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Nest Tips Reduced Heating, Cooling Bills After Thermostat Update

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Nest Tips Reduced Heating, Cooling Bills After Thermostat Update

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Nest is teaching its Learning Thermostat  a new lesson. The company on Tuesday announced a software update that fine-tunes its Auto-Schedule algorithms to make the Thermostat easier to use, and more importantly, to save up to 6 percent on your future heating and cooling bills.

The update—software version 4.3—uses the data Nest has gathered from users adjusting their Thermostats throughout the world, to enhance the Auto-Schedule feature. The Thermostat can now learn new schedules and adapt to changes quicker than it could in the past. So when your schedule changes—like the transition from summer vacation to fall, for instance—the Thermostat is better able to recognize temperature adjustments as part of a pattern, rather than a one-time change. Nest claims these speed improvements can help save up to 6 percent on your heating and cooling bills. Not bad.

In addition to the Auto-Schedule improvements, the software update also brings some changes that you can actually see. Nest has added a new Quick View feature that allows you to see more information on the Thermostat’s display. It can now show you the time, along with the weather, outdoor temperature, and indoor humidity. And if you turn the ring, you’ll get a summary of useful information like the amount of energy you used yesterday (which you can see above), or what’s going to happen next on your schedule.

The update also adds a new System Test feature, to make sure everything is up and running properly (as in cooling things down when you turn on the air conditioning, and warming up when you turn on the heat). It walks you through the basic functions so that you’ll able to easily spot and resolve any issues. The Nest app will also be updated with this feature.

Finally, Nest is adding time zones and weather support for a number of additional countries. It is also bringing error messages to the Nest app, so you don’t need to check the Thermostat itself to find out if something has gone wrong.

The update is rolling out to Thermostats now and will download automatically. To check if you’ve received the update, you can take a look at the new software update information under Energy History. Or you can just push the ring on your Thermostat. If you see the new QuickView icons, you’re good to go. And if you haven’t received it yet, it should be coming your way in the next few days.

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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/news/nest-tips-reduced-heating-cooling-bills-after-thermostat-update