Nest - overall costs - realistically - does it work well or not?

New England temperatures.
All I want is every room in the two story home to be around the same
temperature. Usually around 62 degrees.

I have three thermostats, bedrooom hallway, dining room, and downstairs
(where the garage opens into). An iPhone and an iPad. No computers.

Oil furnace. Water radiators along the baseboards.
One person in the house most of the time (me).
I stay at home all day almost all the time (no car).

Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?

Can you give me an idea of true costs?
--
best regards,

Neil

On 1/12/2023 10:48 AM, Neil wrote:
> Nest - overall costs - realistically - does it work well or not?
>
> New England temperatures.
> All I want is every room in the two story home to be around the same
> temperature. Usually around 62 degrees.
> I have three thermostats, bedrooom hallway, dining room, and downstairs
> (where the garage opens into). An iPhone and an iPad. No computers.
>
> Oil furnace. Water radiators along the baseboards. One person in the
> house most of the time (me).
> I stay at home all day almost all the time (no car).
>
> Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?
>
> Can you give me an idea of true costs?

Any decent thermostat can do that. The advantage of Nest is you can
program changes for bed time, come home time, etc.

Getting the same temperature in each room is a matter of balance with
the baseboard radiators. If one room is much warmer, just close down
the baffle a bit.

Changing out the thermostat won't save any money. If the boiler is very
old a new more efficient one may save money long term. When I switched
it took about 7 years for full payback. The original was a 1978 model
and I put in an Energy Kinetics System 2000 and cut oil use about 38%.
At today's oil prices payback would be faster.

Neil wrote:
> Nest - overall costs - realistically - does it work well or not?
>
> New England temperatures.
> All I want is every room in the two story home to be around the same
> temperature. Usually around 62 degrees.
> I have three thermostats, bedrooom hallway, dining room, and downstairs
> (where the garage opens into). An iPhone and an iPad. No computers.
>
> Oil furnace. Water radiators along the baseboards. One person in the house most of the time (me).
> I stay at home all day almost all the time (no car).
>
> Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?
>
> Can you give me an idea of true costs?

I went with these, mainly because they display the outdoor air temp as reported by the local airport.

https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Home-Smart-Color-Thermostat/dp/B09TBGGLQB/

On Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:48:04 -0500, Neil wrote:

> Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?

https://ring.com/always-home-cam-flying-camera

As someone pointed out what a great way to get your pets to really, really
hate you.

On Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 12:16:52 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On 1/12/2023 10:48 AM, Neil wrote:
> > Nest - overall costs - realistically - does it work well or not?
> >
> > New England temperatures.
> > All I want is every room in the two story home to be around the same
> > temperature. Usually around 62 degrees.
> > I have three thermostats, bedrooom hallway, dining room, and downstairs
> > (where the garage opens into). An iPhone and an iPad. No computers.
> >
> > Oil furnace. Water radiators along the baseboards. One person in the
> > house most of the time (me).
> > I stay at home all day almost all the time (no car).
> >
> > Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?
> >
> > Can you give me an idea of true costs?
> Any decent thermostat can do that. The advantage of Nest is you can
> program changes for bed time, come home time, etc.
>

Any decent programmable thermostat will have programmable periods
and temperatures. The advantage of the
Nest is that it figures out how to do the setbacks based on a motion
sensor, manual changes that you make, etc. With a regular programmable
one you have to enter the time periods and temperatures yourself. I've
never had a Nest, I prefer to tell the thermostat what I want it to do. In the
early days, Nest had a lot of problems, complaints about the things doing
annoying things. I've
used Honeywell Vision Pro models and like them a lot. Another feature
to consider is wifi, so that you can make changes from your phone. If I
was putting in a new one, I would definitely at least consider that. It's
good if you are away, have the thermostat set back, but are coming home
early or don't know when you are coming back, etc. So, when you are an
hour away you can use your phone to tell the thermostat to resume normal
temperature.

> Getting the same temperature in each room is a matter of balance with
> the baseboard radiators. If one room is much warmer, just close down
> the baffle a bit.
>
> Changing out the thermostat won't save any money. If the boiler is very
> old a new more efficient one may save money long term. When I switched
> it took about 7 years for full payback. The original was a 1978 model
> and I put in an Energy Kinetics System 2000 and cut oil use about 38%.
> At today's oil prices payback would be faster.

On 13 Jan 2023 01:59:51 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:48:04 -0500, Neil wrote:
>
>> Maybe it would be nice to add a security camera?
>
>https://ring.com/always-home-cam-flying-camera
>
>As someone pointed out what a great way to get your pets to really, really
>hate you.

I think any decent-sized dog would love to snatch this thing out of the air and chew it to
pieces. Pets can have very expensive tastes at times.

--
croy

On Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:48:04 -0500, Neil posted for all of us to digest...

>
> Oil furnace. Water radiators along the baseboards.
>

Sorry, you have a boiler. Furnaces heat air, boilers heat water.

Nest thermostats do not get good reviews from professionals, they malfunction a
lot more than regular ones. Do you have 3 wires to the thermostats? Nest needs
a third common wire for power. Do you have AC?

For your use my crystal ball says buy pro model Honeywell (Resdio?) and be
done. Do you want programmable? You can splurge and get Wifi programmable ones.

When you install them make certain the power is off to the boiler. It's only
two wires but if the touch when installing you could blow the box in the cellar
that controls them... Also don't lose the wires down the wall.

--
Hiram