One Joule At A Time! (An Engineer’s Gadget Review of a Smart Thermostat.)

It’s obvious I love Mac computers. What might not be so obvious is how much I love technology as a whole.

From the wheel to the jet engine, technology has been moving us forward for thousands of years. One of the greatest leaps forward was humanity’s harnessing of electricity and, specifically, AC — there’s my shout out to Nicola Tesla! I have to say, however, that now-a-days electricity – while super useful – is the bane of most American’s existence; specifically the electric bill! I dread my the monthly visit of that wretched piece of dead tree.  I know it’s crazy and seems completely off topic but fear not, I’m right on target. Did you know that more than half your monthly electrical usage can be traced to heating and cooling? I was floored to learn it effected my electric usage so much!

Well, I found something that will help! It’s called Nest and is probably the coolest, most useful piece of technology around right now. Forget the iPhone 5 – get this instead! Nest is an intelligent thermostat for your AC/Heating system.

What? Is he really writing about a thermostat??  Well, yes I am! This thing is awesome!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5thQRIX3Rio&w=560&h=315]

First of all, it has WiFi. Yep it speaks IP, one more reason it has stolen my heart. Next, it thinks all on its own. There’s no more “programming” the thermostat to turn on and off at times that you think you want the temp to change. This thing figures it out all by itself. Oh, and one of the coolest things of all, it knows when you’re home. This thing actually has sensors that tell it when no one is in the house and will change the temperature accordingly, up to a maximum/minimum you specify. Gone are the times of shuffling through multiple text menus to try to change heating strategies and remembering to account for daylight savings time. This thing is awesome and I haven’t told you the half of it yet!

Nest has an App! Yep, it has an iPhone/iPad app. Android people, I’m sorry I just don’t know anything about an app for you but it works with my phone and I’m happy! This means I can change the temperature from my bed in the middle of the night. I don’t have to get up or stumble around in the dark to find the little box. Guess what else? You can change the temperature from anywhere in the world using the app! How amazing is that?! And did I mention it knows the weather, too? AND it sends you reports on your energy usage; AND helps you save energy by helping you understand how the temperature changes your energy usage?! I can’t tell you how exciting this is for me! Someone took something so simple and turned it into something that really makes a difference in your life.

Nest is elegant! It’s round and shiny and, for lack of a better word, pretty. Once you see this thing and see what it can do, you’ll be completely amazed. It’s getting great reviews everywhere, and with good reason. I have barely touched on all of Nest’s features. Go check it out and you’ll see why it’s so amazing. (By they way, their blog is pretty great, too!)

Oh, one more thing…Nest was created by previous Apple engineers, who had a great idea and decided to build this wonderful product. This is definitely going on my birthday list!

What other cool tech gadgets have you come across lately? Let me know – I may have to add them to my wish list, as well!

~Jason