Nest Smart Thermostats Will Detect HVAC Problems Before They Happen

Our homes today are equipped with some smart device or another, even if it's just a smart TV. But despite their seemingly intelligent features, not many of them are smart enough to foresee problems in advance. That may be true for their own self-diagnostics but even less for diagnosing other smart devices. That's where Google Nest is trying to lead the way by making its smart thermostat really smart enough to notice if there's something wrong with your heat or cooling systems before it's too late.

You might wonder how a Nest smart thermostat would be able to know if there's a problem with your air conditioner or your heater. Technically, it really won't and we're still far from the future where smart devices can tap into one another and run diagnostics. Presuming the device isn't smart enough to check up on itself yet.

What Nest does, instead, is to correlate its historical data with the current weather and determine whether it's taking too long for the room to heat up or cool down than normal. If there are discrepancies, it will alert the homeowner via email to a potential problem with either heating or cooling systems. There might be none but it wouldn't hurt to check.

In case there is indeed a technical issue, the next problem is getting professional help. Nest is partnering with the Handy professional services platform to help Nest owners book help, at least in areas where the service operates. Owners also have the option of contacting the Nest Pro who installed their thermostat if they took advantage of that offer before.

The Nest smart thermostat's new HVAC problem detection feature won't be available to all users immediately. You'll have to sign up to opt into the Nest Home Report feature and you can also opt out of the alerts at any point in time afterward.