Headlining Google’s sustainability event this week was the announcement of a new service called Nest Renew. This free upgrade will enable a feature called Energy Shift, which aims to make small tweaks to your home’s heating and cooling to better utilize available renewable energy.
Solar power waxes and wanes as the day goes by, and energy providers adjust electrical rates for time of use accordingly. Energy Shift will be able to, for example, automatically turn your heat up a little earlier in the day than it normally would in order to take advantage of abundant (and thus cheaper) solar power on the grid at the time.
You can earn more of the familiar Nest Leafs by letting Energy Shift do its thing. With them, you’ll be able to vote on nonprofits for Nest’s Energy Impact Program to invest in. Partners like GRID Alternatives and Elevate are already on board.
An interesting aspect of this program is Nest Renew Premium. For $10 per month, Nest will estimate how much of your power is coming from a dirty source like coal or gas, and invest in equivalent green energy credits. This is a kind of carbon offset specific to electricity generation. Right now, this Clean Energy Match would go to the Bethel Wind project, and eventually to the Roseland Solar project.
You can keep tabs on the impact of Nest Renew through a console, and figure out for yourself what times are best to benefit from renewable energy availability. Nest Renew will offer regular challenges to make additional green energy choices around the home, like using cold water in the wash.
Nest Renew will be available by invite only to folks in the continental U.S. starting in “the coming weeks.” Nest Renew Premium will have a smaller launch in select U.S. markets. If you’re interested and already have a 3rd-gen Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Thermostat E, or the newest Nest Thermostat, you can sign up now.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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