Nest smart thermostat + redecorating

Jaunty_One

Quick question for anyone with a Nest thermostat:

I'm redecorating my house this year but I also want to purchase a Nest thermostat, preferably before the winter starts to make the most savings asap :money: (plus I'm just eager for a new gadget)!

Does the Nest unit easily come off the wall temporarily so I can avoid splashing paint over it or would you recommend that I get everything installed after I'm done with the redecorating?

Thanking you in advance

Doozergirl

You don't even need to put the thermostat on the wall. It can sit anywhere. So don't bother putting it on the wall until you've painted.

wantonnoodle

We have a Nest thermostat, fitted about 3 weeks ago. We have no intention of wall mounting it. You can buy a stand for it. The optimum place for ours is on top of a shelving unit in the living room. There's a power point next to the unit so that's sorted.

That is one thing you need to consider, whether on a stand or wall mounted - the thermostat has a power cable that needs to be plugged into a wall socket. I'm sure you could get it hard wired, but I think part of the joy is that it is flexible and could be moved easily if decorating etc.

I really like having the nest - we didn't have a room thermostat before, only TRVs, so if our heating was on, the boiler was constantly on the go. So far, we've had it set to 23 deg in the morning and evening (17 deg during day unless we're out, then its set to 15) and I think on average, this has only needed about 90 mins of boiler usage to keep the temperature as wanted, so a vast improvement on just a timer and TRVs.

somethingcorporate

We love our nest.

Just keep it off the wall until painted, it has a USB power cable.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Doozergirl wrote: »

You don't even need to put the thermostat on the wall. It can sit anywhere. So don't bother putting it on the wall until you've painted.

Good advice but to answer OP's question, it comes off the wall easily - it has a little backplate that screws into the wall and the thermostat itself plugs into the backplate.

I would recommend trying to wall mount it with fixed wiring if you're able to easily run and conceal a length of 2 core wire from the Nest Heat Link (it's a 12v connection). It beats paying for the expensive stand and having a plug lead trailing from it.

Jaunty_One

Thank you very much TheCyclingProgrammer. I specifically asked because it will replace the thermostat that's currently attached to the wall.

I didn't know about it's portability though so thank you to everyone else. This offers more food for thought because I didn't know it was so easily portable but I'll probably still get it fixed there and keep it there most of the time.

Thanks again everyone

ic

If you do decide to mount it, it does just snap/click off its base. You could then unscrew the base from the wall in order to paint under it for a good job.

Note that the Nest likes to know where it is (i.e. room), so do update its config if you move it around.

eastonian

I had a Nest for a while before we redecorated (skimmed as well as painted).

I got a sparky in to add a fused spur beneath the floorboards (no carpet going down) and then chased in a bit of duct to carry the USB cable up the thermostat. It's now been plastered over and looks great mounted on the wall with no visible cables. If there are any problems with the cable ever I will be able to pull it out/replace it without too much trouble.

If you know where you are going to locate the Nest thermostat permanently, it's a nice solution. Or I guess you could go for a Hive, or another thermostat which doesn't use batteries.