41–50 of 72 posts
it sounds like a pretty awesome idea, but lithium ion battery powered, with wi-fi and bright LCD? i'd rather not have to remember to change the batteries in my thermostat every couple of days.
There is a market need certainly, but is their target market big enough to support the business? I think if you can encourage users to adopt these based on the cost savings then the odds will be better. Lots of home owners will be interested in saving money on their utility bills. Just make sure the UI and features enable users to make efficient use of their HVAC systems. There will definitely have to be a campaign to educate consumers as to why they need this product.
This is brilliant. This is the kind of innovation that we should idolize. I feel like we tend to get excited about things like Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram or Color, if it combines all the right buzzwords like social, mobile and photos. We tend to forget what real innovation is. Well, this is it. You're taking a boring, underserved segment of the market and revolutionizing it. And guess what, the potential for soc…
Call me cynical, but it doesn't sound like innovation, it sounds like hype. I have a programmable thermostat, and it turns off and on based on a temperature schedule. I mess with it four times a year: twice to change the time zone and once to turn it to "Air Conditioning" and once to turn it to "Heat." Now, do I think you can do something clever with it? Sure. How about an interface on my phone or tablet to replace the wimpy LCD screen, the fiddly plastic buttons, and the page of directions. Oh, and if the new thermostat was "smart" and saved me (potentially lots of) money? Even better.
But "beloved"? Not a chance.
Also, is there room to the thing to add "automatic lighting" and appliance control (dishwasher, washer/dryer)? Mmmaybe. But frankly, that could be done by wifi/bluetooth on the appliance and an app as well.
Also, some photorshadowing:
Adjust room temperature, Siri! It's a little cold in here.
it sounds like a pretty awesome idea, but lithium ion battery powered, with wi-fi and bright LCD? i'd rather not have to remember to change the batteries in my thermostat every couple of days.
There's some negativity here, but I have to say I'm impressed. This is a nice bit of low hanging fruit for a segway into smarter home technology, something we've been promised for ages but which has consistently failed to deliver IMHO. Add in the green factor and I think this has the potential to be a pretty damn good business with plenty of room for future product growth.
Who's to say this isn't the same thing with smart homes?
The startup is Nest Labs. Their product is an adaptive thermostat that learns your temperature preferences and schedule. It's much cooler (ha ha) than it sounds! http://www.nest.com/living-with-nest/index.html What I want to know: who are these people in their demo videos setting their thermostat to 80+ (Fahrenheit) degrees?!
I'm wondering about the installation part. It doesn't seem to me that the average user is just doing to go grab one and get it in himself. I made my own computerized replacement for the thermostat in my house(1) and discovered that there were about 5 different possible wiring patterns depending on if you've got heat pumps, multi-stage, e-heat, gas, etc. After much research I figured out how they are wired, how my hou…
The common setup is a single-stage heat/cool installation with 4 color-coded wires.
It's all low-voltage (24VAC) and the biggest problem most people run into is an older 2-wire setup (single-stage heat only), where the programmable thermostat can't be vampire powered from the circuit and either cuts out when it clicks the relay on to fire the furnace, or simply needs to be a battery-powered unit.
With all the eco-stuff and increased heating costs, installation of programmable thermostats by low-skilled homeowners is actually pretty common.
