Views(957) Created 3/9/2012 4:48:41 PM by Kevin Luxton

I installed a Nest room thermostat at our Tybee Island Beach house this weekend. Everything about the instructions, the supporting parts and the thermostat itself were so well thought out and made clear it was a breeze. Setting up and using the Nest is such a great experience I think it should be a required study for every consumer product designer in the world.

But why buy a Nest? Our beach house enjoys vacation renters most of the year. Tybee is a excellent location to relax and kick-back in, mixing some modern day conveniences with some old-world charm. As welcome as the renters are we find, probably since they do not pay any extra for utilities during their stay (why can't we adopt the Italian model?), that there is a tendency for them to max out the A/C in the cooling direction when the summer heat hits - usually a short period of May to October. Well, we go to great lengths (and expense) to provide a wonderfully comfortable cottage with great decor, big screen HDTV with all sports channels, bluray player, free wifi and much more, to try and make it such a wonderful experience that they will return again and again .... So why worry about the electric bill?

It's not when people are there that concerns me, it is when they are not. If somebody checks out one Saturday and the next renters don't check in until a week later the house is often left on max AC with nobody to cool (and pay for the privilige). Hence the 'control it from your iPad via wifi' Nest; the 'detects when the house is empty and automatically adjusts the temperature accordingly' Nest. The Nest that, for a regular non-vacation rental house, will learn your schedule and adjust temperatures up/down at the right time of the day to suit it.

I'd like to say that was the real reason but of course it wasn't, as Kris will tell you if asked. It was designed by one of the people that had a hand in the iPod/iPad development and of course it's whizzy bang and that's what counts.

I am sure it will save us some money in the long run but even if not I will remain happy I bought it (and the next two!) because I have enjoyed the smooth installation process so much, marvelled at the attention to detail and will contine to thoroughly enjoy the device user interface as well as the iPad app. Check one out for your self; it's a modern design classic.

Now I have to go and video the interface operation so I can show our developers how it can be.

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