Smart home technology and its integration our daily lives/lifestyle is the next "big thing" in home ownership. As technology continues to advance at an unprecedented rate, tech professionals are finding ways to make at home living more comfortable and luxurious. I thought I would discuss the smart thermostat, Nest!
Nest Thermostat
Pros
The Nest Thermostat is the next generation in at home heating/cooling. It learns your habits and patterns over time and is designed to save you money on your energy bills. For example, if you leave for work at 8 AM every day and get back at 5:30 PM, the Nest will learn to turn the heat/cool off at 8 AM once you leave, and around 5 PM it will cool/heat the home so when you get back around 5:30 PM the temperature is to your liking. You can also manually customize the temperature for every hour of every day if you so chose. Another cool feature is that you can control the temperature/settings via the mobile app for Apple/Android products, so if you go on vacation and forget to turn off or lower the heat you can do so while you are abroad. Another one of my favorite features is that the Nest will actually track your energy consumption and you will receive a monthly email briefing you on your energy consumption.
Cons
Just like any piece of technology the Nest has it's troubles. A large downside to using the Nest is that it can crash. If the Nest crashes your whole heating system will be rendered useless until you reboot the Nest/fix the problem. Without getting into technical details, the Nest may not be the best fit for the design of your system at home, causing your heating and cooling systems to work harder than needed thus shortening their lifespan.
A competitor to Nest would be the Ecobee 3, it certainly has a few great features to take into consideration
when deciding to buy a smart thermostat.