Deep Ocean to Deep Space

Smart Thermostats and Smoke Detectors October 6, 2015

I have been using timer controlled thermostats since way back. Just no way I am going to remember to set it back when I go to bed or leave, every time, and then there is the nuisance of having to get up or come into a cold house and wait for the heat to come up. So a flexible timer has been important, with individual programs for workdays and weekends and ways to override for holidays. But still it’s not perfect.

When we moved into the house at Kittery Point the heating plant was aging and we replaced it with one using a rather sophisticated smart (for its day) controller that adjusts the heat provided to the radiators according to the outdoor temperature with an eye on the indoor temperature, just to see how it is doing. It has plenty of flexibility to program for workdays and weekdays and override for holidays. And since the radiators and piping installed ca 1870 is so massive it is slow to respond. Better to plan ahead and give it time to bring up the temperature. So I lost interest in programmable thermostats.

But if I were interested, the Nest thermostat would be the one I would look into. It both learns your pattern and is commandable from your smartphone. If it was not so expensive I would get one just to monitor the indoor temperature when I am away but I am not faulting the price. Its pretty sophisticated new technology so commands a good price. I do have a weather station that posts to the web many indoor parameters as well as outdoor so I am good for that right now.

At the E2Tech Expo I was at last week I heard about MyEnergy which is an effort to teach you about how much energy you can save by monitoring how much you use. They were acquired by Nest which seams logical.  Some power companies are offering something like that, even CMP here does, but all that monitors is electrical use. Now that we have smart electric meters, and devices like the Nest thermostat could know how much time your heat is running you could get a better dash board on your personal energy use. Google had an effort like that one, Google PowerMeter, but that is gone. I do have a device from Current Cost that gave me my own smart power metering but they are gone now. And Google now owns Nest who own MyEnergy. I did find it at myenergy.com and signed up. It can read my electric use direct from CMP but so far I do not see a way to input my other energy hog, the oil burner. We use some gas for cooking but small and spread out over the year. Will have to report back on that.

However the Nest smoke detectors do have me excited. I have always believed in smoke detectors in the home. Having once been a volunteer fireman I have seen first hand how they can save lives and how not having is a really bad idea. When they first appeared on the scene they were really nifty pieces of technology. Now they are looking really outdated.

Nest smoke detectors have some nice features, they chat with you first if there might be a problem and let you respond instead of embarrassing you in front of your guests when you go high heat cooking on the stove like I do. And to deal with the low battery issue they can send you a message on your smartphone that the battery needs replacing.

Side Note: Wonder how they get the conventional smoke detectors to start their low battery warning at 3:00 AM? The devices only use a tiny bit of power, so the battery lasts a long time, and a battery’s performance varies by temperature so during the middle of they night, provided you are being good and have a night time set back thermostat, the room temperatures hits a low maybe around 3:00 AM and trips the low batter alert.

I also like the idea of being able to monitor the house from afar. Generally when we travel we have someone who checks on things several times a day but a lot can happen when no one is there and it would be comforting to know that all is well.

I have something like six or seven smoke detectors in our house and have been slowly replacing them as they age. None of them are good for more than 10 years, the detector slowly ages. And now they come with 10 year life time batteries, lifetime being the lifetime of the detector so you replace the whole thing at once. And older ones get dust in them and high humidity messes with them. The Nest detectors use six AA cells, more power than the 9 v batteries that older ones do but I expect that is to run the WiFi link. So I am thinking the next time I need to replace one I will get a Nest.