Anyone on here having problems using the NEST APP?

[muffking]

Just checking, but is anyone else having problem controlling their NEST thermostat via the mobile App?
I ask because mine has been fine for ages, but recently won't let me control it via any of the family mobiles, despite showing the live temperature readout on our phones as I move the dial on the thermostat manually.

 

[penguin16]

No problems here.

 

[Gorners]

Send a tweet to @NestUk_, they're pretty quick at severing a response. Also their online help documentation is very comprehensive. I suspect there'll be a page to help troubleshoot your issue.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Just checking, but is anyone else having problem controlling their NEST thermostat via the mobile App?
I ask because mine has been fine for ages, but recently won't let me control it via any of the family mobiles, despite showing the live temperature readout on our phones as I move the dial on the thermostat manually.

How on earth did people manage to heat their homes for all those many many years before computers got small enough to be carried in a pocket?

 

[ericmark]

How on earth did people manage to heat their homes for all those many many years before computers got small enough to be carried in a pocket?

Cheap fuel. My mothers house had to start with coal fires with an open grate, the draft was huge, chairs had high backs to shelter one from the draft, as time went on these were changed to coke burning fires, main reason was cheap coke from the steel works, when central heating was first fitted it was not very good, water would get far too hot, no control for domestic water, and it was switched on and off just like lighting a fire, no thermostat, we would shiver for an hour or two waiting for house to warm up.

Today the house has a lot fewer drafts, and the central heating is much more efficient. I see no reason to use the phone to control it, the times and temperatures are the same every week, however I have two thermostats and the programmable one has gone wrong too many times, I now wish I had paid out the extra and got a more expensive type hopefully more reliable, or at least hard wired so failure means no heat rather then being roasted.

So I am now looking at yet another thermostat, because I also want to turn off the alarm without going up stairs, also looking as remote controlled sockets. So in spite what I have said in the past, I am now also looking at internet linked units, once one gets one item adding to it is not that expensive. My problem is phone battery life, all the apps seem to reduce battery life, so I have spare batteries and battery to battery chargers.

The problem is today once you get the house hot, it takes ages to cool down, but that also means the saving switching off the heating must be rather low. When the thermostat stuck off first thing in the morning, it was 4 pm before I noticed the house was cool it had dropped 3 degrees. So in real terms the switching down of heating at 9:30 and back up at 3:30 is only likely to save a few pence. But being warm enough for mother to sleep is likely to save my sanity.

 

[muffking]

How on earth did people manage to heat their homes for all those many many years before computers got small enough to be carried in a pocket?

I guess that's progression for you, unless you still get up to change the channel on your TV?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

What real problem is the ability to fiddle with one's heating from outside the house by using a phone actually solving?

And if you're in the house, what does it do for you that using the controls directly won't do?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I guess that's progression for you, unless you still get up to change the channel on your TV?

I don't.

Apologies - I hadn't realised that you like to fiddle with your heating controls dozens of times every evening.

 

[ericmark]

What real problem is the ability to fiddle with one's heating from outside the house by using a phone actually solving?

It is solving the problem of some one inside the house fiddling, and when situations change being able to adjust without using fuel to travel to do that adjusting, so if my son goes to work intending to call and see me on his way home, then I send a text to say I will be out, then he can still come home to warm house, and the reverse if he is told you need to go to Newcastle your booked overnight in a travel lodge, he can stop it coming on that evening.

And if you're in the house, what does it do for you that using the controls directly won't do?

It does grate I know, but you try buying a hard wired thermostatic radiator valve with a programmed time, my son actually wired house with a LAN socket at every radiator so they could all be hard wired into the computer control, however they are not made, you can get wireless for a number of manufactures, and you can get stand alone, but radiators tend to be where reaching a stand alone unit is hard, even when you are going to alter all setting with a PC in the same house, you still have to do it through the internet. It's the way the system is made, you need a hub with connects to router and a free account to work it. Not even direct within the house.

I would agree in theory using a hard wired system seems better, however in practice does not work.

I want to turn off an alarm from down stairs which is located upstairs, and also be able to reset the alarm once I have left the house, a simple pneumatic time switch would do the job. However to fit it means cutting a grove in the walls, lifting floor boards and carpet, and re-plastering and decorating after. Or I use a WiFi socket. Even DIY the Wifi is cheaper.

The REAL problem is you can only use what is available, and quantity reduces price, so manufactures try to make their product with as many bells and whistles as they can to increase the market for it. So they just don't make a reasonably priced hard wired system. Yes you could buy a PLC to do the job, with SCARDA control, but at a silly cost.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Some people's lives do seem unnecessarily complicated.

 

[ericmark]

Some people's lives do seem unnecessarily complicated.

I think we do things today which were unheard of 50 years ago, likely my mother would have died 10 years ago if we had not progressed with our knowledge, had that happened I would not be looking for ways to look after her.
I was brought up in a world of have bag will travel. But 100 years ago one would not consider commuting on weekly, or monthly basis as I have done. Be it Sizewell or Falklands not only did I travel to the main job, but was also required to travel once I got there. Overnight stop in Byron Hights could easy stretch to a week, only needed a little bad weather and the rotating wing aircraft could not land.
So yes our lives have become complex, as to if unnecessarily that's hard to say. If I had stopped in the UK working for the council who knows what may have happened? Possibly my wife would have left me for a better live with some one else, so I would not have had three children, and my families line would have ended. It could have gone other way, she could have found some one else while I was away.

I would agree the money spent to control central heating is unlikely to be recouped. But the comfort gained having a home at the right heat could be well worth the money, I have found to my cost, cheap thermostats do not control the heating as good as expensive ones, it's not just internet control, it's the hysteresis damping of the more expensive types.

 

[muffking]

Absolutely agree. I've paid for the convenience of remote controlled heating rather than as a money saving device.
In the mean time I'm going to try another router and see if that changes anything.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Absolutely agree. I've paid for the convenience of remote controlled heating rather than as a money saving device.

Doesn't sound like you've increased convenience.

Surely if you are going to prioritise convenience over money saving you just have a programmer which keeps the house at set temperatures at set times, and not obsess over whether you're going out in the evening, or whatever?

 

[muffking]

Not really obsess as a timer still comes on when you're out if set to do so, plus you can't turn them on when I'm on my way home from randomly timed dog walks or not knowing what time I'll be home from work due to my ever changing work schedule.

There's no point in anyone else trying to justify it's needs other than for themselves. It simply suits my lifestyle.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not really obsess as a timer still comes on when you're out if set to do so,

So?

plus you can't turn them on when I'm on my way home from randomly timed dog walks

You turn it off/down when you leave to take the dog for a walk? Why, if it's not to save money?

or not knowing what time I'll be home from work due to my ever changing work schedule.

Does it really vary hugely?

If you set it to be 16° or 17°, say, when you're out, and then you get home early, does it really take an unreasonably long time to get to 20° if you turn it up when you get home?

There's no point in anyone else trying to justify it's needs other than for themselves.

Indeed not.

It simply suits my lifestyle.

Fine - it's just that you saying it was convenience over money-saving doesn't seem to ring true. You could keep it at 20° 24x7 if you wanted to, then it would be perfectly warm whenever you walked in, and what could possibly be more convenient than having to do nothing?