Thoughts on a Nest Thermostat

I like it. I got impressed when you threw out the word algorithm. I was surprised I could actually pronounce algorithm without messing up. Yeah, they throw you out on big words. This is a special show. What is emergency? We're black and white on all of this, by the way. Make them feel safe. We only go color when we're serious and we understand questions. What are your thoughts on a Nest thermostat? A Nest thermostat, for those of you who don't know what a Nest thermostat is, they were bought by Google for a lot of money. Was it? It was a lot of money. So it's a thermostat that you put on your wall and it's a smart thermostat, meaning they actually— you don't program it. It is a programmable thermostat. But it learns your habits as you have it installed. So after a week or so, it realizes that, hey, they adjust the thermostat at 7 AM every morning, they adjust it at 8 AM, they adjust it at 5 PM, they adjust it at 9 PM. Then it's going to know your habits and it will start programming for you. So I think it's a good thermostat. The downside to it is There is no way to change the batteries. If it dies, it's dead. It's kind of a self-containing product. So if anything happens to it, there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to get a new one. But I think it's a good product. I mean, the problem Energy Star has had with programmable thermostats is the fact that, okay, it is code, we have to install a programmable thermostat at your house. When we install a new system. The problem is people don't use the program, or if they don't use it, they don't— or if they use it, they don't use it properly. So the Nest thermostat really takes that equation out of it. It learns how you operate in your house and programs for you. So it's a programmable thermostat where you don't have to set programs to it. It learns how you behave. It knows when you're home. It has sensors to know when it's dark outside, when it's the middle of the day. It knows all this. It's got all these algorithms built into it, so it's going to know what's going on. I think it's a good thermostat, but like anything, it has a few downsides as well. It's a big circle, like the old-fashioned Honeywell big circles. It kind of gives you that comfort of being in 1970 as well. I think it's really good. There you go. Was that— that was right, wasn't it? I wasn't alive in the '70s. That was pretty much right. Yeah, I like it. I got impressed when you threw out the word algorithm. I was surprised I could actually pronounce algorithm without messing up. Yeah, they threw down big words. All right, this is a special show. What is emergency? We're black and white on all this, by the way, so they can feel safe. We only go color when we're serious and we understand questions.