A refurbished third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat was one of the first things I picked up upon moving into my first house last month. As a longtime New York City apartment dweller, I’d largely observed the device from afar, wondering how a thermostat of all things became foundational to Google’s hardware play. My timing could have been better, of course, with the fourth-gen device just now launching.
But as a financial adviser told me before I settled on this place, “the best time to buy a house is last year.” If you sit and wait for the perfect moment, you’ll be sitting and waiting forever. During this especially brutal summer, I’ve come to appreciate a lot about the Nest — though buying one used on eBay wasn’t the smartest, as the thing could never stay connected to Wi-Fi.
Aside from access to central air, the greatest thing that the installation afforded me is confidence. Live in an apartment long enough, and you’ll begin to doubt yourself when it comes to even the simplest tasks. On one particularly sweltering mid-July afternoon, however, I flipped off the house’s power, removed the ancient digital thermostat and wired up the Nest.
The only thing more surprising than me not putting myself in the hospital was the fact that it worked (Wi-Fi glitches aside). After the thermostat, I undertook a few other small wiring tasks and — as you can probably guess reading this — did not kill myself. When the new Nest arrived at my front door, I unboxed it .