Article Summary:
While learning starts the minute you install your Nest Learning Thermostat, it takes time. Here's what to expect from your Nest Thermostat as it learns about your home and your schedule.
Right after your Nest Learning Thermostat is installed, it will default to a temperature of 68ºF/20ºC if heating and 76ºF/24.5ºC if cooling. The Nest Thermostat will hold these defaults until you change the temperature. The first day, the Nest Thermostat will hold any temperature you choose unless you change it, just like a regular manual thermostat.
Some of the Nest Thermostat's energy saving features like Auto-Away and Time-to-Temperature won’t be available right after installation. The Nest Thermostat will usually need a week or less to customize these features to your home. A notification will appear on the screen when each feature is ready.
Learning starts day one.
The Nest Leaf will appear on the display the first day you install the Nest Learning Thermostat.
During the first few days, the Leaf is based on set temperatures. As your Nest Thermostat learns during the first week, the Leaf will be personalized to your home and schedule. The temperatures that merit the Leaf will change over time, as your Nest Thermostat learns and as you save energy.
System Match features – like Early-On for forced air systems – will also start on day one, and get better over time.
Your Nest Thermostat starts to learn your schedule day two.
After midnight, the Nest Thermostat's Auto-Schedule will add the changes you made the first day. So if you turned your Nest Thermostat to 70ºF/21ºC after you installed it at 5pm and turned it down before you went to bed, your Nest Thermostat will turn to 70ºF/21ºC at 5pm and turn down before you go to bed the next day, too. All changes you make on these first days are learned as part of the next day’s schedule.
Regardless of the schedule, the Nest Thermostat will always listen to you first. No matter what, when you change the temperature by turning the ring, your Nest Thermostat will keep that temperature until the next scheduled temperature change.
A few days later, your Nest Learning Thermostat has programmed itself.
After a few days, your Nest Thermostat will have learned your basic personal schedule. You’ll have taught your Nest Thermostat what temperatures you like when you wake up, when you go to work, and when you relax around the house. To see or change the schedule that the Nest Thermostat has learned from you, go to SCHEDULE in the Nest menu. You can also view or change the schedule in the Nest apps.
After one week.
Once your Nest Thermostat has learned your personal schedule (after about a week), it will be less sensitive to each change that you make. Going forward, your Nest Thermostat will only learn from a pattern of at least two similar changes.
Examples of similar changes are:
- Turning the Nest Thermostat to the same temperature at about the same time two weekdays in a row (such as Monday and Tuesday) to learn a weekday change.
- Turning the Nest Thermostat to the same temperature at about the same time on the same day two weeks in a row (such as two Mondays in a row) to learn a specific day change.
- Turning the Nest Thermostat to the same temperature on a each weekend day twice in a row ( Saturday and Sunday) to make a weekend change.
- Make a change on a weekday and a weekend day (such as Friday and then a similar change on Saturday) and the Nest Thermostat will learn that change for all seven days of the week.
All features are a go.
After the first week in your home, all of the Nest Thermostat's learned energy saving features are ready to go. Using Nest Sense™ (a combination of Nests' sensors and algorithms, including both near and far field activity sensors), Auto-Away will start automatically turning the thermostat down when no one is home, so you don’t heat or cool an empty house.
Time-to-Temperature is an estimate of how long it will take to heat or cool your home to the temperature you’ve chosen. Use Time-to-Temperature to help you save energy. Cranking the heat up to 90ºF/32ºC won’t make your home heat up any faster, but could waste energy if you don’t remember to turn it down. Turn the temperature to what will make you comfortable, and you’ll know how long it will take to get there.
How does Time-to-Temperature work?
Teach your Nest Thermostat well to save energy.
To teach your Nest Thermostat to save energy, teach it good habits: turn it down before you go to bed, before you leave the house, or any time you would turn down a regular thermostat to save energy--the difference is, the Nest Thermostat will learn these changes. You can see the results of teaching your Nest Thermostat good habits in the Energy History display.