Article Summary:
In some situations, the room temperature that the Nest Thermostat displays may be different from another thermostat or thermometer. This is usually due to differences between the thermostats, the location of the thermostat, or thermostat activity. Based on collected data, we found that 2nd and 3rd generation Nest Thermostats have an average accuracy within 1 degree Fahrenheit 99% of the time.
The Nest Thermostat uses multiple temperature sensors to determine the temperature in your home with a high degree of accuracy. 1st and 2nd gen Nest Thermostats have 3 temperature sensors, while 3rd gen thermostats have 10 sensors. These sensors are precision tuned to keep your home consistently comfortable. In addition, we continually analyze real world data and update the Nest Thermostat’s software algorithms to improve temperature accuracy. Here are some things that can contribute to temperature differences between the Nest Thermostat and another thermostat or thermometer.
Not all thermostats are created equal
Thermostat manufacturers use various sensors and methods to calculate the ambient temperature in your home. So they can sometimes arrive at different ambient room temperature measurements.
If you make a lot of adjustments on your thermostat in a short time, if the display is on for a long time, if there’s an active software download or other things happening, the internal circuits in your thermostat can get warmer. This can cause the thermostat to think the room temperature is higher than it actually is and possibly delay heating or start cooling when it isn’t needed.
The Nest Thermostat’s temperature sensors work together to monitor changes in the room temperature, as well as any temperature changes inside of the thermostat caused by the circuitry and display. It uses this sensor data to compensate in real time to changes in the internal temperature to give you an accurate room temperature reading, and cool or heat when it’s actually necessary.
But no matter what your thermostat says the temperature is, the most important thing to remember is that you should turn the temperature down when you’re too warm and up when you’re too cold. Your Nest Thermostat will learn from you to keep you comfortable while saving energy.
Where you place it matters
Right after you install your Nest Thermostat, you might notice that the thermostat you replaced is now reading a different temperature than your newly installed Nest Thermostat. Since your old thermostat isn’t on the wall anymore, the temperature it’s sensing can change. In many cases, this is because the air temperature can vary between different rooms in your home and even between different areas of the same room. If you’ve installed your Nest Thermostat in a different room, the temperature difference could be greater.