What HVAC monitoring alerts mean

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has identified a time when your heating system didn’t appear to be working.

It identifies heating failures by monitoring your indoor temperature while your system is heating. We’ll send an alert, for example, if the indoor temperature decreases while the heating system is supposed to be on.

For instance, if your heater is on but your home isn’t getting warmer, your heating system’s fan may have a problem. Or, as another example, if you have a gas or oil furnace, you may have a dirty or faulty flame sensor that for safety reasons prevents the gas from burning.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has identified a time when your A/C system didn’t appear to be working. 

It identifies cooling failures by monitoring your indoor temperature while your system is cooling.We’ll send an alert, for example, if the indoor temperature increases while the A/C system is supposed to be on.

For instance, if your air conditioner is on but your home isn’t getting cooler, your A/C system’s compressor, indoor fan, or outdoor fan may have a problem, or your startup capacitor may be broken. You may be able to check the capacitor by listening for clicking noises in the outdoor unit that indicate it’s trying to start but doesn’t succeed.

Note: You may also receive this alert in some special cases when your A/C system is working as expected. If you’ve enrolled in a demand response utility program, it may cut off power to the compressor on very hot summer days. This power loss will cause the alert to be sent. Also, if your Y1 wire is connected to a fan, which doesn’t cool your home, you may receive the alert.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has identified times when the heater was on, and electrical power to the thermostat was lost. This power loss may indicate a serious problem.

Furnaces typically have a safety switch that shuts off power to part of the system if the air inside the furnace gets too hot. The furnace may get too hot because not enough air is flowing through the system due to issues such as a dirty filter, restrictive ductwork, or a problem with the fan.

Your heating system may still work, but these high temperatures and continuous shifts between on and off can damage your furnace and cause a safety hazard. For example, the heat exchangers may develop cracks that are expensive to fix and that may allow carbon monoxide to leak into your home.

Learn more about how to troubleshoot a furnace shutdown (heads-up) alert.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has identified multiple times when your heating system appears to have stopped heating your home for a period in the middle of the heating cycle. It identifies these times from data about when the reported indoor temperature went down temporarily while the thermostat was telling your heating system to heat your home.

Heating systems that burn fossil fuels, like gas, may turn off your furnace briefly if a safety mechanism correctly or mistakenly identifies a potential problem.

Your system’s safety mechanisms are designed to shut down your furnace to prevent severe problems like gas or carbon monoxide leaks, fires or explosions in your home. You may experience short shutdowns if a problem, such as an igniter failure, happens intermittently. But if something is wrong with the mechanism itself, it may also briefly turn off the gas as a safety precaution. For example, a flame sensor should make sure your gas is burning properly. If the sensor gets dirty and has trouble detecting a flame, it will stop your furnace from burning gas.

In cases like a dirty flame sensor, most of the time your heating system will turn back on by itself, and you won’t know about the problem until it becomes more serious. This early warning alert can help you address the problem while it’s less serious.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has identified multiple times when your A/C system lost power.

Your A/C system should not lose power during normal operation. If it loses electrical power, it may have a problem.

Your A/C system both cools and removes moisture from your home. The moisture that your system removes condenses into water that needs to be drained, as much as 5-20 gallons per day.

A/C systems are designed to drain this water, but sometimes it may have problems. For example, the pump may fail or the drain line may become clogged. A mechanism, such as a float switch, shuts down the system if it detects that the water isn't draining properly. In some cases, the problem may be the switch itself.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest has determined that your A/C system does not behave as usual while cooling your home to a comfortable temperature.

If your A/C system does not behave as expected, it may have a problem. For example, your system may have low refrigerant levels, air flow problems, or frost building on the evaporator coils.

Your system may still work with these conditions, but it may cost you more than necessary to cool your home and may cause more damage in the long run.

You’ll receive this alert if Google Nest determines that your heat pump may have used its backup auxiliary heat more than expected. When it’s very cold, your heat pump may use auxiliary heat to help heat your home. This may use more energy, but will help heat your home quicker. However, if your heat pump’s compressor, the main source for your system’s heating, is performing poorly when the weather is warmer, your auxiliary heat will still be used to help heat your home when it otherwise might not be needed. 

Google Nest looks at how much your system uses this extra help from auxiliary heat to determine if you could have a problem. This is determined by using the outdoor temperature and the heating runtimes from your thermostat. 

If we detect an issue during the heating season this could continue to have an impact during the cooling season since your heat pump provides both heating and cooling to your home.

While your auxiliary heat will help heat your home when it’s cold, it won’t assist your compressor in cooling when it’s hot.This means your heat pump may seem to work fine in the winter, but it could still have issues in the summer when you try to cool your home.