How to Turn Off Your Nest Thermostats Seasonal Savings Program

Smart thermostats are increasing in popularity as more and more homeowners seek out ways to lower their energy bills. These systems can be programmed to conveniently maintain the temperature at home based on your weekly schedule. They also have the ability to learn your preferences over time. For this reason, you can spend less on your energy bills by ensuring that your home is only heated or cooled when you need it.

Google’s smart thermostat is the Nest, and numerous homeowners are content with its features and general efficiency. But one feature–the Seasonal Savings program–is stirring up trouble rather than helping your HVAC system. Frequent issues are forcing homeowners to learn how to disable this feature. We’ll review the problems some people are having with Seasonal Savings and provide instructions for how to opt out of the program.

Many Homeowners Claim the Seasonal Savings Program Isn’t Working Like It Should

Google built the Seasonal Savings program to help homeowners increase their energy efficiency. During peak HVAC use in the summer and winter, it should automatically adjust the thermostat to balance your preferences with energy efficiency. The program is designed to run without interrupting your sense of comfort, setting up the biggest changes when you’re away or in bed. Sadly, this isn’t the case for lots of people participating in the program.

Instead, there are reports that the program is sporadic and frustrating to use. Homeowners are complaining that the program is even increasing their energy bills instead of reducing them. And when they attempt to disable or opt out of Seasonal Savings, they’ve found the way to do so is difficult to find or entirely missing. In some cases people have even observed it being turned back on after it was disabled.

Smart thermostats are intended to increase the efficiency of your HVAC equipment. While automatic temperature corrections are a popular feature in smart thermostats, it shouldn’t ignore your desired settings. If the Nest won’t work with your comfort preferences, disabling the Seasonal Savings program is the right move.

But First, Why Is This Happening?

Homeowners are complaining that the Seasonal Savings setting was started on their Nest thermostat without their authorization. Why can a smart thermostat you operate ignore your settings and enroll in the program? It might be because of an energy-efficiency agreement you signed up for with your utility company.

These agreements help you enhance your home’s energy efficiency. They may feature rebates on new equipment or special discounts for renewable energy products. But lots of people are surprised to learn they also grant your utility company remote access to the thermostat. If the power grid is experiencing a heavy load, the utility company can override your thermostat and raise the temperature. You may be having trouble with the Seasonal Savings program because a utility company is utilizing this remote access.

But what if the setting is faulty or just disregarding your preferences? Whatever the reason may be, you don’t want a feature to raise your energy use without your consent. We’ll share how other homeowners have shut off the Seasonal Savings program.

How to Disable Your Nest Thermostat’s Seasonal Savings Feature

A number of people have disclosed trouble opting out of the Seasonal Savings feature. While the location of this setting could be different based on your specific Nest model, other users are nervous that Google is purposely making it more difficult to disable Seasonal Savings. To make sure you can opt out no matter what, we’ll describe the ways other users have found success.

1. 1. Overriding Seasonal Savings: Manually changing the temperature should outrank the Seasonal Savings program, but numerous users have found this isn’t what’s happening. If you note your Nest constantly reversing your changes, you’ll probably prefer to turn off the feature completely.

2. 2. Disabling the feature from the Nest app: Your phone or tablet’s Nest app is supposed to have a History option and a Settings option. Google points users to their History to switch off Seasonal Savings, but other users have found this option within Settings. Once disabled, the feature is temporarily off until the subsequent summer or winter.

3. 3. Shutting off the program from the Nest thermostat: Your thermostat should also have a History option where you can disable Seasonal Savings, but many homeowners state the disable option is gone.

4. 4. Opting out before the program starts: The Seasonal Savings program is only obtainable around summer and winter. Your smart device should receive a notification when the program is about to begin, giving you the opportunity to opt out.

When Seasonal Savings is live, your Nest will show a small yellow symbol of a leaf. If the Nest is experiencing issues and the Seasonal Savings icon is not visible, your predicament could be with a different setting entirely.

Sometimes the Issue Isn’t Seasonal Savings but Another Setting or Program

Alternative features on Nest smart thermostats apart from Seasonal Savings can lead to automatic temperature changes. If these settings are active during Seasonal Savings, even opting out of the program may not prevent the thermostat from making alterations. Thankfully, these settings can be disabled. You’ll also have options if the issue is a third party like your power company.

5. 5. Turning off Auto-Schedule: The Nest Thermostat E and Nest Learning Thermostat both offer the Auto-Schedule feature, using their ability to study your preferences to define the best possible schedule. Going into Settings and switching off Auto-Schedule should prevent other automatic controls including Seasonal Savings.

1. 1. Disabling auto switching: Nest thermostats will still switch to eco temperatures if you possess an auto-switching feature like Home & Away Routines or Home/Away Assist. These settings automatically adjust the temperature when the thermostat thinks that no one is around.

6. 6. Opting out of the utility company’s energy agreement: Because your energy provider could be remotely controlling a Nest thermostat, negating the agreement should remove remote access. You can obtain the complete details of these agreements through your energy provider.

7. 7. Reaching out to Google support: If nothing else works, contacting Google’s technical support may be of service. Staff can lead you to resetting the Nest or determining the proper setting to switch off Seasonal Savings.

If the Problem Remains, Your Thermostat Could Be Malfunctioning

There’s always the chance the Nest smart thermostat is just malfunctioning. Electrical problems or software bugs can cause all types of issues, including an inconsistent Seasonal Savings program. If you believe the problem is isolated to your own thermostat, a skilled technician may be able to help. After all, smart thermostats continue to be a beneficial investment for your home’s energy efficiency.

If you need local assistance for your smart thermostat in the U.S., get in touch with the heating and cooling professionals at Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing. They can help you find the ideal way to switch off a stubborn Seasonal Savings program on your Nest thermostat.