Problems with Google Nest Thermostat

Jells

pecmsg said:

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

No wonder we get so many "Nest" calls on here. The utilities are giving them away

Its more to do with the product!

NEST gives them to the utilities with a good line of BS!

It's likely that they hope once you have the thermostat and the Google Home app that you'll keep buying their widgets. NJ PSEG is 'selling' them for $100 with a $100 rebate and free shipping, so all you pay is sales tax. Cost me $15 for 2.

I'm hoping they work out as a feature for my rental apartments, though I'm still trying to figure out how to hand off control. Do I create a Gmail account for the apartment and give them the PW? Or just let the tenant start from scratch and register the device themselves every time?

Jamie Hall

Either way the security and privacy aspects of this are just mind-boggling.

You as the landlord need to be able to retain some control. However, if you create an account and give them the password for it, you become responsible (joint and several liability) for everything done with or on that account. Are you sure you want that? On the other hand, if you let them reregister every time, you lose control.

And that's just for starters...

Jells

Jamie Hall said:

Either way the security and privacy aspects of this are just mind-boggling.

You as the landlord need to be able to retain some control. However, if you create an account and give them the password for it, you become responsible (joint and several liability) for everything done with or on that account. Are you sure you want that? On the other hand, if you let them reregister every time, you lose control.

And that's just for starters...

The liabilities of sharing a Gmail account I can see, but I'm not sure what control for me you're talking about for a unit where they register the thermostat on their own account and pay their own heat bill.

pecmsg

Get a standard digital t-stat. Most you can set high low limits the tenet gets a range to work with. YOU not Google gets to see what’s going on. 

Jells

pecmsg said:

Get a standard digital t-stat. Most you can set high low limits the tenet gets a range to work with. YOU not Google gets to see what’s going on.

They all have digital programmables now. Why do I care what they're doing if I don't pay the heat? It's not a single family where the pipes can freeze if they turn it off when they're gone.

pecmsg

Jells said:

Get a standard digital t-stat. Most you can set high low limits the tenet gets a range to work with. YOU not Google gets to see what’s going on.

They all have digital programmables now. Why do I care what they're doing if I don't pay the heat? It's not a single family where the pipes can freeze if they turn it off when they're gone.

That’s exactly why you want to know. 

Jells

pecmsg said:

Jells said:

Get a standard digital t-stat. Most you can set high low limits the tenet gets a range to work with. YOU not Google gets to see what’s going on.

They all have digital programmables now. Why do I care what they're doing if I don't pay the heat? It's not a single family where the pipes can freeze if they turn it off when they're gone.

That’s exactly why you want to know. 

But but they've always been able to freeze the pipes with a traditional thermostat, and the landlord not know. 

pecmsg

Jells said:

pecmsg said:

Jells said:

Get a standard digital t-stat. Most you can set high low limits the tenet gets a range to work with. YOU not Google gets to see what’s going on.

They all have digital programmables now. Why do I care what they're doing if I don't pay the heat? It's not a single family where the pipes can freeze if they turn it off when they're gone.

That’s exactly why you want to know. 

But but they've always been able to freeze the pipes with a traditional thermostat, and the landlord not know. 

Now you can tell before they freeze!

Solid_Fuel_Man

Has anyone ever considered just placing another thermostat in an undisclosed location in the apartment set to something like 50? Wire them in parallel, basically just a low limit. I've also installed wi-fi temp monitors, just a stand alone device. That way you can get real time notifications of apartment temperatures.