Nest Away Assist: Automatically Detect When You're Home or Away
Automated Temperature Control with Nest Thermostat
Many homeowners adjust their thermostats when leaving for work to conserve energy. The Nest Thermostat offers a convenient solution by automating this process, recognizing occupancy patterns and adjusting temperatures accordingly.
Understanding Home/Away Assist
The Nest Thermostat utilizes a feature known as Home/Away Assist to intelligently manage your home's temperature. This system leverages both an integrated sensor and the GPS capabilities of your smartphone to ascertain whether the residence is occupied.
Based on this determination, the thermostat can proactively lower the temperature when you are absent and restore it to a comfortable level upon your return.
Setting Up Home/Away Assist
The Nest Thermostat’s Home/Away Assist feature is easily configured. The setup process allows the device to learn your routines and optimize energy usage without manual intervention.
Here's a breakdown of how to activate and personalize this functionality for optimal performance.
- The thermostat uses its internal sensors to detect movement.
- It also utilizes the location data from your mobile device.
- These data points combine to accurately determine your presence.
By combining these methods, the Nest Thermostat provides a seamless and efficient way to manage your home's climate and reduce energy consumption.
Home/Away Assist and Auto-Away: Understanding the Differences
It’s crucial to address a potential point of confusion regarding Nest Thermostat functionality. Nest offers two features designed to manage your home’s temperature based on occupancy: Home/Away Assist and Auto-Away. While both appear similar, they differ in scope and capabilities.
Auto-Away has been a long-standing feature, specifically for the Nest Thermostat. Home/Away Assist, conversely, is a more recent addition, eagerly anticipated by many users.
Key Distinctions Between the Features
A primary difference lies in their availability. Auto-Away is solely for the Nest Thermostat, whereas Home/Away Assist extends to the entire Nest product line, including Nest Cam and Nest Protect.
Furthermore, Auto-Away relies exclusively on the Nest Thermostat’s built-in motion sensor to determine occupancy. Home/Away Assist, however, leverages both your smartphone’s GPS location and the motion sensor, leading to more precise presence detection.
Auto-Away functions as a component within Home/Away Assist. Enabling Auto-Away is a prerequisite for Home/Away Assist to utilize the motion sensor data.
It’s important to note that neither feature requires the other to function. However, activating both ensures your Nest system benefits from the combined accuracy of GPS and motion sensing.
With this clarification established, we can proceed with configuring Home/Away Assist to enable automatic temperature adjustments based on your presence.
Configuring Home/Away Assist for Your Nest Thermostat
Begin by launching the Nest application on your smartphone and selecting the settings gear icon located in the upper-right corner of the display.
From the settings menu, choose the "Home/Away Assist" option.
Next, tap on the option labeled "What decides if you're home".
Select "Use phone location" to enable this feature.
Activate the feature by tapping the toggle switch that appears on the screen.
A confirmation screen will appear; tap "OK" at the bottom to proceed.
When prompted, tap "Use phone" on the subsequent pop-up window.
You may be asked to grant the Nest app permission to access your device’s location. Confirm this permission if requested.
On the following screen, input your address and then tap "Next". Note that Nest does not store this address; it is solely used to pinpoint your location on a map.
Adjust the map to position the pin accurately over your home. Utilize the satellite view, accessible by tapping the mountain icon, for greater precision. Select "Done" when the pin is correctly placed.
To enable Auto-Away, which leverages the Nest Thermostat's motion sensor, toggle the switch next to "Nest Thermostat" and select "Next".
Return to the previous screen by tapping the back arrow in the top-left corner.
Now, tap on the temperature values displayed with the orange and blue arrows.
Under "Use Away temperatures", adjust the dots to define your desired minimum and maximum comfort temperatures. These are your Away Temperatures.
For instance, you can set a minimum temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit to activate heating when unoccupied. Similarly, a maximum of 80 degrees can prevent excessive cooling during summer months.
After setting these temperatures, navigate back to the main screen using the back arrow. Your configuration is now complete.
If you prefer not to utilize GPS or the motion sensor, simply bypass those steps. However, enabling both methods will enhance the Nest Thermostat's ability to accurately determine your presence. The motion sensor requires approximately one week to learn your routines and optimize performance.
For individuals with unpredictable schedules, relying on GPS is recommended to prevent the motion sensor from misinterpreting activity.