Learn about Eco Temperatures and how to change settings

• Your Nest thermostat can switch to Eco Temperature automatically after it senses that nobody's home. You'll know that Eco Temperature is active when your thermostat says 'Eco' on the display or in the Nest or Home app.
• You can also manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperature at any time, even when you're at home. This can be useful if you want to try to save more energy while you're at home and don't mind it being a bit cooler or warmer than normal.
• When you manually set your Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E to Eco Temperature, it'll stay in that mode and won't switch back to heating or cooling automatically until you manually switch it to one of those modes. Once you manually switch it to heating or cooling, your thermostat will resume switching automatically as people leave and come back home.
  • Note: A Nest Thermostat works differently. It'll always switch out of Eco Temperature at the next scheduled temperature change. But you can set your thermostat manually to hold the Eco Temperature for up to 24 hours.
• Your thermostat can also switch to Eco Temperature automatically if you manually switch your home to Away mode with the Nest or Home app.

How Eco Temperature affects your system's behaviour

When your thermostat is set to Eco, your system might still turn on in some cases:

• If your home's temperature goes above the 'Cool to' temperature that you've set, your thermostat will turn on cooling until your home cools to the Eco Temperature that you have set.
• If your home's temperature falls below the 'Heat to' temperature that you've set, your thermostat will turn on heating until your home warms to the Eco Temperature that you have set.

Your Nest thermostat gives you a temperature range that you can select from when you set an Eco Temperature. The Eco Temperature ranges that you can choose from are: 4–21°C (40–70°F ) for heating mode and 24–32°C (76–90°F) for cooling mode.

Factors such as your home's construction, local climates, heating and cooling system performance, and your personal comfort preference can vary widely. We don't have specific Eco Temperature recommendations, but you'll find some general guidelines below to help you choose what's right for your home.

Quick tips

• When you're choosing an Eco Temperature setting, the Nest Leaf  will appear to let you know that you've selected a temperature that can help save energy. The Leaf is only a general guide, so you may save energy even if you choose an Eco Temperature that doesn't have a Leaf.
• If you choose Off for either the 'Heat to' or 'Cool to' temperature, your system won't turn on at all when your thermostat is set to Eco, until your home reaches the safety temperature.
• Try to set Eco Temperatures to a level that helps save energy, while making sure that people, pets and plants in your home will be comfortable, and that your pipes won't freeze. 
• You can always change the setting if you're uncomfortable or not saving as much energy as you'd like to.

More help for choosing a temperature

These questions can help you work out a good Eco Temperature to start with:

What temperature did you set your old thermostat to?
If you want to emphasise your comfort over energy savings, try a Heat to Eco Temperature a few degrees lower, or a Cool to temperature a few degrees higher than what you typically set your old thermostat to most of the time.

When you leave home, do you normally change your thermostat's temperature to save energy?
Try selecting a slightly lower heating temperature or a slightly higher cooling temperature than your old thermostat setting for when you leave your home. Your Nest thermostat only switches to the Eco Temperature when your home is unoccupied, so you may not notice the temperature difference.

• What do you think are the lowest or highest temperatures that you'd be OK with?
  If you really want to focus on saving energy, try setting your heating and cooling for Eco Temperatures a bit more aggressively, but don't go beyond what you feel will be comfortable for you, other people and your pets.

Tip: Eco Temperature settings are just one way that your Nest thermostat can help you save energy. Learn more about how to improve energy savings.

Example for choosing an Eco Temperature

Let's say you have a heating-only system and like the temperature at 21°C (70°F) when you're at home. If your home is well insulated and your system heats your home fairly quickly, you might decide to choose 13.5°C (56°F) as an Eco Temperature. You know that your home won't take long to heat to a comfortable temperature after switching out of Eco. So you can try to save more energy while still remaining comfortable.

On the other hand, if your home isn't well insulated and your system is slow to heat it, you might decide on 16.5°C (62°F) instead. Since the Eco Temperature is closer to your preferred temperature, your home should take less time to become comfortable after your thermostat switches out of Eco.

Nest Thermostat

Use the Eco preset to quickly adjust to energy-saving temperatures manually or in its temperature schedule. When you set the Eco preset manually, it'll be overridden by the next temperature set in the schedule. If you want to use Eco Temperature for longer without changing the temperature schedule, you can hold the temperature of the Eco preset.

Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat

Switch to Eco in the same way as other temperature modes. However, there are some key differences in how your thermostat will behave in Eco compared to other modes: When you manually switch to Eco, your thermostat will ignore all scheduled temperatures until you manually switch it back to heating or cooling. If your thermostat switched to Eco Temperature automatically because everyone was away, it'll switch back to your normal temperatures when someone comes home.

 

Your thermostat can automatically switch to Eco Temperature when everyone's away and switch to a more comfortable temperature when someone comes home. 

If you have a Nest Thermostat, you'll need to set up Home and Away routines to enable automatic switching. 

If you have a Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E, you'll need to set up Home/Away Assist to enable automatic switching. 

How to tell which Nest thermostat you have

• Your Nest thermostat uses its own activity sensors, sensor data from your other Google Nest products and your phone's location to tell when everyone has left or someone has come home. 
• When everyone has left, your thermostat will wait a short amount of time to make sure that nobody's coming back, then it will switch to Eco Temperature automatically.
  • Note: Your thermostat might wait for up to one to two hours before switching to Eco Temperature if you're using device sensors to sense your presence in the home and the sensors detect activity around the time everyone leaves. This longer waiting time will happen even if you're also using phone location to help tell if you're at home or not. To avoid this situation, use only phone location to sense presence and disable the other device sensors in your home's presence settings.
• If your thermostat has automatically switched to Eco Temperature, it'll switch back to its normal heating or cooling schedule when someone returns home.
• Your thermostat will also switch to Eco Temperature if you manually switch your home to Away mode with the Nest or Home app.
• Your thermostat will also leave Eco Temperature and resume its normal heating or cooling schedule if you change the temperature with the Nest or Home app.

Sometimes, you want Eco Temperature to stay on for a long period of time. For example, if you go on holiday, you may want your thermostat to maintain Eco Temperature for the whole time. 

You'll set up long-term Eco Temperatures differently depending on your thermostat. 

How to tell which Nest thermostat you have

Nest Thermostat

You can set your Nest Thermostat to hold Eco Temperature in the Google Home app .

1. Open the Home app .
2. Tap Favourites or Devices .
3. Touch and hold your thermostat's tile  tap Hold Eco . 
4. Select an end time, then tap Start.

Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E

When you set your thermostat to Eco Temperature manually, it'll hold the temperature until you change it. 

You can manually switch to Eco Temperature whenever you want. To use the Nest or Home app or your thermostat, simply choose Eco on the screen where you switch your system's mode. If you've set up Google Assistant, you can also tell it to switch your thermostat to Eco Temperature.

• Nest thermostat temperature modes
• Use Google Assistant with Nest products

When you manually activate Eco Temperature, your thermostat will switch immediately.

Behaviours when manually switching to Eco Temperature

Your thermostat and system behaviours are different when you manually switch to Eco Temperature compared with when it's set automatically:

• It'll maintain Eco Temperature even if someone comes home.
• It won't switch back to your normal temperature schedule until you manually switch it to a heating or cooling mode.
• If you have more than one thermostat in your home, you'll have to switch each of them to Eco Temperature individually.
• If you manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperature, your home won't switch between Home or Away modes. So the other products in your home won’t be affected. For example, your cameras won't switch on or off. 
• If you have manually set your Nest home to Away mode, all your thermostats will switch to Eco Temperature automatically. They'll switch back to heating or cooling when someone comes home or if they sense motion.

• Your home's Away mode is always automatic. Even if you manually set your home to Away, it'll switch back to Home mode if your thermostat sees activity or a phone that's set to help with presence sensing enters the house.

You might want to set your thermostat to Eco Temperature for a short time to save energy while you're at home. 

You'll set temporary Eco Temperatures differently, depending on your thermostat. 

How to tell which Nest thermostat you have

You can manually switch to Eco Temperature whenever you want. On either the app or your thermostat, simply choose Eco on the screen where you switch your system's mode. If you've set up Google Assistant, you can also tell it to switch your thermostat to Eco Temperature.

Home app

You can set your thermostat to Eco Temperature in the Google Home app .

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favourites or Devices .
3. Touch and hold your thermostat's tile  Tap Hold Eco . 
4. Select an end time, then tap Start.

You can also use a voice command with Google Assistant. 

Note: Nest Thermostat will resume your normal schedule when the temperature is next scheduled to change. Or you can manually adjust to a more comfortable temperature at any time with the thermostat or Home app. 

Nest thermostat temperature modes

Use Google Assistant with Nest products

When you manually activate Eco Temperature, your thermostat will switch immediately without any delay.

Behaviours when manually switching to Eco Temperature

Your thermostat and system behaviours are different when you manually switch to Eco Temperature compared with when it's set automatically:

• It'll maintain Eco Temperature even if someone comes home.
• It won't switch back to your normal temperature schedule until you manually switch it to a heating or cooling mode.
• If you have more than one thermostat in your home, you'll have to switch each of them to Eco Temperature individually.
• If you manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperature, your home won't switch between Home or Away modes. So, other products in your home won't be affected. For example, your cameras won't switch on or off.
• If you have manually set your Nest home to Away mode, all your thermostats will switch to Eco Temperature automatically. They'll switch back to heating or cooling when someone comes home or if they sense motion.

• Your home's Away mode is always automatic. Even if you manually set your home to Away, it'll switch back to Home mode if your thermostat sees activity or a phone that's set to help with presence sensing enters the house.

Before you begin

If your Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E controls heating, you'll see 'Heat to'. If it controls cooling, you'll see a 'Cool to' setting. If you have a Nest Thermostat, its heating settings will be orange in the Home app and its cooling settings will be blue.

• Heat to: Your thermostat will turn on heating if the temperature in your home drops below this temperature. A lower setting will let your home get cooler, but can save more energy. You can also choose Off. If you do, your thermostat won't turn on heating while set to Eco unless your home reaches the safety temperature.
• Cool to: Your thermostat will turn on cooling if the temperature in your home gets higher than this temperature. A higher setting will let your home get warmer, but can usually save more energy. You can also choose Off. If you do, your thermostat won't turn on cooling while set to Eco unless your home reaches the safety temperature.

Note: If your Eco Temperature is set to Off, your thermostat won't turn on your system to heat or cool your home while it's set to Eco, unless your home reaches the safety temperature. Your thermostat will still follow your Fan Schedule if you have one and will maintain the safety temperature, which helps ensure that your pipes won't freeze and your home won't become damaged by excessive heat.

With the Home app

Note: If you've set up Home and Away routines, you can use the Home app to select if your thermostat will use Eco Temperature while you're at home or away. 

Change Home and Away routines settings

Nest app

1. Select your thermostat on the Nest app home screen.
2. Tap Settings  at the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Select Home/Away Assist.
   • At the top of the screen, you can disable automatically switching to Eco Temperature.
   • You can also select if your thermostat will use Eco Temperature while you're at home or away.
4. Tap Eco Temperature to set the temperature range.
5. To adjust the range, drag the slider.

Tip: The Nest Leaf  will appear to let you know that you've chosen a temperature that can help save energy.

With your thermostat

1. Press your thermostat ring to open the Quick View menu.
2. Select Settings  Eco.
3. Select the temperature that you want. If your thermostat controls heating, you'll see 'Heat to'. If it controls cooling, you'll also see 'Cool to'.
4. Press the thermostat ring to select the temperature that you want to change. Turn the ring to adjust, then press again to set.