Smart Thermostat Company Nest Developing 'Protect' Smoke Detector

arkmannj · Sep 25, 2013

I love my Nest, I always felt the next products would be:

1) Extra Nest terminals - so you can have extra Nests in a house that could be used to gather more temperature, motion information from other locations (especially otehr floors) of the building. They could also be used to program and control the main nest.

2) Sprinkler controls.

3) Smart light switches/controls.

4) water heater controls

rdlink · Sep 25, 2013

Mac'nCheese said:
Those bulbs someone listed above. I was wrong, it's not 200 per light bulb but for a started pack with a hub or something like that. It's only $60 per light bulb. Will edit original post.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/HA779VC/A/philips-hue-connected-bulb-starter-pack?fnode=39

That was my point. I read the other poster's comment after posting. I own the Hue set, and having bought many LED lights over the last few years I know that, given their functionality Hue's price is not really out of line. I was annoyed to see the Hue bulbs being portrayed as costing $200 each.

unplugme71 · Sep 25, 2013

clayj said:
What they should develop FIRST is a remote temperature sensor for the Nest -- something you could plug in in, say, your bedroom and then tell the Nest, "I want the temperature THERE to be [x]." My Nest is in my front hallway and while the temperature THERE gets to what I've set it to be, my bedroom is never quite at the same temperature.

That's typically the cause of a poor duct layout or weak fan system. The house should be within 1-2 degrees across all rooms if its properly installed. Although ceiling fans can help to a degree.

Since a lot of builders cut corners or do poor design, I agree, there should be a way to plug in a device that takes the temperature of a room and keeps the system going until the desired temp in that room is reached.

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I wish a Philips would buy the Nest and Protect and integrate it as an all-in-one solution. Or someone would come up with something that is very UI friendly and the devices are more cost affordable.

CausticPuppy · Sep 25, 2013

I'll be interested to see how their product line expands.... possibly some home security stuff in the future?

Other "ugly white crap:" door bells.

Mac'nCheese · Sep 25, 2013

rdlink said:
That was my point. I read the other poster's comment after posting. I own the Hue set, and having bought many LED lights over the last few years I know that, given their functionality Hue's price is not really out of line. I was annoyed to see the Hue bulbs being portrayed as costing $200 each.

No problem. May I ask for a review? Do you like them, do then save on nervy costs, etc?

rdlink · Sep 25, 2013

Mac'nCheese said:
No problem. May I ask for a review? Do you like them, do then save on nervy costs, etc?

I like them fine, but I am more excited about their potential than their actual use. The colored lighting, etc. is really nice.

But the one drawback IMO (and this is true with almost all LED lighting right now) is that the brightest white is not really bright enough for my tastes. I have these deployed as up-lights in floor canisters behind furniture mainly because the white lighting doesn't suit my tastes. In a perfect situation the white light would be bright enough that I could put these in my recessed ceiling canisters, and use them for both everyday room lighting, and mood lighting. I'm pretty sure that day is coming, but not yet.

nt5672 · Sep 25, 2013

Shrink said:
Just what the world needs...a $250 smoke detector.
Just because something can be done, doesn't necessarily mean it should be done...

Even, better, since the Nest thermostat not implemented well for any use other than 1 schedule, never leave home, never change temps, never use humidity control, 5 clicks to turn on the fan, and don't care if the temp is +- 5 degrees, then I can imagine a smoke detector that only works with some real limitations that the software engineers never thought about.

If you want a smoke detector, buy it from a smoke detector manufacturer not a marketing company masquerading as a smoke detector manufacturer.

Yes I own a gen 2 for a year in December. The first two failed in hours, it kinda works. No, I won't buy another one and if anyone wants to buy it, let me know.

mdelvecchio · Sep 25, 2013

Shrink said:
Just what the world needs...a $250 smoke detector.

Just because something can be done, doesn't necessarily mean it should be done...

you have pricing data? or are you just making things up?

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Mac'nCheese said:
Figure the target demo is the same people who buy those 200 buck light bulbs.

Edit: sorry, the starter pack is $200. Each bulb only costs $60.

and its worth it. i find incredible value in the philips hue lighting system, which i use every day. im also really enjoying their $90 LED strip lighting modules...all of which allow me to quickly and easily set up various lighting scenes, synced across my iOS devices, making them simple enough for my the non-techies in my household to use. we love it.

you probably own things i dont care for. the world turns...

RMo · Sep 25, 2013

gokart186 said:
If I can set it to "i'm cooking a pizza and not burning the house down" mode I'm in!

If making a pizza activates your smoke alarm, you're doing it wrong.

Shrink · Sep 25, 2013

mdelvecchio said:
you have pricing data? or are you just making things up?

Making things up. If it turns out to be an exaggeration, it will still be way more expensive than a perfectly functional smoke detector without the bells and whistles.

JAT · Sep 25, 2013

Shrink said:
Just what the world needs...a $250 smoke detector.

Just because something can be done, doesn't necessarily mean it should be done...

My parents have around 10-12 $250 (or maybe it was $300, I know it was over $2000 total) smoke detectors. Industrial units since they are paid by the State Medicaid to take care of old ladies and have different requirements. The units communicate with each other and do quite a bit more than standard $10 jobs.

Not something everyone needs, but a few.

Shrink · Sep 25, 2013

JAT said:
My parents have around 10-12 $250 (or maybe it was $300, I know it was over $2000 total) smoke detectors. Industrial units since they are paid by the State Medicaid to take care of old ladies and have different requirements. The units communicate with each other and do quite a bit more than standard $10 jobs.

Not something everyone needs, but a few.

I would certainly agree that special circumstances require special solutions.

I'm sorry if my post was somehow offensive to you, it certainly was not my intent. Your mother's situation clearly calls for the expenditure.

blhoward2 · Sep 25, 2013

arkmannj said:
1) Extra Nest terminals - so you can have extra Nests in a house that could be used to gather more temperature, motion information from other locations (especially otehr floors) of the building. They could also be used to program and control the main nest.

You can do this already. You have to purchase additional Nests but they communicate with each other.

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I wonder how it will work in jurisdictions with smoke detector laws. In VA you can't even have the old ones with 9 volt batteries anymore in many instances. They now come with sealed lithium batteries that last 10 years. Not to mention tie-in rules in new construction where all smoke detectors must communicate and sound if one goes off.

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clayj said:
What they should develop FIRST is a remote temperature sensor for the Nest -- something you could plug in in, say, your bedroom and then tell the Nest, "I want the temperature THERE to be [x]." My Nest is in my front hallway and while the temperature THERE gets to what I've set it to be, my bedroom is never quite at the same temperature.

This is a circulation problem. Try setting your fan to run 15-30 minutes each hour. It doesn't use that much power and can cut way down on your whole system running. This actually happens in my house (to a lesser degree) because the insulation is TOO good. The rooms facing the sun heat way up but the air doesn't flow to the other areas uniformly.

Most modern HVAC installations are made on the assumption the fan will be turned to run all the time and not on "auto." That's unfortunately just out of sync with how people run their system.

JAT · Sep 25, 2013

Shrink said:
I would certainly agree that special circumstances require special solutions.

I'm sorry if my post was somehow offensive to you, it certainly was not my intent. Your mother's situation clearly calls for the expenditure.

Not even close, I'm just adding to the discussion. The random matching of your number to what they paid demanded a comment.

What a lot of people here seem to need is to MOVE their one thermostat, whether it cost $250 or $15. The 2-Nest solution does sound kinda nice, if expensive. I have so many people grossly changing the temp at my house, the 5-degree limit the Nest has might actually be worth the $250. I managed to save money once upon a time with a basic programmable, but lately my family keeps changing the temp, anyway.

AppleInLVX · Sep 25, 2013

macduke said:
- Something that can hook into my home's power grid and give me feedback on power useage of different appliances and how to save energy
- A "Nest" for hot water heaters that keeps it cool for times of the day in never home, warm for times I might be home, and hot for when I usually take showers

You know, these two items would be things that I'd jump all over if they were available. I never thought of the water heater thing... awesome.

jamesdvb · Sep 26, 2013

I'm surprised at how many people are vehemently opposed to Nest making a product, especially when said product hasn't been officially announced and you don't know what it can or cannot do. I have no idea what the product will actually do, but I could think of all sorts of cool uses:

- Act as remote motion/proximity sensors for the Nest thermostat. Many homes (like mine) have the Nest in an upstairs hallway that people don't often walk through, so Nest has no way to tell that we're home, and it enables Auto-away. But if you had smoke alarms that could detect motion and notify the Nest thermostat, this would solve the problem.

- Act as remote temperature sensors for the thermostat. Same as above.

- Communicate with each other in the event of an alarm. If there's a fire in the basement, a smoke alarm down there may not wake someone up if they're on the 2nd floor at the other end of the house. It would be nice if any smoke detector could sound the alarms on every smoke detector. Many newer homes have hard-wiring to connect the smoke detectors together, but retrofitting such wiring if you don't already have it is expensive.

arkmannj · Sep 27, 2013

blhoward2 said:
You can do this already. You have to purchase additional Nests but they communicate with each other.

I thought you had to hook them up to differnet HVAC systems, they just communicated to help balance the running of multiple systems in one building. I'd like multiple controllers for one system.

blhoward2 · Sep 28, 2013

arkmannj said:
I thought you had to hook them up to differnet HVAC systems, they just communicated to help balance the running of multiple systems in one building. I'd like multiple controllers for one system.

I don't think so. So long as you power it, I think you can just use one as a remote monitor. Of course that's of little value since you'd have to over cool/heat one area of the house. You're much better to run the fan full time to balance the circulation or have a remote damper installed that allows you to shut off one area and have the Nest control that.

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macduke said:
- A "Nest" for hot water heaters that keeps it cool for times of the day in never home, warm for times I might be home, and hot for when I usually take showers

They have this, they are called tankless water heaters. Heating a tank of water is inefficient no matter how you control it. Modern hot water heaters are so insulated there would probably be little gain in shutting it off for a few hours. The energy is expended in getting it to temp, no keeping it there.

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Smart Thermostat Company Nest Developing 'Protect' Smoke Detector

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