I purchased these items myself. Post contains affiliate links which means if you click and make a purchase, I receive a small commission, thank you! I had Nest Thermostats installed in my old house in 2017 and loved them. Take a look at that post if you want to see all the nitty gritty on how they work. Our new house is a 1-story with a finished basement, and as soon as we moved in I wished we had a smart thermostat.
There’s only one HVAC system in this house, and while I appreciated the scheduling and home/away features to save energy, it wasn’t as much of an issue as it was in my two story house. Honestly, the biggest reason I missed the Nest Thermostat was because I’m lazy and I missed being able to change the setting from my phone without getting up, ha ha! I had looked at the newest Nest Thermostat, which is considerably cheaper but does not have the “learning” feature. I didn’t like that feature and preferred to set my own schedule, so that didn’t matter to me, but since my system didn’t have a “C-wire” it didn’t look like that version would work.
I was a little bit intimidated by the installation, but it was actually a breeze and I did it myself. Once I turned off the power, I removed the old thermostat, and used the included stickers to mark where each wire was hooked up to the old one. Then, I disconnected the wires, reconnected them to the corresponding spot on the Nest, and closed it up.
I ended up also buying Nest temperature sensors, which are tiny, unobtrusive sensors you can place almost anywhere. I have one in the bedroom, one in the basement, and one in the laundry room.
You can tell the Nest app to use any of these sensors to control the thermostat. This would come in handy if your thermostat wasn’t in an open area, or if one room tended to stay warmer than others. You can even set a schedule so if, for example, you wanted the nursery to be cooler during nap time, you can tell the app to use the temperature in that room during a certain time period.
Initially I thought I could use it to keep the basement warmer when we were down there, but I quickly realized it would get too hot upstairs if I did that. I think I will use it more during the summer to make sure it’s nice and cool in our bedroom at night. My daughter’s bedroom is in the basement so I ended up buying her a little space heater and that’s working for now!
3.5 years ago I told you how much I like Nest thermostats, and I still do! Plus, now I can say that if I can install one myself, anyone can!
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
