Finally a thermostat that programs itself

Nest Labs has announced that it has created the Nest Learning ThermostatTM. Nest learns from your behaviors, preferences and surroundings to create a custom heating and cooling schedule, keeping you comfortable when you’re home and conserving energy when you’re away.

“It was unacceptable to me that the device that controls 10 percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. hadn’t kept up with advancements in technology and design,” said Tony Fadell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nest Labs. “Together with the team, Co-Founder Matt Rogers and I set out to reinvent the thermostat using advanced technologies, high-quality manufacturing processes and the thoughtful design elements the iPhone generation has come to

expect. We hope it will not only save money and energy, but that it will teach and inspire people to think more about how they can reduce home-energy consumption.”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the annual energy bill for a typical single-family home is approximately $2,200, with heating and cooling (HVAC) accounting for approximately half of the bill. The programmable thermostat, developed in the 1970s, promised to help people conserve energy, but 89 percent of owners rarely or never set a program.

The Nest Learning Thermostat addresses the programming problem through a combination of sensors, algorithms, machine learning and cloud computing. Nest programs itself based on the temperatures you set. Nest then learns your personal schedule in a week and starts automatically turning down heating or cooling when you’re away to save energy. The Auto-AwayTM feature uses sensors to detect when you’re not home, lowering the temperature and saving energy.

You can connect Nest to your home’s Wi-Fi to control it from your laptop, smartphone or tablet. Change the temperature, adjust your schedule and check your energy usage.

The Nest Learning Thermostat is expected to be available at www.nest.com and retail outlets for a suggested retail price of $249.