The well-funded Palo Alto start-up, founded in 2010 by former Apple engineers, brought out its revolutionary Nest Learning thermostat in October of the following year. Nest Lab, has gone from strength to strength plugging into a previously untapped mainstream market of 10 million units per year. Indeed, the Nest meets a huge demand, i.e., the need for an easy-to-install thermostat that requires no programming and combines the best of new technology and high tech design. For the moment Nest Lab is dominating the huge market gap and is set to take a foothold in Europe with its second generation thermostat.
Why such a maelstrom of enthusiasm for what was not so long ago considered as an accepted eyesore-object installed once every decade with the boiler? Well, imagine a round, beautiful steel-clad thermostat with iPhone-like chicness that blends in with your décor where an ugly plastic box once performed its daily function of being turned up or down. Imagine that this thermostat adjusts to your daily heating habits automatically, and that you can control it remotely from your iPhone. Image again that this object not only increases your home living comfort but saves you money, as much as 20 percent on your energy bill; then, in the name of home improvement, why wouldn't you buy it?
Once Out Of The Box
The Nest thermostat comes in a smart box that makes you feel even more eager to discover the precious object inside. You are not disappointed, once assembled the thermostat has that weightiness about it associated with quality. Inside you also get a manual, a screwdriver with screws and a trim kit. Basically this is a back plate that you can use to hide any traces of the previous thermostat. That said, it is far better if you make the effort to patch anything up so that nothing is taken away from the Nest's design, which, after all, is half of its appeal.
Installation really is easy; in fact it might take you less time to install the thermostat than get it out of the box. Once on your wall you simply link it up to Internet via your Wi-Fi, the software painlessly downloads and you're off, the Nest starts learning from you.
Learn, Teach, Communicate
From here on you simply turn the temperature up or down according to your usual comfort. It takes about a week for the thermostat to learn your heating habits and then takes over by itself heating your home for you. You can, however, alter the schedule anytime via your Nest account which you can access from your tablet, smartphone or laptop. Moreover, your Nest thermostat being connected to the internet allows it to receive all the latest fixes and updates from Nest Lab. It also enables you to visualize when and where you are saving or wasting energy, and so teaches you how you can optimize.
Not only is the Nest the world's first “learning thermostat”, it also perhaps constitutes a forerunner of a whole new generation of real-world devices that teach, learn and communicate via Internet technology.
