Wrap up warm: Nest has a battery-draining bug that shuts off your heating
No fix in sight, but a manual restart will get your heating back on
If you’ve got a Nest Learning Thermostat controlling your heating system, get ready to break out the thermal blankets – it’s got a battery draining bug that’s shutting off heating systems.
A problem with the software is draining the thermostat’s rechargeable battery, which forces it to shut down your boiler when it eventually runs out.
Early reports from customers suggest it’s limited to Gen2 and Gen3 Nest Thermostats, but it’s still early days, and the original model could end up affected too.
A Nest rep confirmed the company was aware of the bug to Gizmodo, saying it was investigating the issue and hard at work on a fix.
With no idea what’s causing the problem, customers have no choice but to recharge their faulty ‘stat more regularly.
For the time being, the only way to get your heating online again is to manually reboot the thermostat – after you’ve recharged the flat battery, of course. Tapping the ring to bring up the main menu, turning to SETTINGS, tapping to enter the menu, turning to RESET and tapping a third time should spark your boiler back into life.
Or you could just prise the thermostat off its base and leaved its microUSB charging cable plugged in permenantly until Nest comes up with a fix.
[source: Gizmodo]
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor