Nest Temperature Sensor Review: Almost Great

The Nest Temperature Sensor might make sense in some homes, but it's missing a few key features. In this review, we cover the Nest Temperature Sensor setup, pros and cons, and features to help you decide if it's worth buying.

We also compared the features of Nest Sensor vs Ecobee Sensor and give 4 alternatives to help regulate the temperature of your home.

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MY SET UP & GEAR
See the list of everything I use in my smart home and other favorites:

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Disclaimer: Smart Home Solver purchased the Nest Temperature Sensor with their own money. They received the Nest 3rd Gen thermostat in exchange for an unbiased review a few months ago. As always, our opinions are 100% our own and not influenced.

[SmartHomeSolver]

Do you think the Nest Temperature Sensor is worth it to heat or cool your entire house so one room can be more comfortable?

[eddiemay]

You kept saying in this video that it would cost you more money because you would be trying to get to your comfort, this is not necessarily true. In my case the heat blows into the room and the thermostat is in a common area with a high ceiling. Currently the master bedroom gets overheated because the common area is trying to reach 74 degrees and never can because no heat is blowing out there, the result is I wake up in an over heated room. If the sensor is in the room I actually care to warm, I can be more exact and save myself some money.

[corbanscorner]

I have one of these and we enjoy it only because our nursery tends to be the coldest room in the house so in order to keep the baby comfortable, we put the sensor in his room and run the heat off of that sensor all night long.

[ezollie]

Been thinking about getting this since the bedrooms in my house get hot faster than the rest of the house when I turn on the heating. So I could then have the heater turn off based on the rooms instead of the kitchen where the thermostat is located.

[jeff_]

To me, this sounds like the same thing as turning your nest temp down 4 degrees cooler at night to compensate for a warmer bedroom upstairs on the opposite side of the house. Making the bedroom cooler of course but most of the lower levels 4 degrees colder. It's just a convenience factor and no, "complex algorithms" like the nest temp sensor litature states. I think the proper way to do things is to balance out the home if your ducts have dampers otherwise control the flow by the registers. Even better, a smart system that opens and closes dampers/registers is ideal, but not practical for everyone. This is more of a bandaid. I was hoping it'd be a little more sophisticated rather than just virtually relocating the temp reading. Thanks for the video!

[edwardmerry]

Nice video it was very informative. I'm an electrician but not into this smart house stuff yet. One main thing I didn't hear about this sensor is this: If the room with the sensor is colder, and you use the app to warm that room up by switching to the sensor temp. it will also warm up the zone where the main thermostat is located. So if you raise the temp in the basement room 5 degrees you would probably raise the temp upstairs around 5 degrees. If people locate this thermostat in a room without heat, then the heating system will heat the rest of the house (heat zone) and never be satisfied at the sensor room location, causing the main heat zone to overheat quite a bit. So the idea of a separate electric space heater could be the only way to go in some rooms.

[tomk]

This was a welcome overview as I just got a Nest from Costco and it came bundled with a temperature sensor (probably to address the fact that Ecobee comes with a sensor or two). I would just add one comment; the value I can see is if you want to monitor the temperature of a space you use consistently in the house, such as a family gathering space, or a home office. Often, a person gets cold or hot and adjusts the thermostat, but is really only spending time in one or two rooms. As the guy in the video says, you can then gain knowledge about these specific spaces and perhaps localize your strategy with heaters/fans. This would particularly be relevant for older homes which do not heat uniformly based on window surface area, proximity to external walls, etc.

[NNTorious]

Interesting perspective of a smart thermostat. I always thought of them as a convenience device and any power savings are a plus.

[perrystruminikov]

My nest thermostat reads 3° higher than the actual temperature in the house so my wife keeps cranking the AC thinking that the house is warmer than it actually is. Can I use the nest sensor to display a different temperature on the nest thermostat on the wall so she sees a lower temperature from another room?

[MarkAmadeusFlowerdew]

I worry about the pipes freezing in my unfinished basement. What I'd want is to put a remote sensor in the basement so the house's heat kicks in when the basement goes below 16°C, and then the rest of the time the thermostat follows it's own schedule using the temperature on the main level. Sounds like there's no option for this kind of "minimum temperature across multiple sensors" functionality.

[normkirk]

These are great when the main Nest E thermostat is located in the Master bedroom that we want to keep cool around 55 degrees at night when sleeping ( windows partly open in the winter ) but the rear bedroom we want at 65 degrees when sleeping ( windows closed of course in the winter ) so we put the sensor in the rear bedroom. Perfect solution for us ! These are great !! and a perfect solution.

[drdream]

Thanks you answered my question. I have a single zone heating for duplex apt. The upstairs is freezing and downstairs is too warm.. but the thermostat is upstairs. So getting one of these I can have it only use the downstairs temp

[dustinz.]

This is a must if you have a house like mine. I live in a 2 story house. Basement, Ground floor, and second floor. The problem I run into is my top floor gets really hot while my middle floor is cool which causes the heater to work overdrive thinking the whole house is cold.

[derekdonahue]

2:03 This video is >3 years old ... is this still how it is? You can't program a schedule for when you want the temperature sensor to be the main sensor?

[WordsPhotos]

Can I use the sensor just outside of my door in the backyard in a protected area to tell me the outside tempreature? Serving just as a remote informaiton with no other function?

[garylammert]

As others have mentioned, not all rooms cool and heat at the same rate. Some of this can be compensated for with laborious manual manipulation of the ducts or perhaps electromechanical ducts (expensive). I agree, it makes no sense to run heat for a sensor calling for heat and then overheat other rooms. Perhaps the next generation of Nest could provide an optional function that would simply run the fan on the air handler until all rooms are equilibrated. This would satisfy the sensor calling for heat without overheating other rooms?

[reducedplastic]

In order, to manage different temperature in the different rooms, the Nest, must to have an ability to manage the cold/ hot air distribution to the particular room.

[FreshlySnipes]

I have multiple sensors tied to one Nest thermostat… I’m wondering how it determines which to use when activating heat/air

[MrSabram]

What it means is the temperature display so you know what it is in that room

[srlewis]

Your system should evenly cool and or heat your home. Check to see if you have dampers in the ducting system and adjust them accordingly. Closing vents is an easy to try and change airflow but is not the correct way or a permananet solution. You should not know your system is running while in your home. A nest temperature sensor would be good to help get your system adjusted correctly.