How to use your Nest thermostat as a traditional programmable thermostat

The Google Nest Thermostat E and Google Nest Learning Thermostat can learn your daily routine and automatically create a temperature schedule for you. If you'd prefer to disable learning and have your thermostat follow a fixed temperature schedule, you can turn off Auto-Schedule. That way, the schedule won't change unless you make manual changes to it.

This article applies to the following Google Nest thermostats models:
Nest Thermostat E	Nest Learning Thermostat
How to tell which thermostat you have

Note: Only the Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat can use Auto-Schedule. Auto-Schedule is not available for the Nest Thermostat, so it cannot automatically adjust its temperature schedule. Instead, you can enable Savings Finder to get suggestions to adjust temperatures in the schedule and help save energy.

Different Nest thermostat models give you different options for setting up a temperature schedule that meets your needs:

• Auto-Schedule (Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat only)
• Basic schedule (for Nest Thermostat E only)
• Quick schedule (Nest Thermostat only)

Nest thermostat temperature schedules 

If you don't want your Nest Thermostat E or Nest Learning Thermostat to make automatic adjustments to its temperature schedule as it learns what temperatures you like and when, turn off Auto-Schedule. You can then manually edit the existing schedule, or create an entirely new one.

Note: Nest thermostats can also change temperatures automatically with Home & Away routines or Home/Away Assist. You'll need to disable either one to prevent automatic temperature adjustments and use your thermostat like a traditional thermostat.

1. Turn off Auto-Schedule learning

When you turn off Auto-Schedule, your existing schedule will remain, but your thermostat will stop learning from your future adjustments. 

In the Nest app:

1. Open the Nest app and select your Nest thermostat.
2. Select Settings   Auto-Schedule.
3. Tap the switch to turn it off.

On your thermostat:

Choose Settings   Nest Sense  Auto-Schedule  Off.

2. Clear the existing schedule (optional)

Before you decide whether to clear your existing schedule, here's how to see it:

1. Nest Learning Thermostat: Press the ring and choose Schedule .
2. Nest Thermostat E: Press the ring and choose Settings   Schedule.

If you want to keep your existing schedule and manually tweak it, skip to step 3. 

If you want to completely erase your existing schedule, follow the steps below:

1. On your thermostat, select Settings   Reset  Schedule.
2. Depending on which Nest thermostat you have, select either Reset or Clear.

Note: If you have a Nest Thermostat E, you can select Basic to clear your existing schedule and replace it with the default Basic Schedule.

3. Edit or create the schedule

Manually edit or create your thermostat's schedule to change your home's temperature at fixed times that you've set.

In the Nest app:

1. Open the Nest app and select your Nest thermostat.
2. Select Schedule .
3. Create or adjust temperature set points to your liking. For further instructions, go to our Nest thermostat temperature schedules article.

On your thermostat:

1. Go to the schedule screen on your thermostat.
   • Nest Learning Thermostat: On the Quick View menu, choose Schedule .
   • Nest Thermostat E: On the Quick View menu, choose Settings   Schedule.
2. Create or adjust temperature set points to your liking. For further instructions, go to our Nest thermostat temperature schedules article.

 Things to bear in mind

• True Radiant: If you've enabled True Radiant, your thermostat may start your system before the set point in your schedule. That’s because True Radiant is designed so that your home reaches the target temperature by the time you set your schedule. If you'd prefer your system to start at the scheduled time (not before), disable True Radiant; your home won’t reach the target temperature until after the scheduled time.
• Eco Temperatures: If you’ve enabled Eco Temperature, your thermostat might still automatically switch to its Eco Temperature when it senses that everybody has left home. If you don’t want this to happen, you’ll need to disable Eco Temperature auto-switching for your thermostat.
• Automatic switching with presence sensing: If you've enabled Home & Away routines or Home/Away Assist, your thermostat might still automatically switch to its Eco Temperatures when it senses that everybody has left home. If you don't want it to do that, disable Eco Temperature auto-switching for your thermostat.
• No temperature schedule: If you don't set a schedule after clearing it, your thermostat will stay on whatever temperature you set it to until you select a new temperature. This means it will work like a traditional non-programmable thermostat, similar to 'hold' mode on a programmable thermostat.
• Start learning again: You can always turn Auto-Schedule back on if you ever want your thermostat to start learning your temperature preferences again and make adjustments to the schedule automatically. Your Nest thermostat will use any temperatures that are in your schedule as a starting point to start learning again.