How to install a Nest Thermostat

We got a house (more on that here)!  And a washer and dryer and a lawn mower and a blower and an edger, the new house must have’s go on and on. This whole house owning thing is a lot more work than my little condo or our Florida apartment!  My very favorite new house item is a nest thermostat. I know, I know that does not sound that exciting… But, this Nest thermostat is is pretty fun and pretty pretty too. Oh and it saves you lots of money AND if you live in Austin, you can get an $85 rebate! We got ours at TreeHouse, a local home improvement store here in Austin.

A super embarrassing side note: I posted this exact pic on facebook not realizing that I took the pic in too few clothes and my reflection showed up in the center of the nest! TRUE! Thankfully, my wonderful friend, Allison, called me 15 minutes after it was posted and told me I might want to take it down, ha! Just a little warning for you semi nude picture takers… watch out for you reflections! 

One more note: I’m not getting paid or perked to share this with you. We just love the nest. 

So, first I’ll give you a brief run down of what we love about our Nest thermostat:

• You can control it from your computer or smart phone. That’s right you can turn your thermostat down from your bed! It’s also handy if your out of town or just want to make sure your house is cooled before you get home.
• There is an energy saving leaf that appears at the bottom of the screen when you are saving money. It’s addicting. I really like to see that green leaf! Usually if I just turn it up a degree or 2, the leaf appears!
• It reminds you to change your air filter based on how many hours you’ve used the AC! Yes, true! The nest is that smart.
• It does lots more stuff, you can see the complete list on nest.com

See, here’s the little addicting green leaf that says you’re saving energy! That’s a happy little leaf.

There are only 5 steps to installing your Nest. And best of all, it took Andy less than 30 minutes! Oh, and don’t forget to turn the power off!

1. Removing old thermostat
2. Installing base
3. Connecting wires
4. Connecting display
5. Creating a nest account online

Here’s the easy peasy how to video Andy watched to install our nest:

Here is Andy labeling the wires. You can also see that we used the wall plate the Nest comes with. In my humble opinion, the nest looks cooler if the plate is not used, but for us that meant patching holes, which we just didn’t feel like doing right now! See more about labeling the wires at minute 1:43 in the video!

And here’s the fun part, step #4: connecting the display. It literally just snaps right on!

After the nest is installed you have to set up an account and connect it to wifi. The video doesn’t really talk about this, but it’s easy. Click here to register your nest. Just fill our email address and pick a password. You will need to verify your email address. Then this will show up, and your all set!

If you live in Austin, after you’ve made an account you sign up to get your rebate here. If you live in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, you can get $100 bucks off of your nest (more info here)! There are also mail in rebates happening in these states:

Anyone else own a nest?  Do you love it? Does anyone not like their nest? Anyone else addicted to that little green leaf? I’d love to hear…