A Nest Temperature Sensor adds a way to set your Nest Thermostat based upon the conditions in a room other than where your thermostat is located. It’s a small puck but placement is key to effectiveness.
Sometimes a homeowner winds up with the thermostat being located in a room where they aren’t spending the majority of their time. That’s where this accessory comes in handy. Associate it with a thermostat in your Nest App. Now you can control your thermostat based upon the temperature sensed by the Nest Temperature Sensor.
Optimally Locating the Nest Temperature Sensor
As already stated, these are excellent for people that spend the majority of their time in a room other than where the Nest Thermostat is located. For example, the thermostat might be located in the hallway. There aren’t many people that spend the majority of their time in the hallway. You’re probably going to spend time in the living room or master bedroom. Place the Nest Temperature Sensor in one of those rooms to set the thermostat to the temperature in the location where the Nest Temperature Sensor is.
Got multiple rooms where you spend lots of time? Get multiple sensors. You can connect more than one within the app.
Secondly, hot air rises. Don’t put it on the floor. Don’t put it on the ceiling. Place it roughly 4-5 feet off the floor.
Avoid lamps. Avoid enclosures. Avoid electronics. Avoid direct sunlight. So don’t put it below a lamp. Don’t put it within a cabinet. Keep it away from atop a DVR. Keep it off the window sill.
Google recommends not exceeding 50 feet from the thermostat for communication purposes. Lot of walls might decrease this distance.
How to Mount a Nest Temperature Sensor
The Nest Temperature Sensor shown in the accompanying photo shows it atop a table next to a stairway. A lot of optimal placements can be satisfied by simply placing the device on top of a table or shelf. If this is going to work for you, then you’re all set. Now pull the tab from the battery compartment and connect it via the app. You’re good to go.
But maybe you don’t have a table or shelf available. The sensor comes with a mounting screw and there’s a slot on the bottom of the device. This facilitates mounting to a wall. Drive the screw into a wall using an anchor if necessary, then slide the sensor on the screw.
Prefer not to make holes in your wall?
Over the years of maintaining this site, we have discovered a lot of innovative mounts. When looking for mounts for various security cameras, we uncovered a mini shelf that temporarily attaches to any vertical surface such as a wall or cabinet. So consider the eLhook 4” White Stick-On and Removable Shelf For Cloud Security Cameras. No permanent adhesive is used to stick the ElHook shelf to the flat surface. Read our article called A Wall or Window Shelf for Nest Cam and Other Home Security Cameras for more information on this mount.
You can also consider attaching the sensor using similar tape that I’ve seen used with SimpliSafe sensors. For example, the SimpliSafe Keypad uses 3M Command Strip Adhesive Tape to adhere to a flat surface. One or two strips should be sufficient for this device.
Lastly, eventually someone comes up with an idea that is so clever that we wish we thought of it a long time ago. Check out the Teccle Wall Mount for Nest Temperature Sensor. This mount is a metal adhesive disk with a peg sticking out of it. The peg aligns with the mounting hole on the back of the sensor. It’s a nice clean installation.