Does anyone use "Nest" to control heat?

[Orion]

Originally Posted by pjard

These Mitsubishi Splits are amazingly cheap to run. Last summer I installed solar panels so via an app and/or web site I can see very precisely how much electricity I am using. Right now I am running 3 units keeping the house at 73-74. The three units combined seem to add about 300-400 watts to the total consumption. They run a bit more than that when they are bringing the temp down. At 18 cents per KWH, I'm keeping my house very comfortable for 7.2 cents per hour....unbelievable.

I have a Sense whole house current monitor and have three units running, but I'm seeing more like 700-1000W in cooling maintenance mode. But it is over 90 here today. I'm running two 9K BTU and one 12K BTU off one outdoor unit.

[SummerIslander]

Warning: Nest (and similar connected appliances are surveillance systems sold as an appliance. The business model of Nest and similar connected devices is to get something into your home to collect and sell data on what you and your family do at home 24x7. If you like that kind of monitoring by strangers and the security risk that the data will be stolen someday and used to target you by criminals and hackers, buy it. Note that the worst data and network security risks these days come from the relatively immature "internet of things" devices like this that are not as well protected or patched as phones and computers.

If you can find a model that you are sure allows only you to connect to it, that might be safer. But then how would the vendor apply security patches ... ? Can of worms.

(full disclosure: I work for a software company, not a Luddite. I know how these people think.)

[Biggd]

Originally Posted by SummerIslander

Warning: Nest (and similar connected appliances are surveillance systems sold as an appliance. The business model of Nest and similar connected devices is to get something into your home to collect and sell data on what you and your family do at home 24x7. If you like that kind of monitoring by strangers and the security risk that the data will be stolen someday and used to target you by criminals and hackers, buy it. Note that the worst data and network security risks these days come from the relatively immature "internet of things" devices like this that are not as well protected or patched as phones and computers.

If you can find a model that you are sure allows only you to connect to it, that might be safer. But then how would the vendor apply security patches ... ? Can of worms.

(full disclosure: I work for a software company, not a Luddite. I know how these people think.)

If you have a smart phone you are being monitored on a daily basis. The only way to avoid this is to disconnect from the web completely and go live up in the north woods of Maine. Even the new car you buy is connected. Whether you're paying for it or not it can be accessed through it's GPS. With camera's everywhere connected to the web you would be hard pressed to get away from being tracked today.