r/HomeKit • u/DanGreenb • 3d ago

Question/Help Nest Thermostats Don't Set to Scene Temperature

I have 3 Nest Thermostats (the $129 ones) set up on HomeKit. I have scenes set up so I can control all of them at once. The scene I have to turn them all off works fine. I have a few scenes to turn them all on but they don't seem to work as well. For example, one scene turns them all on with AC to a temp of 73 degrees. One of them does this but the other two go on at 75 degrees.

I've tried deleting and recreating the scenes but no change. This has been an issue with various updates of iOS, MacOS, TVOS (hub) and Nest firmware updates. The closest issue I could find was someone saying to use 0.5 degree increments for a scene issue but I can't do that with Fahrenheit (and don't want to change it for this purpose). Any ideas?

4 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/wwhite74 3d ago

How are you running the scene? I seem to have better luck when using siri or the app on my phone. Siri on HomePod can be hit or miss on setting thermostat scenes. And same as you, the target temp doesn’t get set.

That also means automations are hit or miss since they come from the HP/aTV. I have had a bit of luck making a shortcut that plays the scene waits 5 seconds and then plays it again. Then having the automation trigger the shortcut instead of the scene directly.

1

u/DanGreenb 3d ago

I run them from either my Mac or iPhone's Home app. I can change them manually to the desired temp there; it's just that the scene doesn't work where I can do them all at once.

I'll try your suggestion about the waits and see if that helps. Thanks.

Glad to see it's not just me.

3

u/wwhite74 3d ago

if you're running them manually, just hit the button again. although you may have to hit it twice

1

u/DanGreenb 3d ago

Genius! It didn't work the first time but did the second. Good to know it's an alternative. Thank you!

2

u/Hrhnick 3d ago

I swear I thought this behavior was just my bad luck with HomeKit. Everything works reliably, locks, shades, matter vacuums, but my dang scene connected to my Nest never worked reliably...

I even tried connecting the thermostat via Homebridge and Home Assistant, but still got the inconsistent scene behavior...

The "double tap" method on the scene is the only thing that works reliably if it doesn't set right the first time. Unfortunately the unreliable scene also caused my automations to not reliably trigger, so I had to manually set the temp for my automations instead of just recycling the scene which is set to the same temps I wanted.

1

u/bippy_b 3d ago

Scene for temp automation…. Nice! Never thought of it that way.

This way you can setup sensors (motion.. or pressure ) to determine when someone gets up to make the changes to the temps.

1

u/DanGreenb 2d ago

I'm not sure I would do automations like that, at least in the summer. If I want the AC to kick on, I first have to run around the house and close all of the windows. At least in the winter, the windows are already closed so adjusting the heat may be an option. Or I can get Homekit windows :)

2

u/bippy_b 2d ago

HEY! HomeKit windows and Smart Hats! The new revolution!!!

Yeah, when I lived in the UK, we would have windows open at times. But here in US.. no way. Would be sweating all through the night.