Learn about Eco Temperatures, Eco when away & how to change settings

Your Google Nest thermostat can automatically switch to Eco Temperatures when it senses no one is home. Eco Temperatures are active when “ECO” appears on your thermostat and in the Nest or Google Home app. You can also turn on Eco Temperatures when you’re home to save energy.

Eco Temperatures are one way your Nest thermostat helps save energy. Learn more ways to improve energy savings.

How Eco Temperatures work

• Your Nest thermostat can automatically switch to Eco Temperatures when it senses no one is home. Eco Temperatures are on 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 shows 3 statuses:
  • Eco when away: If it senses no one’s home.
  • Eco hold: If you manually chose your Eco Temperature preset.
  • Adaptive Eco: If you turned on the Adaptive Eco setting. It adjusts your Eco Temperature preset on its own. Learn more about Adaptive Comfort and Adaptive Eco.
• You can also manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperatures anytime. You can do this even when you’re home. This is useful if you want to save energy while you’re home, and don’t mind if it’s a bit colder or warmer than usual.
• Your thermostat can also automatically switch to Eco Temperatures if you manually switch your home to Away mode with the Nest or Home app.
• Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E:
  • When you manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperatures, it’ll stay in that mode and won’t automatically switch back to heating or cooling until you manually switch it to one of those modes. Once you manually switch it to heating or cooling, your thermostat will resume automatically switching as people leave and come back home.
• Nest Thermostat:
  • Your Nest Thermostat will always switch out of Eco Temperatures at the next scheduled temperature change. But you can manually set your thermostat to hold the Eco Temperatures for up to 24 hours.

How Eco Temperatures affect your system behavior

When your thermostat is set to Eco, your system might still turn on in some cases:

• If your home gets hotter than the "Cool to" temperature you set, your thermostat turns on cooling until your home reaches the Eco Temperature you set.
• If your home gets colder than the "Heat to" temperature you set, your thermostat turns on heating until your home reaches the Eco Temperature you set.
• For Nest Learning Thermostat 4th gen, if you have the Adaptive Eco setting on, your thermostat keeps Eco Temperatures close to your Comfort Temperature. This is so the temperature can go back within an hour.

How to select Eco Temperatures that are right for your home

Your Nest thermostat gives you a temperature range you can select from when you set an Eco Temperature. The Eco Temperature ranges you can choose from are: 40-70°F (4-21°C) for heating mode and 76-90°F (24-32°C) for cooling mode.

Tips for setting your Eco Temperatures

• When you choose an Eco Temperature setting, the Nest Leaf will appear. This lets you know you’ve selected a temperature that can help save energy. The Leaf is just a guide. You might save energy even if you choose an Eco Temperature that doesn’t have a Leaf.
• When you turn off either the “Heat to” or “Cool to” temperature, your system won’t turn on if it’s on Eco. It will only turn on if your home reaches the Safety Temperature.
• Try to set Eco Temperatures to a level that helps save energy. Make sure people, pets, and plants will be comfortable, and your pipes won’t freeze.
• You can always change the setting if you’re uncomfortable or you don’t save enough energy.

More help for choosing a temperature

These questions can help you find a good Eco Temperature to start with:

What temperature did you set your old thermostat to?	If you want to focus on your comfort over energy savings, try a slightly lower Heat to Eco Temperature. You can also try 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 choosing a slightly lower heating temperature or higher cooling temperature than the thermostat setting you usually use when you leave. Your Nest thermostat only uses Eco Temperature when no one is home, so you might not feel a change.
What are the lowest or highest temperatures you’d feel fine with?	If you really want to focus on saving energy, set your heating and cooling for Eco Temperatures a bit more aggressively. But don’t make it too cold or hot for you, other people, and your pets.

Tip: Eco Temperature settings are just one way your Nest thermostat can save energy. Learn more ways to improve energy savings.

Considerations for choosing an Eco Temperature

Let’s say you have a heating-only system and like it to be 70°F (21°C) when you’re home. If your home is well-insulated, and your system heats your home quickly, you might set your Eco Temperature lower like 56°F (13.5°C). This would save you more energy and still reach your preferred temperature in a reasonable time.

If your home isn’t well-insulated and your system heats slowly, you might pick a higher temperature like 62°F (16.5°C). The higher temperature will allow your home to reach your preferred temperature sooner, but might save you less energy.

If you have the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen), you can also use Adaptive Eco. This helps 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 your home is empty or if you turn on the Away state in the app. The Home app shows “Eco when away” as the thermostat’s current status. If you have the Adaptive Eco setting on, the Home app shows “Adaptive Eco” as the thermostat’s current status. This will adjust your Eco Temperature to make sure 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 shows “Eco hold” as 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 manually set the Eco preset, it’ll be overridden by the next temperature set in the schedule. If you want to use Eco temperatures 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 like you would for 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 automatically switches to Eco Temperatures because no one’s home, it goes back to your normal temperatures when someone comes home.

Set Eco Temperatures to turn on automatically when everyone’s away

Your thermostat can set itself to Eco Temperature when everyone’s away. Then, it can switch to a more comfortable temperature when someone comes home.

To enable automatic switching, you 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.
   • If this is your first time to set up the feature, tap Configure presence sensing.

Learn what kind of 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. This is to tell when everyone has left or come back home.
• When everyone has left, your thermostat will wait a short while to make sure nobody’s coming back, then automatically switch to Eco Temperatures.

Tip: Your thermostat will wait up to 2 hours before switching to Eco temperatures. This happens when you’re using device sensors to sense your presence in the home, and they detect activity around the time everyone leaves.

This longer wait happens even if you use your phone location to help tell if you’re home. To avoid this, only use your phone location to sense presence, and disable other device sensors in your home’s presence settings.

• If your thermostat automatically switches to Eco Temperatures, it switches back to its regular heating or cooling schedule when someone returns home.
• Your thermostat switches to Eco Temperatures if you set your home to Away mode with the Nest or Home app.
• Your thermostat leaves Eco Temperatures and goes back to its regular heating or cooling schedule if you change the temperature with the Nest or Home app.

Set Eco Temperatures to hold for a long period of time

Sometimes you might want Eco Temperature to stay on for a long time. Like when you go on a trip, your thermostat can keep Eco Temperature the whole time. You need to set up long-term Eco Temperature in a different way, based on your thermostat.

Learn what kind of 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 holds the temperature until you change it.

You can switch to Eco Temperatures whenever you want. To use the Nest or Home app or your thermostat, just pick Eco on the screen where you switch your system’s mode. If you’ve set up Google Assistant, you can tell it to switch your thermostat to Eco Temperatures.

• Nest thermostat temperature modes
• Use Google Assistant with Nest products

When you manually activate Eco Temperatures, your thermostat will immediately switch.

Behaviors when manually switching to Eco Temperatures

Your thermostat and system behaviors are different when you manually switch to Eco Temperatures compared to when it’s automatically set:

• It stays at Eco Temperatures even if someone comes home.
• It doesn’t switch back to your regular temperature schedule until you manually switch it to a heating or cooling mode.
• If you have more than one thermostat at home, you have to switch each one to Eco Temperatures.
• If you manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperature, your home doesn’t switch between Home or Away modes. This means that other products in your home aren’t affected. For example, your cameras don’t turn on or off.
• If you manually set your Nest home to Away mode, all your thermostats automatically switches to Eco Temperatures. 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 switches back to Home mode if your thermostat detects movement or a phone that’s set to help with presence sensing comes into the house.

Set Eco Temperatures temporarily when you’re at home

While you’re home, you might want to set your thermostat to Eco Temperatures for a short time to save energy. You 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 Temperatures whenever you want. On the app or your thermostat, choose Eco on the screen where you change your system’s mode. If you’ve set up Google Assistant, you can also tell it to switch your thermostat to Eco Temperatures.

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.

You can also use a voice command with Google Assistant.

Nest Thermostat goes back to your normal schedule when the temperature is next set to change. You can also adjust to a more comfortable temperature at any time using the thermostat or the Google Home app.

Nest thermostat temperature modes.

Use Google Assistant with Nest products.

When you manually activate Eco Temperatures, your thermostat will immediately switch without delay.

Behaviors when manually switching to Eco Temperatures

Your thermostat and system behaviors are different when you manually switch to Eco Temperatures compared to when it’s automatically set:

• It’ll maintain Eco Temperatures even if someone comes home.
• It doesn’t switch back to your regular temperature schedule until you manually switch it to a heating or cooling mode.
• If you have more than one thermostat at home, you have to switch each one to Eco Temperatures.
• If you manually set your thermostat to Eco Temperature, your home doesn’t switch between Home or Away modes. This means that other products in your home won’t be affected. For example, your cameras don’t turn on or off.
• If you manually set your Nest home to Away mode, all your thermostats automatically switches to Eco Temperatures. They can 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 switches back to Home mode if your thermostat detects movement 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 start

If your Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen or earlier) or Nest Thermostat E controls heating, “Heat to” should appear. If it controls cooling, a “Cool to” setting should appear. If you have a Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) or Nest Thermostat, its settings in the Home app are orange for heating and blue for cooling.

• Heat to: Your thermostat turns on heating if the temperature in your home drops below this temperature. A lower setting can save more energy, but might result in a cooler home.
  You can also choose Off. If you do, your thermostat won’t turn on heating while set to Eco unless your home reaches your Safety Temperature.
• Cool to: Your thermostat turns on cooling if the temperature in your home gets higher than this temperature. A higher setting lets your home get warmer, but can usually save more energy.
  You can also choose Off. If you do, your thermostat doesn’t turn on cooling while set to Eco unless your home reaches your Safety Temperature.

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 on Eco. This happens unless your home reaches Safety Temperature. Your thermostat will still follow your fan schedule if you have one and will maintain its Safety Temperature, which helps ensure 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 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 Temperatures.
4. Tap the plus or minus sign next to the temperature you want to adjust.

Tip: If you’ve set up presence-based automations, use the Google Home app to choose if your thermostat uses Eco Temperatures 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 Temperatures to set the temperature range.
4. To adjust the range, drag the slider.

Tip: The Nest Leaf shows up to let you know you’ve picked 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 you want. If your thermostat controls heating, “Heat to” appears. If it controls cooling, “Cool to” appears.
4. Press the thermostat ring to pick the temperature you want to change. Turn the ring to adjust, then press again to set.