Nest’s latest thermostat isn’t the only model that will be able to monitor your HVAC system, as the feature is rolling out to older models in Canada and the United States as well.
Software engineers on the Nest team have revealed in a blog post that they were working on the HVAC monitoring feature two years ago. They believed that a smart thermostat should have the ability to figure out when something might be going wrong with your HVAC system.
Nest began testing the feature earlier this year and sent alerts to users if the system detected a problem with their heating, ventilation or air conditioning.
The system will now send users alerts if it detects any signs of a malfunction. If the system detects something that may require immediate attention, it will send you urgent alerts.
It will also send early warning alerts within a week of detecting non-urgent issues. An example of a non-urgent issue would be your heating or air conditioning stopping several times.
Nest thermostats look for anomalies that may be potential performance issues with the HVAC system. It monitors the estimated ambient and target temperature to ensure that it’s the right temperature based on the time the system has been running.
The Nest team notes that it was able to develop the feature mainly because of recent advancements in cloud computing technology.
“Originally, each thermostat operated on its own, but now we have the power to make intelligent decisions based on anonymized data, which might not have been possible if we were just looking at each individual device,” they note.
Nest recently unveiled a refreshed thermostat that costs $179 in Canada. It comes in Snow,’ ‘Charcoal,’ ‘Sand,’ and ‘Fog.’ You can learn more about it here.
