The Nest thermostat has officially been launched in the UK, after a few months in the United States and Canada. The team, which recently got acquired by Google for £2 billion, said they had to make some changes for the UK.
The differences come because people in the UK do not use AC or excessive heating, like people in the United States. Nest also believes most homes don’t have a thermostat, meaning the family cannot track how much heat they are using.
This is not the first product Nest has shipped into Europe, the smoke detector has been available for a few months. Perhaps with the investment from Google, Nest was able to put more time into pushing the thermostat into Europe.
Nest, for those that don’t know, is a smart home appliance team who are owned by Google. They have created a smoke detector and thermostat, which offer new features to make the home safer and run cheaper.
The Nest thermostat is particular smart, it can sense when the owner is out and change the temperature accordingly. It will also pick up patterns when the temperature needs to be higher and times when it needs to be lower.
In the UK, the Nest thermostat is being offered for £179 with a ten day installation or £249 for a four day installation. The product can be picked up for free if the buyer decides to pen a contract with Npower, Nest’s partner in the UK.
It is a big investment for a piece of kit that may not be considered a “tech gadget”, but in the US plenty of users have said it has lowered the monthly bills and made heating the house a lot easier, meaning in the long term it is possible to make money back off the device.
