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Belgium to the rescue as UK consumers freeze after BST blunder

Hey, Nest Thermostats! ‘Spring forward, Fall back’

British consumers awoke to cold houses this morning as Nest “Learning” Thermostats failed to accommodate the switch to British Summer Time.

Nest customers have not only been deprived of an hour's sleep, but also a warm house in which to struggle to wake up.

According to complaints raised on the Nest community support forum the “smart” thermostats have updated the time appropriately but failed to accommodate the change to consumers' schedules.

One user reported to the support forums that their Nest “is using a fixed schedule (not learning)."

The consumer wrote that:

When [BST] occurred it failed to follow the schedule and changes to the schedule had no effect. The time of the next scheduled change as indicated on the schedule display is one hour in error.

It is as if the schedule is at present being ignored and the system has been upset by the one-hour change.

Hopefully, all will correct itself tomorrow. I've already tried a restart with no effect. These needs looking into as I had some problems at the last daylight saving time change.

The "Learning" Thermostat is manufactured by Nest Labs, a home automation company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It was acquired by Google in January 2014 for $3.2bn in cash, and now "exchanges" customer data with its Chocolate Factory mother.

The Register spoke to a member of Nest's support team on the phone, who confirmed that the company had not published any advice for consumers at this time. "A couple of customers have called us about it," The Register was told, but Nest said it had "not enough information to go on, to see what the issue is".

Complaints have been forthcoming on Twitter too. Dan Sleight complained that the schedule is correct but the machine won't "obey". This is most likely the product of a technical error rather than the first sign of the singularity.

"[The issue] is only affecting customers in the UK," The Register was told by an American support contact.

With no release from Nest regarding the issue, one customer managed to implement a temporary fix by locating their Nest in Belgium. “This fools the nest into thinking it's one hour behind. Outside temp in Belgium must be something like UK.”

Nest support checked the forums and repeated this notion for The Register's readers and also advised affected customers to "call in and report [this]. Let us know the issue. Even just as an FYI."

Nest is expected to publish guidance for its chilly customers within 24 hours. ®

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