Nest Thermostat E
PRICE $169 ON SALE No UK date
People love products that save them money, and the Nest line of thermostats certainly does that. The trouble is that devices that come with a £219 up-front cost (plus £50 or more installation fee) don’t feel like an option for penny-pinchers, no matter how good their long-term credentials. In short, the original line of Nest Thermostats were money-saving gadgets for people who didn’t really need to save money. The Google-owned company aims to rectify that with the Nest Thermostat E – a cheaper, less showy model with almost exactly the same specifications.
By learning to match the temperature to people’s schedules and preferences, the smart heating system can ensure that their home is toasty when people need it to be, and cool when they don’t. Just like the original Thermostats. But the main difference between the $169 Nest Thermostat E and the third-generation Nest Thermostat ($250 in the US, £220 over here) is how it looks. Gone is the glitzy metal frame, replaced by white plastic that Nest says is supposed to feel ceramic, but blend in with the white emulsion of most people’s walls. To that end, the screen is also white – or rather, it’s covered by a diffuser to give the impression of a white screen. It looks a lot less stylish than the metallic Nest, but let’s remember this is a thermostat, not a candelabra.
Nest also drops some of its nice extras: it won’t be moonlighting as a clock in its downtime, for starters, and while it still works with 85% of US households, a pruning of the wiring means that’s a 10% decline from the third-generation Nest.
Everything else is still in place: it can learn schedules, be set remotely and allows you to chat to it through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It can even crib its homework from the previous generation of devices and pick a schedule that most people seem to like. Sadly, there’s no UK release date (or price) yet. ALAN MARTIN
KEY SPECS 1.76in colour LCD screen, 320 x 320 resolution works with most 24V ● heating and cooling systems 802.11n Wi-Fi ● Bluetooth lithium-ion battery 81 x 29 x ● ● ● 81mm (WDH) 139g ● READ MORE pcpro.link/278nest