Nest will help low-income families lower their energy bills by giving out free Nest Thermostat E as part of a new initiative to help celebrate Earth Day this year. The initiative is called the Nest Power Project, and will seek to give out one million Nest Thermostat E smart thermostats over the next five years to lower-income homes. Nest will reportedly be working with a variety of groups and organizations to get the thermostats into the hands of the families that need them and qualify for the program, including various power companies across the U.S., different lenders, and groups like Habitat for Humanity.
According to Nest it will be donating one Nest Thermostat E to every Habitat for Humanity home that is built this year, and in addition to outfitting these homes with free smart thermostats which can help lower energy bills, Nest is also committing to donating a certain percentage of profits from Nest thermostat purchases to organizations like Habitat for Humanity. The proceeds that will be donated will come from any Nest purchases that were made starting April 16 and through April 30, and in total Nest has pledged to donate 10-percent of those purchases up to a total of $500,000.
Nest’s Power Project is focused on bringing attention to the issue that low-income families are facing, which is that they on average spend more of their monthly income on energy and other utilities than families in higher income homes. According to Nest some homes in certain parts of the U.S. are spending as much as 50-percent of their monthly income on energy costs, and Nest sees this as a growing problem that is going to continue, which is a big reason for creating the Nest Power Project and for working to donate free thermostats that can help to lower those energy costs. While the monthly income for some of these families may not change, Nest is attempting to do its part to at least relieve some of the burden by lowering the cost of the energy bills through the use of a smart thermostat.