By Nest today announced the third generation of their home Learning Thermostat. The immediate apparent change is in its overall build. It’s a bit sleeker and slimmer, and should look just as great on a wall as it always has.
More than just looks, the 3rd generation Nest also has a slightly bigger display at 2.06-inches in diameter, and a sharper display with resolution of 480 x 480. It should have all the same sensors you’ve come to enjoy on Gen 2:
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Near-field activity
- Far-field activity
- Ambient light
And it works with many different types of standard 24v heating and cooling systems:
- Gas
- Electric
- Forced air
- Heat pump
- Radiant
- Oil
- Hot water
- Solar
- Geothermal.
One new neat feature of the 3rd gen Nest is Far Sight. It’ll detect if you’re walking toward it and will automatically illuminate to give you a quick glimpse at the thermostat in case you’re curious about the temperature inside your house. It’s not the most important feature ever, but little quality-of-life additions like these all add up.
More important is a new Furnace Heads-Up feature which will send you quarterly reports about the performance patterns of your heating and cooling systems. They’re designed to help you determine whether things are running as they should be, and it should serve as a nice reminder to do regular maintenance even if nothing seems to be wrong. This feature will head to previous Nest models in due time, but should be ready to go out of the box on the 3rd Gen model.
Nest’s Learning Thermostat can be combined with other Nest products for a truly blissful experience. Going on vacation? Nest will turn the temperature down and turn the Nest Camera on. If it detects a CO leak, Nest will know to turn the temperature down so as to not cause any further issues. It’s a natural combination of the two that makes it very enticing to get your entire home hooked up with Nest.
Beyond that, Nest is still Nest. It still learns your preferred heating and cooling patterns and can automatically adjust home temperatures without you having to do anything. It still lets you control all of it from your smartphone thanks to WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity. It still costs $249 if all this sounds like something you need in your life.
[via Nest]
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