The Nest Thermostat
First, a caveat: I’ve yet to see a “Nest” thermostat in an actual home in the Twin Cities.
And you’d certainly guess that the spate of recent (and well-timed) news stories extolling its virtues have as much to do with 
holiday shopping and marketing as the device’s revolutionary technology.
However . . . in fact, the lowly thermostat does seem ripe for a high-tech makeover.
Enter the “Nest” thermostat, which attempts to do for that device what Apple did to/for personal computing.
Stocking Stuffer?
While 2x-3x the cost of a standard thermostat, the Nest thermostat promises to let homeowners quickly re-coup that investment through lower energy bills.
In turn, it supposedly accomplishes that by incorporating a more intuitive, user-friendly display and interface (see above); smart software that learns the household’s schedule; plus sensors that detect when a room is empty (and lowers the temperature automatically).
Do they actually work as billed?
Are they going to take the housing market by storm?
Stay tuned . . .
P.S.: My alternative headline was, “Housing’s Next Big Little Thing.”
