Nest Says Annual Savings Pay For Hardware In Two Years

The Nest thermostat is a hefty spend. At $250, it's not something you'd purchase without much though, like you probably did with the Chromecast. Nest claims to save you money, but varying reports go into how much it actually ends up saving you. Today, Nest is averaging the weight of three separately funded reports, and saying the average household will save about $138 per year they have a Nest. In two years' time, your Nest will have paid for itself, if these reports are indicative of your use and savings.

The studies — one by Nest itself, the other two by Vectren and The Energy Trust of Oregon — sampled homes before-and-after with a Nest thermostat. Here's how Nest summarizes their findings:

On average the Nest Learning Thermostat saved US customers about 10-12% on their heating bills and about 15% on their cooling bills. We've estimated average savings of $131 to $145 a year, which means the Nest Thermostat paid for itself in under two years.

Nest can do big things for users over time, but it depends on use. In the study by Vectren, it was noted that "the pilot [study] offered thermostats for free and the resulting sample of customers were much less likely to install and use the Nest phone or tablet apps or connect to WiFi than typical Nest customers — potentially lowering the savings from Nest Learning Thermostat features."

That's just energy based on Nest use as a standalone piece of hardware. As Nest's API starts circulating more, it's likely users who take advantage of all (or much of) Nest has to offer may even experience even better savings than these studies average.

Source: Nest