A Nest Thermostat is a great investment for keeping your home comfortable, no matter what the season or weather. With a number of innovative features meant to maximize efficiency, convenience and comfort, a Nest Thermostat is an easy way to manage your energy use — lowering your monthly bills in the process.

That’s why more people are looking to add devices like a Nest to their homes. If you want to put in a Nest for your own home, call your nearest expert for smart thermostat installation in Monroe.

With everything from automatic scheduling to optimizing energy efficiency, Nest makes controlling the climate of your home effortless.

Ready to learn more? Take a look at 12 things you should know about your Nest Thermostat.

1. How to Reset a Nest Thermostat

A key piece of information to know about resetting a Google Nest Thermostat is that there's a difference between a restart and a reset.

  • Restart: This process is similar across most electronics, including your phone or computer, restarting your Nest Thermostat simply turns it off and then back on. This records your existing thermostat settings, ad can reapply them once you're done confirming if your Nest is frozen or not connecting to Wi-Fi.
  • Reset: Conversely, resetting eliminates most if not all of your preferred settings. For the most part, homeowners will perform a reset when they’re moving to a new home and bringing the thermostat with them, or if they're moving out and prefer to erase all personal info from the Nest before leaving it for the next homeowner.

If you want to perform a reset, it helps to record existing temperature settings so they're still available if you forget or erase them. Next, find Settings -> Equipment and record your system wires, heating type and safety temperature settings.

After writing down this information, go to Settings, select Reset and press. You can choose from five options:

  • Restart: Shuts your Nest down and reboots it while saving your settings. Another way to restart is to press the outside of the Nest and hold it there until it turns black, at which point you can remove your hand.
  • Schedule: This type of reset clears any info about your temperature schedule—including for your hot water, if you've connected it to your Nest. By choosing this kind of reset, you’ll need to create a new schedule or wait until the Nest learns your schedule.
  • Away: Choosing this reset option gets rid of any programming your Nest has picked up about how often you walk by, so it will be able to change the temperature even when you're not around.
  • Network: If you select this reset option, it erases connection info and your Nest will no longer be connected to Wi-Fi. Use this option if you want your Nest to forget your Wi-Fi password.
  • All Settings: This reset clears all your personal settings and learning.

2. How to Connect Nest Thermostat to Wi-Fi

Staying connected to your Wi-Fi is important if you want the most use of its online features.

To connect your Nest to the internet:

  • Open the Quick View menu by turning the thermostat ring.
  • Select the Settings icon.
  • Select Network.
  • After your Nest is finished scanning for local networks, find your Wi-Fi and, if needed, enter your password.

3. Does a Nest Thermostat Have a Battery and How Long Does It Last?

Nest thermostats are powered indirectly through HVAC system, but each one also features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for backup in situations where the power cuts out. According to Google, the maker of Nest, a Nest Thermostat battery will generally last several months. The Nest's battery is rechargable with a USB cable included with the thermostat.

4. Shutting Off a Nest Thermostat

If you aren’t going to be in your home for a long time, it's a good idea to set your Nest Thermostat to Off mode, though Eco mode is also a good option. Using Off mode will turn off all of your regular heating and cooling schedules, but it will still adhere to any current Safety Temperatures to keep your home from getting particularly hot or cold.

To choose Off mode on the thermostat:

  • Hold the touch bar until the display reads “Turn Off” before sliding the bar to highlight Turn Off, and then touch the bar to select.
  • You can also go to Mode from the main menu and select Off.

Off mode is available on the Google Home app as well:

  • Select Thermostat from home screen
  • Tap Temperature mode
  • Select Off

5. Can Alexa Control a Nest Thermostat?

Yes, you can use Amazon Alexa to control a Nest Thermostat. Alexa voice controls are also available with Nest doorbells and cameras. You can even operate a Nest Thermostat with Google Assistant.

6. Can a Nest Thermostat Function Without Wi-Fi?

In short, yes. Your Nest Thermostat will still be able to adjust the temperatures without Wi-Fi. However, being disconnected from Wi-FI means the Nest doesn’t have the smart thermostat functions that most people enjoy.

7. Can You Lock a Nest Thermostat?

If you’re having a battle over the thermostat in your home between people who like things hot and others who prefer them cold, Nest can help you bring a little order back to your household.

Users can lock the Nest to stop any temperature adjustments outside of a preset range. This won't mean you have to make do with just one temperature—a locked Nest continues to use existing program settings—but simply prevents people from changing the settings.

If you want to lock your Nest:

  • Press the Settings icon, scroll to the bottom and find Lock.
  • Enter a 4-digit pin number you can remember, and then enter it twice.
  • For locking a Nest in Heat or Cool mode, fine-tune your maximum and minimum temperature range before tapping Lock at the bottom of the screen.

For unlocking it, open the settings and choose Unlock. After you've entered the 4-digit pin, your device will be unlocked.

8. Adjusting a Nest Thermostat from a Phone

Nest thermostats can be controlled by your Google Home app, accessible through your phone or other smart device, including a computer. Other versions of Nest, including the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, are also compatible with remote control via the Nest app.

Before you can control a Nest on your phone with Google Home or the Nest app, there are a few steps to complete first:

  • Download the Google Home app or, if you have an advanced model, the Nest app to your phone.
  • Plug in your Nest Thermostat.
  • Open the Google Home app on your phone and complete the setup process, link to your new device and connect to Wi-Fi.
  • There is a guided setup tool on Google, for those needing extra assistance in connecting.

As soon as you've connected the Nest to your Home app, you can access it by clicking Thermostat on the home screen. Once you do that, making adjustments is done by dragging your finger along the screen or tapping on a plus or minus sign.

You also can change preset Nest temperatures on the app. From the home screen, find your Thermostat before selecting Settings. At this screen, press Temperature Preferences and then Temperature Presets. The display will show your preferred Comfort, Eco and Sleep temperatures. Choose the appropriate setting to change the temperature for that preset.

9. Setting a Nest Thermostat Schedule

A Nest allows you to set temperatures schedules either on the device or on the Google Home app. Newer and advanced models of the Nest, such as the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat, can also be adjusted by using the Nest app.

The two easiest ways to schedule your Nest are:

  • Quick Schedule: Quick Schedules are based on the national average schedule for energy efficiency. As you complete your Nest's setup process, the Google Home app gives you the option to change the temperature with a schedule. When choosing this option, it displays a preset schedule and allows you to make changes. Once setup is complete, that’s the schedule it uses.
  • Temperature Presets: For changing the Nest's preset temperatures, open the Google Home app and press Thermostat. Then, tap Presets and select Edit. After the changes are complete, select Done.

To make tweaks or changes to your current schedule, open the Google Home app, select Thermostat and then tap on Schedules. Choose the day of the week where you want to make changes. After the day is selected, tap Add and select the preset you want. Finally, select Time before touching and dragging the numbers to change the time. Select Done to save changes.

10. How to Set a Temperature Range on a Nest Thermostat

Your Nest's Eco mode is great for setting temperature ranges. Your Nest will adjust the temperature depending on if you're at home or away.

To customize the Nest temperature range in Eco mode, go to Settings and select Eco. That should display the current “Heat to” and “Cool to” temperature settings. You can select each and adjust them to your desired temperature. Once you're finished, select Done.

11. What Should I Do If My Nest Thermostat Isn't Compatible?

Nest thermostats are compatible with most heating and cooling systems. The maker of Nest, Google, features a compatibility checking tool that asks a series of questions about your location and current setup to learn which Nest model would be compatible with your system.

If you don't think your Nest is compatible with your system, you should get in touch with local pros for smart thermostat installation in Monroe. Experienced technicians evaluate your system and, if your Nest is compatible, get it installed and on the road to saving you money in no time.

12. Can I Manually Control My Nest Thermostat?

Nest Thermostats are loaded with innovative features designed to make life more comfortable and save money. However, there is a way to turn off the smart features if you prefer to control your Nest like it's a normal thermostat.

Take into account, by doing this you're eliminating your temperature schedules and your Nest will work like any other thermostat—it will display the temperature and allow you to make changes, but that’s about it.

You can achieve this by disabling the settings in a series of steps:

  • Auto-Schedule: From the main screen, go to Settings and then scroll to Nest Sense. Go to Auto-Schedule, select No and click Done.
  • Eco: From the main screen, go to Settings, scroll to Eco. Once in Eco, select Off for both the Heat to and Cool to temperatures, before selecting Done.
  • Home/Away Assist: From the main screen, go to Settings and select Home/Away Assist. Then, select Stop Using and click Done.
  • Reset: Once you’ve turned off the settings, reset your nest. From the main screen, go to Settings and select Reset, highlight Schedule and then select Reset to clear out any saved scheduling data.