Can New-Age Thermostats Make a Hot Tech Product?

Companies are always looking for ways to use technological advancements to reduce costs. They replace airfare with telecommutes and conference calls. They use MPLS VPN service to drive down phone and internet bills. They seek out network security solutions that cut down on unneeded software protection expenses. Whenever they aren’t using technology to boost profits, ultimately, enterprises are seeking ways to use it to lower their costs.

So it’s no surprise when a new tech product comes along that promises to save businesses thousands of dollars each year. This time, though, the product is surprising because even though the technology is new, the device itself is quite mundane and old. It’s not a computer or a tablet or an advanced cloud computing service. Rather, it’s a thermostat, not too much different from the ones we’ve had in our homes for decades.

This thermostat, though, offered by a start up called Nest Labs, has many key differences from the traditional models. First of all, it looks different. The device is dark, sleek, and circular, with a brightly-lit electronic display and a ring around the outside that you can turn to change the temperature. Designed by a couple former Apple employees, it certainly has the look and feel of a fancy Apple product.

More importantly, it differs from traditional thermostats in its capabilities. The Nest Labs product is a thermostat with intelligence: when put in a home, over time it can learn and adapt to that home’s unique energy uses. Furthermore, the thermostat has motion sensors that can track the movement of people in the house and adjust the temperature accordingly. Overall, simply by being aware of its users’ needs, the product can save several degrees of energy consumption on average. This translates into several hundred dollars of energy savings for a household each year.

Although the savings should make up for the thermostat’s high price relative to others in the market, it remains to be seen whether people used to cheap and long-lasting thermostats will be compelled to upgrade to Nest Labs’ product. But for businesses, where the annual savings from the thermostat can run into the thousands of dollars, the purchase seems much more practical and likely. After all, managers are always looking for ways to use innovation to reduce prices – and, this time, even a thermostat counts as new technology.