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"  Heating and cooling your home accounts for about 50% of your home energy bill, or about $1,000 a year. But, when you stop and think about it, how often are you really at home taking advantage of the comfortable conditions you&amp;#039;re paying for? I asked myself this question and the truth is, probably less than half the time. I&amp;#039;m usually pretty good about switching the lights off when I leave the house, but I rarely think to turn down the thermostat. A programmable thermostat is the most obvious solution but let&amp;#039;s be honest, who&amp;#039;s actually been able to figure out how to program one, accurately? Enter, the nest, one of the most innovative energy-saving products I&amp;#039;ve ever seen. After chatting with Erik Charlton, (VP, Sales and Marketing), and getting a hands-on demo of the nest, I began wondering why I hadn&amp;#039;t thought of inventing a self-learning thermostat myself. It just makes so much sense. The Nest thermostat takes a common-sense approach to automating your thermostat by learning from your habits and adjusting automatically to your preferences, as well as the ambient and outdoor temperatures. After you&amp;#039;ve changed the thermostat a few times at different periods of the day (for example when you leave for work) the Nest will automatically begin following you by shutting down your heat during the day, and gradually bringing it back around the time you return home. Using several sensors, it&amp;#039;s also able to perceive whether or not anyone is home by and will automatically reduce energy usage when everyone is away. Other smart features like Wi-Fi connectivity for remote access and weather forecast planning enhance its functionality. At a $250 purchase price and estimated energy cost savings of 20 - 30% (according to nest), it can easily pay for itself in about a year. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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