According to a blog post from SolarCity on Monday, April 13th, the firm has made a deal to deploy Google’s Nest thermostats in the homes of 10,000 new rooftop solar panel customers in California. The new Nest Learning Thermostats will be installed in the homes of selected SolarCity rooftop-power customers for free beginning later this year.
SolarCity’s blog post describes the firm’s vision for the future: “I
Details on SolarCity – Nest deal
SolarCity highlights that using the Nest’s thermostats to “align home heating and cooling with the output from a solar power system will reduce the amount of electricity a homeowner needs to buy from the utility grid.” The company also notes this will be more and more important in the future as utilities reduce the amount they pay consumers with solar panels for excess power production.
The firm also emphasizes that the initial deployments of smart Nest thermostats will also improve home energy management systems and make it easier to add more appliances such as pool pumps, hot tubs and clothes dryers to the network.
The cost of solar panels have dropped dramatically, and new leasing programs providing installation with no upfront customer expenses has led to rapid growth in solar rooftop systems in the U.S. Related to this, utilities in a number of states are charging fees to customers who generate their own power, and are planning to use the money to build a grid where users can sell excess supply to and could be used when the sun isn’t shining.
More on the Nest Learning Themostat
The innovative “smart” Nest Learning Thermostat is programmed to remember the temperatures you prefer, and automatically saves energy when you’re away. The Nest thermostat can be also controlled from your smartphone.
