Soon after the Nest Learning Thermostat launched in the U.S., demand began to rise in the U.K. for the now Google-owned company to bring the rather expensive product across the Atlantic. And today Nest has officially launched in the UK and is ready for order, with prices starting at £179.
An interesting note to take away from the announcement is this Nest Thermostat is almost entirely brand new, separate from the model available in the US and Canada. This is down to the thermostat's incompatibility with U.K. central heating systems. Simply put: Brits generally don’t have issues with excessive heating and AC use.
“Most UK heating systems don’t even have thermostats. So the actual temperature or your comfort never enters into the equation. In order to warm up the house, you have to keep walking back and forth to the programmer, manually turning on the heat in quick bursts hoping you get it right. There’s also no way to track how much heat you’re using, so balancing comfort and energy savings is guesswork.”
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Nest Thermostat, the product is much more than your average programmable thermostat in that it learns the temperatures you enjoy at different parts of each day. A schedule is then created, replacing the one utilized by the standard thermostat, offering more comfortable heated environment.
Android Central's Phil Nickinson got acquainted with his Nest installation, and his review is worth a look for those considering the £179 investment.
Nest is available through Nest.com and other partners from today. The manufacturer's website has more details, as well as links to certified UK professionals who can carry out the installation.
Source: Nest
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