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.

Remember, 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 allow 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, 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: 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.