Visionary Tony Fadell who, back in the day, was in charge of the iPod at Apple *just* launched a brand new product called Nest. It’s a incredibly sexy looking thermostat that learns as you use it and, in the end, helps you save money.
10% of all U.S. energy is controlled by thermostats. That’s the equivalent of 1.7 billion barrels of oil per year. But in most homes the thermostat is an unassuming beige box. It doesn’t matter if it’s a manual or complicated programmable thermostat,we do with it what we’ve always done: get up, walk over to it, and change the temperature. Every few hours. Every day. 1,500 times a year.
We still try to save energy, of course. We turn down the thermostat when we can, we don’t set it too high or low. But we’re human. We forget. Until we see our energy bills.
That’s where Nest comes in. Smart. Hat tip off to Tony Fadell and his team. Learn more or Pre-Order.
This looks like a great product that could do wonders for the environment. It’s too bad they have priced it into irrelevance.
I’m not suggesting that they lose money on it, but $250 for a thermostat? They must be off their crackers. Here is a short list of things you can buy for less money: iPod Touch, Kindle fire, Xbox, Wii. While it’s true none of those products will save the environment, neither will the Nest if no one buys it.
Oct 25th, 2011 / 10:31 am
High priced yes, but if you’re living with cold winters it can likely pay for itself in heat savings over the course of a year or two.
Oct 25th, 2011 / 11:08 am
A great looking thermostat…finally!
Oct 25th, 2011 / 11:51 am
@Giles: it would be a little short sighted to write this thing off on the price alone. Remember that the iPod launched at, what, $400? Early adopters will buy in, and prices will come down in time.
Oct 25th, 2011 / 8:34 pm
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
Oct 26th, 2011 / 2:14 pm