Nest thermostats get new features to help you save money

Google has announced several new features for its Nest thermostats aimed at helping the smart home become a bigger partner in the fight against climate change. These features are built into a new service called Nest Renew.

The service will use smart automation to allow thermostats to communicate with energy providers and make it easier for Nest users to know when there is cleaner and / or cheaper energy on their local power grid. The device will then automatically adjust to use that energy at optimal times without you having to do anything.

Nest Renew is the “first program of its kind,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and it’s completely optional. It includes five main features:

• Energy Shift – automatic shifting of heating and cooling to times when energy is cheaper and / or cleaner
• Monthly impact reports – a snapshot of how clean the energy a home is using, based on the time of day, so people can adapt when using unconnected devices to take advantage of ‘clean energy
• Energy Impact Program – an option to gamify your green choices. Users Collect Nest Green Leaves to Get a Vote on How Nest Directs Funds to Clean Energy Nonprofits
• Clean Energy Match – the ability to match estimated consumption of electricity from fossil fuels in the home with renewable energy credits (RECs) from US solar and wind power plants
• Schedule Tune-ups – a new version of the existing Seasonal Savings feature that makes small adjustments to your HVAC schedule based on the time of year to optimize energy use

Nest’s existing demand response program, Rush Hour Rewards, which is an energy-saving program where the utility company can remotely adjust a home’s thermostat to relieve pressure on the grid, will continue. as a separate service. People can choose to run both services on their thermostat simultaneously, with the Rush Hour schedule taking priority.

Nest Renew will run on the latest Nest thermostats, namely the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Thermostat E, and Nest Thermostat. Visual indicators on the thermostat, emails, and activity summaries will let Nest users know when different features are active.

There are two tiers for Nest Renew: Renew Basic, which is free and will be available throughout the continental United States, and Renew Premium, which costs $ 10 per month and is limited to certain markets at launch (Google does not say which). The premium level adds two features for $ 10 per month; the Clean Energy Match, which is a way to match the fossil fuel used with renewable energy certificates from solar and wind power plants in the United States, and the ability to pay utility bills through Nest Renew.

The main feature of Nest Renew is Energy Shift, available in both paid and free plans. This will automatically shift the consumption of heating and cooling energy to times when energy is cleaner and / or cheaper. Ben Brown, director of product management at Nest, explained that he will use small shifts, such as pre-cooling a house five or 10 minutes before the wind begins to weaken or new peaks of heat begin. demand lead to the commissioning of new power plants. “It will only be small coordinations based on the needs of the network that will not sacrifice comfort at all,” he said. Nest customers will be able to manually adjust their thermostats if at some point they prefer to be more comfortable than greener.

Depending on where you live and who your energy supplier is, the electricity that reaches your home can be generated by fossil fuels for one part of the day and wind or solar for another. Google says Energy Shift uses smart automation to make adjustments based on predictions of the type of electricity on the grid. It then adapts the energy use to prioritize clean energy. The company has partnered with the nonprofit WattTime, which has developed algorithms to determine the grid’s marginal emission rates in real time.

Energy Shift can also adapt to the “time of use” charges that your energy supplier might have. Hour-of-use charges are when you’re charged more for using electricity at, say, 7 p.m. – when everyone is cooking dinner at home and watching Netflix – than if you were doing those activities at. , say, 2 a.m. Time-of-use charging is widespread in Europe and the UK, but not yet in the US. But it comes. Energy providers see it as a way to encourage people to use energy when demand is lower, helping them to better balance demand on the grid.

Nest says Energy Shift is a way for its customers to navigate this shift. “Some regions are making it mandatory to switch to time-of-use plans – California and Michigan, for example,” Brown said. “Nest Renew will allow customers to manage their consumption against these usage plans to ensure they can minimize their energy bills.”

Image: Google

Usage time rates can be difficult to navigate. Running your HVAC system, for example, isn’t as easy to time as, say, running the dishwasher, which you can put off. Having a smart thermostat to handle these calculations might make it easier.

Nest says it hopes to roll out Nest Renew to more home devices in the future, partnering with its smart displays and the Google Home ecosystem. “We want to look at opportunities to allow other devices to coordinate with the needs of the network; a good example would be electric vehicles, ”said Brown.

RMI, a non-profit organization working to accelerate the country’s transition to clean energy, analyzed the Nest Renew program and concluded that products like this could reduce approximately 50 million metric tons of CO2 per year. if 10 million households participated. This is about 7% of the gap between the current level of household emissions and the current United States target, which aims to cut emissions in half by 2030. With nearly 123 million households in the United States. United, the impact that smart and connected homes could have on the climate the challenge of change will be even greater if even more people participate.

Nest Renew will be available as an invitation-only preview in the coming weeks. Register at nestrenew.google.com to join the list.