Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google in a $3.2 billion deal earlier this year, is to launch its range of smart thermostats in Ireland later this month.
The Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide alarm will be sold in approximately 400 retail stores across Europe, including Ireland, with another 150 stores to be added by the end of the year.
Nest has not yet disclosed pricing for the product in Ireland, but in UK the thermostat costs £249 (including installation) and £89 for Nest Protect.
Nest has customised its products for the Irish market – including recording local actors for the voice of the Nest Protect alarm – as well as its marketing, packaging and the company’s online and retail presence. As the Nest Thermostat connects to the heating system using high-voltage cables, professional installation is highly recommended and Nest will partner with professional installers and energy companies in Ireland.
It has been estimated that Nest Thermostats have already saved two billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy compared to what their owners would have spent on heating and cooling at a constant temperature- enough energy to power 180,000 American homes for a year.
The Nest Thermostat for Europe programmes itself. Users simply turn it up and down like a manual thermostat for about a week and Nest will take it from there, creating a personalised schedule that is refined over time. With its built-in sensors, the Nest Thermostat knows when the house is empty so Nest’s Auto-Away feature can automatically turn down the temperature, helping to save even more energy.
For families that don’t have thermostat cables available in the wall, want to replace wireless thermostats, or just want to change where the thermostat is located, the stand for the Nest Learning Thermostat is available to place Nest in a preferred location.
