12 Things my Nest Thermostat learned about me
“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” ― George Orwell, 1984
A few days before the announcement that Google had bought the company ‘Nest’ I received an emailed ‘Nest Energy Report’ from them.
It told me that I’d used 66 more hours of heat in December than in November [ we had a long spell of days near -30C ].
It told me that I earned more ‘Nest Leafs’ than 65% of ‘Nesters’ in Ontario. In other words I was in the top 35% of economical Nest users in my province.
It learns so many more things …
- When we leave for the day
- When we come home
- When we walk past the dining room
- What kind of heating and cooling system we use
- When we go on vacation
- How we react to sudden extreme weather changes
- How humid our home is
- How long it takes to warm and cool the home
- What language we prefer
- When we go to bed
- When we get up
- What type of wifi we use
Bonus thing [ afterthought ] — the obvious thing it learns is your hours of fuel consumption — but — Nest labs could estimate from that how much you’re spending, or willing to spend on regulating temperature in your home.
I’m sure there is more insight that my thermostat has learned about me. It didn’t really occur to me just how much it can derive from us, by helping us maintain a livable temperature.
When you think of the prospect of many thousands of ‘Nesters’ nestling in homes with Nest thermostats and smoke detectors, then you can imagine a rich profile of behaviour street by street, city by city, country by country!
On one hand it is pretty cool. I think it is saving me money … for now.
On the other hand, it feels like I’ve willingly welcomed in an auditor.
