This article in BusinessWeek intrigues us:
Tony Fadell wants to bring the thermostat into the age of the iPod and iPhone, and he may be the perfect person to do it. Fadell, a former senior executive at Apple (AAPL) and one of the creators of those two iconic devices, has worked for the last year and a half, in total secrecy, on a new company called Nest Labs.
Wrap your head around what he is creating:
The Nest Learning Thermostat, as it is called, automatically studies its owner’s daily schedule and adjusts accordingly to save energy…Once installed, it connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network and can be remotely monitored or adjusted. It has two motion sensors, and over the first week, it learns when its users are outside the house and raises or lowers the temperature accordingly, depending on the season. Users can review their history to see how much energy they’ve saved and what factors (such as the weather) are affecting their usage. When they adjust their temperature parameters to more energy-efficient settings, they see the rewarding image of a leaf, which tells them they are saving money and helping the environment.
Honeywell, a thermostat we use frequently, is developing their own advanced thermostat. We will definitely be testing out the Nest product tho. We will update our experiences on our website and on this blog!
What do you think?? Is this the type of technology you would find useful at your house?
Funny how Tony Fadell, former SVP of Apple’s iPod Division, left Apple to put a giant clickwheel in our living rooms with nest.com.