How to Deactivate Your Nest Thermostats Seasonal Savings Program
Smart thermostats are growing in popularity as more and more homeowners search for ways to lower their energy costs. These devices can be programmed to conveniently regulate the temperature at home in line with your daily schedule. They also have the ability to memorize these preferences over time. For this reason, you can save money on your energy bills by ensuring that your HVAC system is only on when you need it.
Google’s smart thermostat is the Nest, and plenty of homeowners are content with its features and all-around efficiency. But one feature–the Seasonal Savings program–might be stirring up trouble rather than assisting your HVAC system. Constant issues are driving homeowners to look for how to shut off this feature. We’ll present the problems some people are having with Seasonal Savings and provide instructions for how to opt out of the program.
Many Homeowners Claim the Seasonal Savings Program Isn’t Working Well
Google designed the Seasonal Savings program to help homeowners boost their energy efficiency. Around the highest HVAC use in the summer and winter, it can automatically adjust the thermostat to match your preferences with energy efficiency. The program is expected to run without interrupting your sense of comfort, implementing the biggest changes when you’re away or sleeping. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for lots of people taking part in the program.
Instead, there are claims that the program is contradictory and irritating to use. Homeowners are noticing that the program is really increasing their energy bills instead of lowering them. And when they decide to disable or opt out of Seasonal Savings, they’ve noticed the setting to do so is hard to find or outright missing. In various cases people have even discovered it being switched back on after it was disabled.
Smart thermostats are expected to strengthen the efficiency of your HVAC equipment. While automatic temperature corrections are a popular feature in smart thermostats, it shouldn’t override your desired settings. If your Nest won’t work with your comfort preferences, disabling the Seasonal Savings feature is the right move.
But First, Why Is This A Problem?
Homeowners are complaining that the Seasonal Savings program was started on their Nest thermostat without their consent. Why would a smart thermostat you control dismiss your settings and activate the program? It could be because of an energy-efficiency agreement you subscribed to with your utility company.
These agreements help you boost your home’s energy efficiency. They may come with rebates on new products or special offers for renewable energy products. But lots of people are shocked to learn they also permit your utility company remote access to your thermostat. If the power grid is struggling with a heavy load, the utility company can control your thermostat and turn up the temperature. You might be having problems with the Seasonal Savings program because a utility company is using this remote access.
But what if the setting is malfunctioning or just ignoring your preferences? Whatever the reason might be, you don’t want a feature to raise your energy use without your consent. We’ll explain how other people have switched off the Seasonal Savings program.
How to Disable Your Nest Thermostat’s Seasonal Savings Feature
A number of people have disclosed trouble opting out of the Seasonal Savings feature. While the location of this setting might be different according to your specific Nest model, other users are alarmed that Google is purposely making it more difficult to disable Seasonal Savings. To ensure you can opt out no matter what, we’ll include the ways other users have found success.
- Overriding Seasonal Savings: Manually setting the temperature should supersede the Seasonal Savings program, but numerous users have found this isn’t entirely accurate. If you observe your Nest consistently ignoring your changes, you’ll probably opt to shut off the feature entirely.
- Disabling the setting from the Nest app: Your phone or tablet’s Nest app should have a History option and a Settings option. Google points users to their History to shut off Seasonal Savings, but other homeowners have discovered this option in Settings. Once disabled, the setting is temporarily off until the subsequent summer or winter.
- Disabling the program from the Nest thermostat: Your thermostat should also feature a History option where you can disable Seasonal Savings, but many homeowners state the disable option is missing.
- Opting out before the program begins: The Seasonal Savings program is only accessible around summer and winter. Your smart device is supposed to get a notification when the program is about to launch, giving you the chance to opt out.
When Seasonal Savings is running, your Nest will show a small yellow symbol of a leaf. If a Nest is having issues and the Seasonal Savings icon is absent, your trouble might be with another setting entirely.
Sometimes the Problem Isn’t Seasonal Savings but Another Setting or Program
Alternative options on Nest smart thermostats aside from Seasonal Savings can lead to unwanted temperature changes. If these features are active during Seasonal Savings, even shutting off the program may not stop the thermostat from making alterations. Thankfully, these settings can be switched off. You’ll also have options if the issue is a third party like a power company.
- Switching off Auto-Schedule: The Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat both extend the Auto-Schedule feature, using their capacity to understand your preferences to set the perfect schedule. Going into Settings and shutting off Auto-Schedule should prevent other automatic controls including Seasonal Savings.
- Disabling auto switching: Nest thermostats will still switch to eco temperatures if you have an auto-switching feature like Home & Away Routines or Home/Away Assist. These features automatically change the temperature when the thermostat assumes that the house is empty.
- Negating the utility company’s energy agreement: Because your energy provider might be remotely controlling a Nest thermostat, nullifying the agreement should take away remote access. You can find the complete details of these agreements with your energy provider.
- Reaching out to Google support: If all else fails, contacting Google’s technical support might be of help. Staff can direct you to resetting the Nest or locating the correct setting to turn off Seasonal Savings.
If the Problem Remains, Your Thermostat Might Be Faulty
There’s always the possibility your Nest smart thermostat is just malfunctioning. Electrical problems or software glitches can trigger all sorts of issues, including an aggravating Seasonal Savings program. If you believe the problem is isolated to your personal thermostat, an experienced technician will be able to help. After all, smart thermostats remain a valuable investment for your home’s energy efficiency.
If you want local assistance for your smart thermostat in the U.S., contact the HVAC specialists at Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing. They can help you find the ideal way to disable an uncooperative Seasonal Savings program on your Nest thermostat.