Nest Thermostat Keeps Going To Eco Mode (How To Fix It?)

Eco Mode is one of the Nest Thermostat’s built-in features that aims to help people lower energy consumption and shrink their bills.

It allows the thermostat to use sensors to check if you have left the room or the house and then set itself to an eco temperature to save energy (eco temperature is a lower temperature for heating and a warmer temperature for cooling).

People who have been using a Nest thermostat can experience that sometimes the device suddenly goes into eco mode even if they’re at home or don’t go to normal mode when they arrive.

In the following chapters of this blog post, we will see what causes this problem to occur and what solutions to implement to in order resolve it.

Reasons Why Nest Thermostat Keeps Going into Eco Mode.

Of course, there are many reasons that can lead to this including a problem with the sensor, connectivity issues, outdated firmware, or the location feature being turned off on your mobile, so let’s explore this in more detail.

An issue with the sensors.

The Nest thermostat relies on its built-in sensor to detect occupancy and determine whether you’re home or away, and according to the information sent by this sensor, the device can switch automatically to Normal Mode when you’re home and to Eco Mode when you’re not.

So you can conclude that when the sensor is not functioning your thermostat can’t detect if you’re home or not and it will not switch to the Normal Mode even if you’re in.

The mobile’s GPS is disabled.

The Nest Thermostat also connects to your smartphone to know your location using GPS and based on your location, the device will determine which mode to activate.

So logically when the GPS function is deactivated on your smartphone, the thermostat cannot know where you are and it will not automatically deactivate Eco mode when you are inside your house.

Connectivity issues.

This device relies on an internet connection to do much stuff including detecting your location to auto-switch between different modes.

So, when the internet is down or your gadget has trouble connecting to your network, the device can’t turn on Eco mode automatically because it can’t know where you are.

Outdated firmware.

The firmware provides instructions to help hardware start up, communicate with other devices, and perform input/output tasks, An outdated firmware may reduce the device’s performance and trigger many issues and it may be responsible for the problem we’re talking about in this article.

The Steps To Fix Nest Thermostat keeps going into Eco Mode.

Now let’s take a look at the solutions you need to implement whenever your Nest Thermostat keeps going into Eco Mode. The following solutions are easy to implement, especially if you are comfortable with basic technology tasks.

Solution 1: Turn on the GPS.

As we mentioned earlier, GPS is the responsible feature that helps the thermostat detect your location, so be sure to enable it on your smartphone.

Here’s how to activate location on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
2. Make sure that Location Services is on.
3. Scroll down to find the app.
4. Tap the app you’re controlling the thermostat from (Nest app or Google Home) and select Always.
5. Make sure to turn on Precise Location.

And Here’s how to do it on Android phones:

1. Go to your Settings menu.
2. Find and tap ‘Location’ – your phone may show ‘Location services’ or ‘Location access’ instead.
3. Tap ‘Location’ on to enable your phone’s GPS.
4. Make sure to allow the Nest or Google Home app to get your location info.

Solution 2: Enable the Presence Sensing feature.

When this feature is enabled your thermostat will get your location info from your phone to determine where you are and can also allow you to set Geofence to let the device turn the Eco Mode on and off when you enter and leave the virtual fence.

For the geofence to enable presence sensing to work properly, you’ll need to make sure that:

• You’ve enabled your phone in presence sensing settings in the Home app.
• You’ve set location permissions for the Home App on your phone to Always on.
• Everyone in your household has enabled their phones in presence sensing settings in the Home app on their own phones.

Here’s how to turn on the Presence Sensing feature on the Home app:

1. Go to the Google Home app.
2. Tap on Settings “Gear icon”.
3. Then select Presence Sensing.
4. Turn on Allow this home to use phone locations.

Note: The Thermostat needs to be installed in the Google Home app.

Solution 3: Update the firmware.

The firmware has an essential role to keep the Nest thermostat running smoothly and avoid potential issues such as the one we’re facing right now so make sure to update it from your app.

Your thermostat can automatically install the update, you don’t have to do anything but if you prefer, you can manually update the firmware on your mobile app and here’s how:

1. Go to the mobile app where the thermostat is configured.
2. From the home screen on your thermostat, select the Settings Nest settings icon.
3. Then Tap on Version or Software and click on Update.

Solution 4: Fix connectivity issues.

Like any other smart home gadget, the Nest Thermostat requires a stable internet connection to function properly, connect to your mobile phone and ensure switching between modes at the right time.

You can try the following troubleshooting steps to fix connectivity issues:

1. Power cycle and reset the router.
2. Power cycle the Nest thermostat.
3. Update router firmware.
4. Connect to the right frequency and reduce interference.
5. Improve Wifi signals.

Solution 5: Turn Off the Home/Away Assist function.

Home/Away Assist uses input from sensors in your Nest thermostat managed and your phone’s location to automatically switch the behavior of the device in your home when you leave and when you come back (Turn on the Eco Mode when you leave and switch it off when you come back).

This is a very good function and will help you reduce your HVAC energy consumption and your energy bills as well, but sometimes and for some reason this feature stops working and the thermostat is stuck in the Eco Mode.

So you’ll have to turn it off but you need to consider that when this function is off you’ll have to turn the Eco Mode manually.

Here’s how to turn the Home/Away Assist feature off:

1. Open the Nest app.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Select Home/Away Assist.
4. Turn this option off.

To turn on the Eco Mode manually you need to follow the next instructions:

1. Go to your thermostat on the wall.
2. Go to the Quick View menu.
3. Select the mode you want.

Solution 6: Turn Off Eco Mode completely.

Turning off the Eco Mode can be a solution to your problem but I don’t recommend it for all of you because you’ll lose an important feature that can help you lower your energy bills and increase convenience.

What I recommend is implementing this solution in specific conditions for example if you’re sleeping at night and you notice that the Eco Mode is enabled and you don’t have time to fix it.

Follow the next steps to turn off the Eco Mode:

1. Open The Nest app.
2. Go to your thermostat and Tap on Mode.
3. Set the thermostat to Heat/Cool.
4. Click on the Eco option.
5. Select End Eco Temperatures on the thermostat.

Solution 7: Factory reset the thermostat.

A factory reset can be our last resort to fix this issue, this process can reset your entire configuration and give a new life to your Nest Thermostat.

A factory reset is also known as a good troubleshooting step that can fix software bugs and issues occurring on an electronic device.

Follow the next steps to reset your thermostat:

1. Press your thermostat ring to open the Quick View menu.
2. Choose the Settings Nest settings icon.
3. Turn the ring to Reset and press to select.
4. Then select All Settings to reset all your Nest thermostat settings.

Note: Remove your thermostat from your account before resetting the configuration to defaults.

Conclusion.

Hopefully one of the solutions provided in this article will help you get your Nest Thermostat working properly without any issues. If not, I recommend contacting Nest tech support for further assistance or hire an expert to investigate the problem.