Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can add another benefit to the Nest, which I have connected to a voice assistant. I'm a, well, let's use the term "woman of a certain age" and I really like that if I get overheated or overly cold in bed at night, I can say "Alexa, turn the nest to 72 (or whatever) degrees and the AC or heat will kick on within a few seconds. It sure beats having to get out of bed and go downstairs to adjust the thermostat in the middle of the night.
If you've never been a woman going through menopause, you might not have any concept of what an amazing luxury this is.
(apologies to the OP, as this of course has nothing to do with their question about wiring)
Keeping one hidden (aka available to someone who wants to look for one) defeats the purpose of the keyless smart locks though.
It's actually fairly hard to lock yourself out via smart locks. I don't have a nest smart lock (mine is Schlage) but I think the Nest is similar (there are different models but this describes the one I'm familiar with). Even if the device is 'offline' because it loses internet connectivity, you can still use the manual passcode at the door just like an older keypad deadbolt.
Additionally, even if the device completely loses power, I know that my Schlage just requires you to have a 9V battery and you can temporarily power the device from that and use your normal passcode to get inside and then change the battery. (This has never happened to us and is rare -the battery lasts a long time and they give you quite ample warning before a battery dies-, but it is a functionality that is built into the lock that may help ease concerns for someone who is worried about not having a key).
Ok I just did a quick search and it looks like they use the same strategy that Schlage does:
"The Nest × Yale Lock is battery powered. This means you won’t have to install any additional wiring to power your lock.
It uses 4 standard AA alkaline batteries. How long the batteries last will depend on how often your door is used, but in general they should last about a year.
You can be notified on your phone when the batteries start to get low, and you’ll see the lock’s low battery status in the Nest app. The lock will also speak to let you know the batteries are low. You’ll be notified again when your batteries get critically low. This should give you plenty of time to change the batteries.
If the batteries do run out, you can use a 9V battery from outside your home to provide temporary power and unlock your door. See: “What if the battery dies and I’m locked out?”"
This. That being said, I do have a key hidden that opens another door. I'm good! I just like the convenience of being able to open a door from a remote location and knowing who I am letting in when, and all that good stuff.
This happens so often around here.
Someone comes here and simply wants a little help wiring a thermostat.
Thread turns into a discussion of people debating whether a Nest is worth it or not and the old men checking in "I can just git up n turn mah dial".
THE VERY FIRST %*&$^& REPLY "Why bother?"
Really?
OP WANTS HELP WITH WIRING
OP DID NOT ASK IF HE SHOULD GET A NEST
PLEASE START ANOTHER THREAD IF YOU'D LIKE TO DEBATE THAT.
Indeed, lol! This thread certainly did get off topic. I guess I'll have to continue to try to get the information from Nest or hire someone to install it.
Again, for the $80 I paid for this thing I don't need the debate as to whether it's necessary or worth it, lol.
I raised a legitimate concern. What would you do if the app didn’t respond and you didn’t have a hidden key?
No, you didn't, because you OBVIOUSLY don't know how it works. Maybe reserve comments for things you have actual knowledge of? Or maybe ASK a question instead of assuming and sounding like a know it all.
"Well I hope you have a key stored somewhere" comes off a little smarmy to me...
Do you think these companies don't think of "What if the device has no power?"
They run on batteries. They give you weeks worth of notice if the battery is dying. and the app is usually not the ONLY way to open it.
Indeed, lol! This thread certainly did get off topic. I guess I'll have to continue to try to get the information from Nest or hire someone to install it.
Again, for the $80 I paid for this thing I don't need the debate as to whether it's necessary or worth it, lol.
I'm stretching my brain a bit but I think I know what this is all about. 20 years ago we installed a heat pump with a strip heat back-up, and something similar was wired on our thermostat.
The AUX terminal is normally devoted to sense when there is a fairly large difference in the set temperature of the thermostat and the actual temperature. Lets say it's 60 degrees in your house and you kick the thermostat up to 68. With a heat pump that is going to call for AUXILIARY heat to compensate for the load.
Now the other terminal is named 'E', right? That's emergency heat. In some applications that circuit is also wired right to the AUX circuit via a jumper.
Soooo... you can walk over to a thermostat and bypass the heat pump cycle and switch the unit directly to Emergency heat.. With electric strip back-up heat, we called that the financial suicide mode.
Sooo...sooooo... I would look at the Nest wiring schematic and find out which circuit handles that mode..
The user interface provided by the Nest thermostat differs from the Nest website and iOS/Android apps.
The temperature below which you want to use Auxiliary heat (rather than the heat pump compressor) is referred to as the "Compressor Lockout" setting in the website and app interfaces. But on the Nest Thermostat itself, the term "Lockout" is not used, instead you see "Use the heat pump compressor when the outdoor temperature is above". This wording is ambiguous because it sounds like you are telling it that it should "always use the compressor..." above that temperature, or perhaps you are telling it that it "may sometimes use the compressor" above that temperature. In practce I have found that the second interpretation (may sometimes) is accurate.
The temperature above which you want to always use the compressor is called "Auxiliary Heat Lockout" in the website and app. Again, the actual thermostat uses the words "Use the heat pump aux. heat when the outdoor temperature is below", and again this wording is ambiguous because you don't know if you are giving it permission to sometimes use aux. heat below that temperature, or telling it to always use aux. heat below that temperature.
Setting the Nest for Emergency or Auxiliary Heat
If your heating system does not have a fan that blows air through vents, or if you get your heat from oil or gas, then these instructions do not apply to you.
It is assumed that you have already gone through the complete setup instructions, which would probably start with Nest's compatibility checker including especially the step where you identify what wires your old thermostat has. For more about identifying the functions of thermostat control wires, see Nest's identifying thermostat wires article.
Once your thermostat is set up and running, here's how to select emergency vs. auxiliary heat:
Go to SETTINGS > EQUIPMENT. (This setting is about 4 or 5 from the rightmost end, or about 15 steps from the left)
You'll see "Equipment detected" and a diagram of the backplate with the wires that are connected and their labels. In the lower right the "*" connection should say either "emer. heat" or "aux. heat"; or in the upper-right on "W2/AUX" you should see "aux. heat". If not, then these instructions probably don't apply to you.
Next screen is "Your System", which should read: "heat pump heating", ("auxiliary heating" or "emergency heat"), "heat pump cooling", "fan". (If you don't see this, these instructions don't apply to you.) Select CONTINUE.
Next you have the screen where you can actually adjust the settings. The choices are "HEAT TYPE", "HEAT PUMP", "SAFETY TEMP", "* WIRE TYPE", and "PRO SETUP".
If you had a connection to the "*" wire then select "* WIRE TYPE". If you live in an area where the outdoor temperature never goes below about 20-25°F, select "E: EMERGENCY", because you should never need to use the electric heating coils unless the main heat pump is actually broken. But if you live in a colder climate, select "AUXILIARY HEAT".
If you chose "E: EMERGENCY", then you're done, there is nothing else to set. Otherwise continue:
Now you're back at the "Equipment Settings" menu; select "DONE".
Go back into SETTINGS > EQUIPMENT; click through the "Equipment detected" screen to get to "Your System". Go to the bottom and select "TEST". Test the "AUX. HEAT" or "EMERGENCY HEAT". It should turn on the fan and after a minute or two you should feel distinctly warm air coming out of the vents. If the fan does not turn on, stop the test immediately. Electric heating coils will overheat, burn out or cause damage if the fan isn't going. (Your system might have a fail-safe for this, but it's good to know right away, it may mean your fan wire (perhaps the G connection) isn't connected.)
Go to SETTINGS > NEST SENSE (which is the 4th setting from the left). Select "Heat Pump Balance". Choose "OFF". You must do this first, because the other settings won't be settable unless you turn off this feature (temporarily, just so you can access the options).
Once again go to SETTINGS > EQUIPMENT; click through the "Equipment detected" and "Your System" screens to get back to "Equipment Settings". Now select "HEAT PUMP".
It will ask if you have an "O wire" or a "B wire". You probably already have this set properly (if it were set improperly, your system would be heating the house when it should be cooling, and vice versa), so just leave this setting as-is.
Then you'll see "Use the heat pump compressor when the outdoor temperature is above" and the word "ALWAYS". Turn the thermostat wheel to the right, and it will let you choose a temperature, starting at about -20°F. I chose 20°F. Your setting will depend on how efficient your home is at retaining heat. If you have a lot of windows, poor insulation, no south-facing windows, etc. then you lose heat easily and will need to set this setting somewhere in the 20-30°F area. The way to find out what setting is best is by leaving this set to "ALWAYS", and wait until a day when it is so cold outside that the heat pump cannot keep up. Then you know that the outside temperature is too cold, so you'll need to set this setting higher than that temperature. My house has trouble when the outside temperature is in the low-20's or lower, so I set it to 20.
If you see "Compressor min. temperature should only be used if AUX controls an auxiliary heater.", and if your test of Aux. heat was successful (it fan the fan and blew warn air out the vents) then hit CONFIRM and proceed.
Now you'll get "Use the heat pump aux. heat when the outdoor temperature is below". Here you can select ALWAYS or a temperature from 35 to 90. This is an upper limit for aux. heat: it will not use the aux. heat above whatever number you choose (but if you pick ALWAYS, Nest is free to use Aux heat whenever it thinks it's a good idea).
Now you're back at Equipment Settings; select DONE.
Go to SETTINGS > NEST SENSE. Select "Heat Pump Balance". Choose "MAX SAVINGS", "BALANCED", or "MAX. COMFORT". I chose "BALANCED" and then after a few weeks, when things seemed to be working well, I switched to "MAX. SAVINGS". Note that if you want to change the min. and max. temperatures for aux. heat, you'll need to turn Heat Pump Balance OFF again.
Once NEST SENSE > Heat Pump Balance is enabled, if you go back into SETTINGS > EQUIPMENT > Equipment Settings > HEAT PUMP you'll have a setting for the "Use compressor when ... temperature is above" option which is ignored, followed by a message "Nest Sense Heat Pump Balance is on. Nest will use auxiliary heat as needed.". This indicates that Nest is using its "avoid aux. heat except when really needed" intelligent algorithm.
After making these settings, the Nest "home screen" (showing the current temperature and whether it's heating" will show "AUX. HEAT" or "EMERGENCY HEAT" instead of "HEATING" (as appropriate) when it is using the electric heating coils.
We have 2 Nests. They are expensive but the first time you adjust all your stuff from bed it's money well worth it, I remember thinking that.
Our upstairs thermostat gets hot from the heat downstairs (very open floor plan, 19 foot ceiling), Nest now has a remote thermostat, so that went in the bedroom where it actually gets cold and it's perfect now.
I don't do the home and away stuff though, at least in the summer. It's pointless to let your house get hot, the a/c will just have to work harder once you get back home. With gas heat it's useful though since that heats up fast.
We went EcoBee 3 years ago (two of them), and will never go back to the traditional. You wouldn't think it, but I use that app at least twice a day around here. I went EcoBee because they have remote sensors you can buy and stash around the house and then see what the temp is in that room via the app. You can set the system to average between all, some, or none of the sensors. Very easy to use. I have one in the garage as an FYI as well.
It's great when I'm getting in the shower to lower the ac a bit to run while I'm steaming up the bathroom to help the vent out....quick humidity reducer. It's great when one of my little spawns of joy blows out the bathroom to be able to kick on the house fan and let the system clear the air (we have UV lights in our duct system - kills all odors). It's great when we're coming home from a trip to set it the way we like it about an hour out and have it nice and cool (or warm) when we get home, and fresh.
But my favorite, and this might be TMI....we have a ½ bath with a vent on the wall right next to the toilet seat. I'll just leave it at that, other than to say it's my favorite place to be in the winter :-).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
