Learn about Eco Temperature, Eco when away and how to change settings

Your Google Nest thermostat can switch to Eco Temperature automatically after it senses that nobody's home. You'll know that Eco Temperature is active when 'ECO' appears on your thermostat and in the Nest or Google Home app. You can also choose Eco Temperature when you're at home to help save energy.

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

How Eco Temperature works

• 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.
  Tip: In the Home app for Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen), the display will show three statuses:
  • Eco when away: If it senses that no one's home.
  • Eco hold: If you've manually selected your Eco Temperature preset.
  • Adaptive Eco: If you've turned on the Adaptive Eco setting, which automatically adjusts your Eco Temperature preset. Learn more information about Adaptive Comfort and Adaptive Eco.
• 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 manually set your thermostat 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.
• If you have the Adaptive Eco setting turned on (Nest Learning Thermostat 4th gen only), your thermostat will keep your Eco Temperature close enough to your Comfort temperature to be able to return to it within an hour.

How to select an Eco Temperature that is right for your home

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 Temperature to a level that helps save energy, while making sure people, pets and plants in your home will be comfortable, and 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 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 Temperature 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.

Considerations for choosing an Eco Temperature

Let's say you have a heating-only system and prefer the temperature at 21°C (70°F) when you're 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.

If you have the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen), you can also choose to use Adaptive Eco to moderate a more aggressive Eco temp. This depends on factors like the outdoor temperature.

Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen)	Use the Eco Temperature preset to quickly adjust to energy-saving temperatures. Eco when away turns on when the thermostat senses that your home is empty or if you manually turn on the Away state in the app. The Home app displays 'Eco when away' as the thermostat's current status. If you have the Adaptive Eco setting turned on, the Home app displays 'Adaptive Eco' as the thermostat's current status. This will adjust your Eco Temperature to make sure that the temperature in your home can return to your Comfort temperature within one hour. Learn more about Adaptive Comfort and Adaptive Eco. To manually switch to your Eco Temperature preset, use the Hold function and select Eco. The Home app will show 'Eco hold' at the thermostat's current status. Eco Mode explained on Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen)
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.

Set Eco Temperature to turn on automatically when everyone's away

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

To enable automatic switching, you'll need to set up presence sensing.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2.  Tap Home  Climate your thermostat.
3. Tap Settings Eco when away.
4. Turn on Automatically switch to Eco when away.
   • Optional: If this is your first time to set up the feature, tap Configure presence sensing.

Learn 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.

Tip: Your thermostat will wait 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 that 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.

Set Eco Temperature to hold for a long period of time

Sometimes, you might want Eco Temperature to stay on for a long period of time. For example, if you go on holiday, your thermostat can maintain Eco Temperature the whole time. You'll need to set up long-term Eco Temperature differently depending on your thermostat.

Learn how to tell which Nest thermostat you have

Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) and Nest Thermostat

In the Google Home app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home  Climate your thermostat.
3. Tap Hold Eco .
4. Select an end time, then tap Start hold.

Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen or earlier) 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.

Set Eco Temperature temporarily when you're at home

You might want to set your thermostat to Eco Temperature for a short time to save energy while you're at home. You'll need to set temporary Eco Temperatures differently, depending on your thermostat.

Learn 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.

In the Google Home app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home  Climate your thermostat.
3. Tap Hold Eco .
4. Select an end time and then tap Start hold.

You can also use a voice command with Google Assistant.

Nest Thermostat resumes your normal schedule when the temperature is next scheduled to change. You can also manually adjust to a more comfortable temperature at any time with the thermostat or the Google 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.

How to change which temperature Eco heats or cools to

Before you begin

If your Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen or earlier) 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 Learning Thermostat (4th gen) or 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 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.

In the Google Home app

Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) and Nest Thermostat

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home  Climate your thermostat.
3. Tap Settings Temperature presets Eco.
4. Tap Eco, then tap the plus or minus sign next to the temperature that you want to adjust.

Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen or earlier) and Nest Thermostat E

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home  Climate your thermostat.
3. Tap Settings Eco Temperature.
4. Tap the plus or minus sign next to the temperature that you want to adjust.

Tip: If you've set up presence-based automations, you can use the Google Home app to select if your thermostat will use Eco Temperature while you're home or away.

Learn how to change presence-based automations settings.

Nest app

1. Select your thermostat on the Nest app home screen.
2. Tap Settings in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Tap Eco Temperature to set the temperature range.
4. 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 Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen) and Nest Learning Thermostat E

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.