Google Nest Thermostat E - Programmable Smart Thermostat for Home - 3rd Generation Nest Thermostat - Works with Alexa,White

Mall sleek and sooo easy to install!We bought it for our beach condo. To control temp while we’re away, so especially love the report on humidity and the ‘cool to dry’ feature.And this model doesn’t need a C wire unless you have a furnace.

I waited awhile before I reviewed the E so I could get to know it a bit and I'll still need more time because this thermostat is not a one trick pony.It also is not a techno geek toy. The average person with a standard heat/cool system can have this thermostat functional in less than an hour. If you can accomplish that then you're set to have the E pay for itself within the first year. If you have to hire someone it'll take longer but at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you will have reduced your carbon footprint from the moment you turned it on.I've had set back thermostats for years which were a nightmare to program that I always eventually just abandoned and used manually. This one is self programming so whatever savings are to be had are gotten almost immediately and it'll thrive on weird schedules that no set back t-stat could begin to manage.The only downside is that Alexa and E don't play well but I put that on Alexa. I can ask Alexa what the temperature is in the hallway (the location of the E) and she'll tell me exactly but I have not found the right combination of words that will result in making a change. The more words Alexa has to hear the more likely you are to say them in a way she won't understand and won't act on. That problem will correct itself in the future with or without Amazon's help and if I'm too lazy to get off my butt I can still do it by phone at 40 feet or four thousand miles.It's very functional and just a little bit geeky. I expect the E to be far more popular than it's big brother.I consider this a blue collar thermostat. Hard working and not pretentious.9-22-17 update I've gotten two responses to my 'command' complaint. There are examples of phrases that do work but I found on my own a simpler way. When I told Alexa to "Set hallway to 72 degrees" she complied and responded "AC set to 72" so I used that as a command and it worked so now I just say "Set AC to **". Obviously that won't work if you have multiple thermostats but I don't expect the E to be put in homes big enough to require more than one heat/cool unit. The support literature is extensive so it takes a lot of interaction to expose it all. I only found the command examples because I was told they were there so I refused to quit until I found them.Edit 2021: I added a star. Absolutely flawless after 3 years.

Setup instructions make it easy for DYI

I'd give it 5 stars except for the fact that IT NEEDS A HOLD FEATURE! Every non-cloud-based scheduling thermometer I've had over 30 years has had a HOLD setting, which keeps the set temperature until you put it back to AUTOMATIC. None of the Nest thermometers has this feature, nor do the Honeywell cloud-based thermometers (which I had in a previous home and liked a lot.)I prefer setting the schedule myself to using the learn mode, because we just had too many exceptions and it got confused. But if you're a habitual person, and if you're the type to remember to set the temp the way you want it every day for a week or two, the learn function could be great. Furthermore, you can set it in learn mode, and then later adjust the learned schedule to what you want and turn off learning.I like that I can monitor and control remotely. I love the fact that I can change the temperature after I've left for a vacation and forgot to set it to away mode. (It has a feature to detect this automatically, but that doesn't work for us for reasons unrelated to the Nest.)One of my favorite features is for a finished attic, where we have a separate heat-pump HVAC. During the day it's a hobby/projects room, never used at night. Normally, heat pumps with auxiliary or emergency heat, you do NOT want to put them on a schedule (for example, lower the temp a lot on winter nights, bring it up to 65 during the day) because when the thermostat calls for heat in the morning, it'll use the expensive auxiliary heat to warm up as soon as possible. The Nest has three modes: fast as possible (max comfort), heat-pump-only (max savings), and a "balanced" mode that's between these extremes. I use the max-savings mode for the attic, which is perfect. I also have the "anticipate" feature turned on, so that if it takes 3 hours to get the room up to temp by 10 AM, it'll start at 7AM (and it figures that out.) So, I save a lot of energy/money.The Nest has the most thorough documentation of the features, better than I've ever seen for such a sophisticated device. It has LOTs of features and many of them are perplexing. The Nest website has excellent descriptions of each feature, not only explaining why you'd want to use it, but tips on how it works so you can really understand -- yet doing this in layman's terms. That's a really hard thing to do well, and I've never seen it done better.The hardest part of installation was that I didn't know exactly what type of heat system I had. For simple/normal HVAC systems with just one type of heat, one type of cooling, and just 4 wires (common, heat, cool, fan), installation is a breeze and the app walks you through it. Anyone who's just a bit handy can do it. If you have a more complex system, your normal HVAC guy can either do it, or answer the questions about what the wires are (that you need when there are special ones like the B/O wire, which can be used for different purposes.) You DO want to know whether you have a common, and if you don't, it's probably best to hire a pro if you're not a do-it-yourself type.I've put in 4 of these, and only on one did I have any doubts.I have both the normal Nest, and this unit which is the E lower cost version. There is one feature it doesn't have that I don't recall and don't need. The display is fuzzy compared with the normal Nest, but that doesn't bother me. I prefer the lower cost of these units.It integrates well with Google Home. It can work with an additional wireless temperature sensor, which is handy when the thermostat isn't where you want the temperature to be. Unfortunately, you can't ask Google what the temperature of the sensor is, just the thermostat. Maybe they'll add that before long.

Pretty frustrated. Have the learning one for my home and it works great. Bought the “E” version and have had nothing but problems and I can’t seem to return/replace it through Woot or Amazon. Can’t seem to stay connected to WiFi and keeps reading the wrong room temperature. Too bad cause I really wanted to like it.