Nest: NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT FOR THE UK

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Well-Being and Environmental Impact Design
Category: Well-Being and Environmental Impact
Advertiser: NEST
Product/Service: NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT
Agency: NEST Palo Alto, USA
Client: NEST
Product: NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT
Entrant: NEST Palo Alto, USA
Type of Entry: Well-Being and Environmental Impact Design
Category: Well-Being and Environmental Impact
Entrant Company : NEST Palo Alto, USA
Advertising Agency : BOULD DESIGN Mountain View, USA
Company: Nest (Nest Labs)
Company: Bould Design (Bould Design)
Brief Explanation:
Founded in May 2010 by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, Nest reinvents unloved but important products for the home. It delights customers with simple, beautiful and thoughtful hardware, software and services.
Nest has over 380 employees and its products are today sold in the USA, UK and Canada. The Nest Learning Thermostat™ programs itself to keep you comfortable and help save energy, whilst the Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide™ alarm keeps people safe and informed. Nest also partners with energy providers to offer Nest Energy Services, helping them manage demand and help customers save energy and stay comfortable.
Describe the brief from the client:
The original Nest Thermostat, launched in 2011, was exclusively available in N.America and received global praise. However, whilst the UK was a priority market for Nest, the population had a vastly different approach to heating, both in terms of attitude and technology.
Many people in the UK don’t have thermostats, or don’t use them if they have them. Instead, they use programmers or timers that don’t take the temperature - and user’s comfort - into account. Saving energy was both a lot of work.
All of these factors meant Nest had to redesign the product hardware, software and services.
Creative Execution:
The heating systems in the US and UK are very different, so Nest had to develop a completely new version of the thermostat. They wanted to bring the best product and experience to UK consumers based on their unique approach to heating - both in terms of technology and attitudes.
Nest performed extensive quantitative and qualitative market research around current consumer attitudes and technical approaches to heating within the UK. This allowed Nest to build a UK-specific solution which was then field tested in over 100 homes across the country to perfect the product ahead of it's long awaited launch.
The UK Nest Learning Thermostat will help people understand that it is time to rethink their heating. And with Nest, people don’t have to change their behavior – Nest makes the changes for them.
The Nest Thermostat adapts to its owner and environment, for example a feature called True Radiant learns how long it takes to heat your home. After it learns about the user and their home, Nest Sense™ automatically balances comfort and energy savings.
Depending on the house, climate, existing setpoint schedule and active features, Nest predict consumers can save 4% to 29% of their heating bill.
OFGEM have stated that UK residents spend on average £1,342 per year on energy, and heating makes up over 60% of energy bills. Whilst we have seen investment and interest in green products and technologies, the thermostat, a device that controls such a significant portion of the energy has been virtually ignored.
A study by BEAMA also showed that 40% of people in the UK don’t have a thermostat, which is essential to control their heating, stay comfortable and save energy. Instead, they turn on the boiler when they’re cold and off once they warm up or get too hot.