12 Things You Need to Know About Your Nest Thermostat

A Nest Thermostat is an excellent tool for keeping your home comfortable, regardless of the season or weather. With a number of innovative features meant to maximize efficiency, convenience and comfort, a Nest Thermostat is an excellent choice to help you manage your energy use — saving you money in the process.

That’s why more people are looking to add devices like a Nest into their home. To add one to your home, reach out to an expert for smart thermostat installation in Menomonie and western Wisconsin.

From automated scheduling to optimizing energy efficiency, Nest helps make home climate control effortless.

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

1. How to Reset a Nest Thermostat

A key piece of information to know about resetting a Google Nest Thermostat is that resetting is different from restarting.

• Restart: This process is similar across most electronics, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat means a quick off / on cycle. This maintains all your settings and is a step to take if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
• Reset: Conversely, resetting eliminates most if not all of your preferred settings. In most cases, people resort to a reset as they're moving into a new house and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they just want to erase any personal details from the Nest before leaving it behind for the next resident.

To reset, first write down your temperature settings so they're still available if you forget or erase them. Next, locate Settings -> Equipment and record your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.

After writing down this information, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You can choose from five options:

• Restart: Turns your Nest off 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 turns black, and then pull your hand away.
• Schedule: This reset setting clears your entire temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you've connected it to your Nest. With this option, you’ll be given the chance to plan out a new schedule or wait while your Nest learns your schedule.
• Away: Choosing this reset option gets rid of any programming your Nest has picked up about how often you walk by, so that it can update the temperature on its own.
• Network: With a network reset, it erases connection info and your Nest can no longer connect to Wi-Fi. It also forgets your Wi-Fi password.
• All Settings: This 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.
• Locate the Settings icon.
• Select Network.
• Once your Nest scans available networks, locate your Wi-Fi and, if you have one, put in your password.

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

Nest thermostats get the power they need directly from your HVAC system, but they also include a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup power in case of an outage. According to Google, Nest's manufacturer, a Nest Thermostat battery will generally last several months. It can be recharged using a USB charger that comes with the Nest.

4. Shutting Off a Nest Thermostat

If you won't be home for a while, you can set your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode is another solid choice. Using Off mode will turn off all of 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:

• Hold the touch bar until the display reads “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. Can Alexa Control a Nest Thermostat?

Yes, your Amazon Alexa can be used 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?

Yes, your Nest Thermostat can still control temperatures even without Wi-Fi. At the same time, a lack of an internet connection means your Nest doesn’t have access to all the key features that most people enjoy.

7. Can You 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 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 will still continue to run the programmed settings—but simply prevents people from changing the settings.

If you want to lock your Nest:

• Select the Settings icon, scroll to the bottom and find 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 before tapping 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. Controlling Your Nest Thermostat from a Phone

You can control the Nest through your Google Home app, which is accessible on your phone or other smart device, including 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 control 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, with premium Nest models, the Nest app to your phone.
• Plug in your Nest Thermostat.
• Start 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 has created a more comprehensive setup guide, if you would like more 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, you can make changes to the temperature 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, select Thermostat before selecting Settings. At this screen, press Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. This will display your preset Comfort, Eco and Sleep temperatures. Select one of these options to change the temperature for that preset.

9. Setting a Nest Thermostat Schedule

Your Nest allows you to schedule temperature programming either on the device or on the Google Home app. More advanced versions of the Nest, such as the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, also can be controlled via the Nest app.

The two easiest ways to schedule your Nest are:

• Quick Schedule: A Quick Schedule will be based on the national average schedule for more energy-efficient use. As you set the thermostat up, the Google Home app enables you to set the temperature with a schedule. When choosing this option, it displays a preset schedule before letting you customize it. Once setup is complete, that’s the schedule it will use.
• Temperature Presets: For changing the Nest's preset temperatures, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and choose Edit. As soon as you're finished making updates, 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. 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. Your update won't be applied until you select Done.

10. How to Set 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 create a custom temperature range in Eco mode, go to Settings and select Eco. The thermostat's display should list existing “Heat to” and “Cool to” temperature settings. You can select each and make your preferred changes. Once you're finished, select Done.

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

Nest thermostats can be integrated with most heating and cooling systems. Google, Nest's manufacturer, has an online compatibility checker that presents a few questions related to your location and current setup to determine which Nest model is compatible with your system.

If you don't think your Nest is compatible with your system, consider reaching out to professionals for smart thermostat installation in Menomonie and western Wisconsin. 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. How Do I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?

Nest Thermostats are loaded with innovative features designed to increase comfort and decrease costs. However, you can actually turn off the smart features if you prefer to control your Nest like it's a normal thermostat.

Take into account, by doing this you are turning off all of your temperature schedules and allowing the Nest to work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and allow you to make changes, but that’s about it.

You can achieve this by disabling the settings in a series of 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: 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.