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An internet connection isn’t required for the Nest thermostat to operate the furnace either.

I can appreciate not wanting to allow Google the opportunity to brick your thermostat (and hence your furnance) through some kind of software issue but if you’re willing to extend that faith to their smoke detectors, why not your furnace?

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I guess my feeling with the smoke/CO detectors is that I also have other "dumb" models throughout the house. Furthermore, a thermostat needs to work basically all the time at certain times of the year, whereas the detector only needs to work when there's something to detect. I guess Google could silently brick them and I'd never know about it but that seems to be getting into paranoia territory. (And it's not like other detectors can't silently fail too.)

It's probably paranoia about the thermostat too TBH. But other than looking cooler than my old programmable Honeywell, a Nest thermostat also wouldn't really do anything for me anyway.

Yeah, the Nest was ahead of its time in 2010; but by 2012 the big players like Honeywell and Carrier had caught up. At this point they beat Nest on both price and features. A good friend of mine owns an HVAC company and would recommend a dozen thermostats over a Nest on functionality alone.

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