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Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

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Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#71

Post by withinboredom »

narush wrote: post #13

I'm reading his book Build right now - it came out last week, so assuming that's why he's appearing all over all the feed). About 2/3rds of the way through currently. My thoughts: 1. Lots of Steve Jobs talk. There's a whole chapter on the distinction between real assholes, and assholes that just really care about the product quality / customer. The distinction drawn was in motivation - but I wonder if it might just b…

I worked on a team that spent months designing an API, database tables, architecture, etc before implementing a single line of code. It was quite a different experience and we ended up with a far better product than we would have otherwise (faster too!). We also took three weeks working on planned work and then one week to work on “unplanned work” between iterations. “Unplanned” was basically anything goes. Fix a bug that annoyed you, refactor code because you wanted to be able to extend it later, etc.

We had a git repo that /only/ contained design docs and recorded decisions as PRs. Nothing was discussed “offline” so everything was recorded. In meetings we would make the final decision and actually merge the said PRs.

It was so different from working on any other project, and actually more fun.

Seriously give a team at your startup to try that route. I think you’d be surprised after a few months to a year. The quality of the work we output was light years beyond any other team at the company, IMHO.

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#72

Post by sbradford26 »

samwillis wrote: post #7

We have a Nest thermostat, we have now turned off every single smart feature and just use it for a schedule and turning it on/off remotely when away (we gave up with the automatic away detection). I should also point out we are in the UK. I’m completely unconvinced that “smart” thermostats achieve anything for the majority of homes in the UK, despite most energy suppliers pushing customers to purchase them for years.…

You might enjoy some videos from HeatGeek on youtube. Something they cover that if you design the heating system correctly (with appropriate temperature compensation on the boiler) you only need TRVs or thermostats as limiting controls. Which sounds similar to what you are saying, aka set the thermostat to the maximum temperature you would ever want then just let the system run.

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#73

Post by withinboredom »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #45
thomaslord wrote: post #9

When I read the headline, I assumed that this was going to be a negative review from a user. We got a Nest thermostat for free as part of a SolarCity solar panel installation, and I spent months fighting with it to try and make it do what I told it. The Nest has a motion sensor on it, which is how it determines whether to turn on the energy saving mode - if it senses that you're home it will run at the set temperatur…

I thought it also used the bluetooth aspect of the app to know if you're home? IOW, if the app can ping Nest over bluetooth, the Nest knows you're home.

How does it know who’s phone belongs to the people who live there?

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#74

Post by fudgy »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #52
narush wrote: post #13

I'm reading his book Build right now - it came out last week, so assuming that's why he's appearing all over all the feed). About 2/3rds of the way through currently. My thoughts: 1. Lots of Steve Jobs talk. There's a whole chapter on the distinction between real assholes, and assholes that just really care about the product quality / customer. The distinction drawn was in motivation - but I wonder if it might just b…

As counter-balance to his book you should talk to some YC hardware founders about their experiences with Tony.

Not good?

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#75

Post by jshier »

One of my biggest annoyances is that, for whatever reason, Nest and ecobee haven't continued to expand their thermostats to support more sophisticated HVAC setups. I recently updated to a variable speed furnace (just the furnace, not the AC) and the Trane thermostat is complete shit, exactly what you'd think a "smart" thermostat made by an HVAC company would be. But I can't replace it because the third-party thermostats don't support variable speed furnaces, humidity systems, or electronic air filters. Why?

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#76

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

withinboredom wrote: post #73
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it also used the bluetooth aspect of the app to know if you're home? IOW, if the app can ping Nest over bluetooth, the Nest knows you're home.

How does it know who’s phone belongs to the people who live there?

I think you have to pair the app. Otherwise anyone could control your thermostat, even from outside your front door.

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#77

Post by thewebcount »

bound008 wrote: post #69

Heads up for privacy minded people in the Apple ecosystem... if you buy a HomeKit thermostat (or generally any HomeKit compatible device), you can usually set it up without the vendors app, or making an account, or accepting the ToS or Privacy Policy. There are some well established boring HVAC thermostat makers that have HomeKit compatible devices, and they are available for under $100. If you are a renter, you may…

Can you share the names of these manufacturers and/or devices?

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#78

Post by lostgame »

My girlfriend is a landlady.

She had issues with these two particular tenants who seemed to have an obsession with fighting over the temperature dial.

It cost her a whole ton in either heating or A/C every month, and would leave the whole place either ridiculously freezing or way too hot all the time.

(She lives in the basement herself, so this affected her as well.)

She bought a Nest, put a password on it, left it there, and has likely already saved around what the Nest cost within a year or so just from stopping these idiots and future potential idiots from constantly messing with the thing.

She’s never had an issue with it.

Essentially - it really depends on what you want a product for, and how you intend to use it.

I’m aware there are other, cheaper; less convenient solutions such as a lockbox, but honestly the Nest has been a wonderful solution for her.

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#79

Post by lostgame »

stblack wrote: post #25

We've had a nest thermostat for five years. For the past four and a half years it's been on a shelf in the basement, in its box. Gonna throw it out someday. What crappy tech. Its problem: its backing plate heats up. Causing the house to be perpetually cold. Three Nest backing-plate replacements later, we gave up. We presently have a much dumber thermostat that can be remotely controlled. We're happy now, but we'll ne…

The one my girlfriend has was bundled with a remote temperature sensor. I guess yours didn’t come with one?

Either way - she hasn’t installed it and it’s worked fine. It’s possible you had a dud unit?

Re: Tony Fadell: The Nest Thermostat Disrupted My Life

#80

Post by jeffrallen »

Reading this brought back memories of my own family's cabin in the Sierra Nevada. My grandfather always left a fire laid when leaving so with one match, you could light it on arrival and start heating the place up instantly. An old school, kinder and simpler solution.

I'm happy for Tony. But I also miss my grandfather and his kind of engineering.

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