How to use the nest thermostat to cool your house based on humidity
Sophia Hammond
Updated on March 29, 2026
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read more.
When the air conditioner is running during the summer, it may not necessarily be functioning in a way that optimizes your home’s humidity level. With the Nest Thermostat, you can tell your air conditioner to cool your house based on the humidity level, so your house doesn’t feel like a Florida swamp.
Most thermostats don’t come with a humidity sensor. If yours does, it likely just serves the purpose of telling you what the humidity is inside your house, and nothing more. The Nest Thermostat, tells you what the indoor humidity is, but it can also cool your house and give focus to the humidity rather than just the temperature that you have it set to.
For example, if your air conditioner cools your house to 73 degrees, but the indoor humidity is still really high, your Nest can tell your air conditioner to keep cooling your house until the humidity level goes down to a comfortable level. The only downside is that it might be a bit colder in your house and you’ll spend more money on your utility bill using this method, but if it’s something that you really want, the Nest Thermostat can do it.
Start by opening up the Nest app on your phone and select your Nest Thermostat on the main screen.
On the next page, you’ll see what the humidity is inside of your house. You want to keep it in between 40-60%. Any higher and you could invite the growth of mold, and any lower can dry out your skin and ruin wood furniture.
If the humidity is a bit high in your house, your Nest has a feature to deal with this, and you can access it from the settings gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
On the next page, tap on “Nest Sense”.
Next, select “Cool to Dry”.
That section will expand and explain what the feature is. Simply tap on the toggle switch next to the green leaf to turn it on.
Of course, if your air conditioning unit already has a dehumidifying feature, you likely don’t need Cool to Dry on, but if not, the Nest Thermostat can serve as a decent substitute. The feature will turn on the air conditioning if humidity levels rise above 70% inside your home, no matter what you have it set at. However, there are limits. It will only cool to 75°F, or 5°F below your set temperature–whichever is higher.
The neat thing about this feature is that if your Nest Thermostat senses that the humidity isn’t dropping, despite Cool to Dry being on and active, it’ll automatically return to your regular temperature setting to avoid wasting any more energy.
At that point, you could just buy a dehumidifier for your house, but most consumer models are only meant for one room in your home, and a whole-house unit can be pretty costly. So be sure to weigh your options and shop around.
Nix humidity using your Nest thermostat and the flick of a finger.
Nest Learning Thermostat’s Cool to Dry setting.
Nobody likes humidity. It makes hair frizzy. People with certain medical conditions find it harder to breathe when it’s humid. It can encourage mold to grow. If you live in a humid area, you may have just learned to deal with it. or plan on moving. Before you give up, give your Nest Learning Thermostat a shot at solving the problem.
The Cool to Dry setting uses your air conditioning unit or heat pump to remove humidity from your home. When it senses hot, humid air over 70 percent humidity when you’re at home, it will switch on your AC. When you’re away, it will start to dehumidify if the humidity rises over 65 percent.
This option is available on the Nest Thermostat E ($169 at Walmart) , first-gen Nest Learning Thermostat ($229 at Amazon) and the second- and third-gen Nest Learning Thermostats.
How does it work?
When the humid air passes over the refrigerated coils in your AC, the moisture is condensed into water. The air coming out of the AC is much drier. The Cool to Dry setting cools to 3 degrees F (-16.1 C) lower than your scheduled temperatures or 5 degrees F (-15 C) lower than your Eco temperature settings when high humidity is detected in your home.
If the Nest detects that the humidity level isn’t changing, it will shut off so that it doesn’t waste any extra electricity.
If your AC or heat pump has its own dehumidifier, it will use it to more efficiently remove humidity from the air.
How to turn on the Cool to Dry setting
Here’s how to turn it on using the app:
- Open the app.
- Tap on the Settings icon (it looks like a gear) in the upper right of the screen.
- Choose Equipment Continue > Continue >Dehumidifier >Set Humidity.
- Follow the onscreen directions.
If that doesn’t work, you may have an older Nest. Use these steps:
- Tap the screen.
- Choose Settings.
- Scroll to Nest Sense and select it.
- Scroll to Cool to Dry and select it.
- Select Yes.
Keep in mind that having this option turned on all the time will raise your electricity bill, since your AC unit will work more than it usually would. If you hate humidity, though, it may be worth it.
Editor’s note: This article was published on June 10, 2017, and has been updated.
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read more.
With the warmer weather finally arriving, many households are switching their thermostats from heating to cooling. Here’s how to do it on the Nest Thermostat.
The Nest Thermostat allows you to control and manage the device remotely from your smartphone, and it even comes with learning capabilities that can learn your habits and patterns and eventually automatically adjust the thermostat for you. However, sometimes it can be the littlest of features that are hard to find.
Case in point: how do you switch the Nest Thermostat from heating to cooling, or from cooling to heating at the turn of the season? It’s actually really simple and you can do it from either the Nest app or on the Nest Thermostat unit itself.
From the Nest App
Open up the Nest app on your phone and select your Nest Thermostat from the main screen.
Down in the bottom-left corner, tap on “Heat”. It may also say “Cool” depending on what you already have it set at.
A pop-up will appear, giving you several options. If you want to switch to your air conditioning, tap on “Cool”. If you want to switch to heating, tap on “Heat”. You can also turn off your Nest Thermostat from here, and there’s even a setting where you can choose both Heat and Cool at the same time. (We’ll discuss that more in a minute.)
When you switch from Heat to Cool, the thermostat’s set temperature will automatically jump to a higher setting, and from there you can adjust it as needed. It will do the opposite when you switch from Cool to Heat, going down to the last temperature you had it set at before you switched it to Cool.
When you switch to “Heat-Cool”, the Nest Thermostat will automatically turn on the furnace or the air conditioner whenever either is needed, rather than only having one or the other enabled at any one time.
Using this setting, you can set a temperature range that you want to keep your house between, and the Nest Thermostat will take care of it all automatically without needing to manually switch back and forth between Heat and Cool.
On the Nest Thermostat
Switching from Heat to Cool and vice versa uses the same method in the app, but obviously it’s a bit different on the smaller screen of the Nest Thermostat.
Press on your Nest Thermostat unit to bring up the main menu.
Use the silver scroll wheel and go to “Thermostat”. Push on the unit to select it.
From there, scroll and select either “Heat”, “Cool”, “Heat-Cool”, or “Off”, just like you would in the Nest app.
The “Heat-Cool” setting can be great for when the seasons are just changing, meaning that it’s getting warmer outside, but there are still days where it can get cold (and vice versa in the fall). Because of this, the Heat-Cool setting keeps you from having to constantly switch back and forth between heating and cooling when the weather is kind of unpredictable.
Nest Learning Thermostat’s Cool to Dry setting.
Nobody likes humidity. It makes hair frizzy. People with certain medical conditions find it harder to breathe when it’s humid. It can encourage mold to grow. If you live in a humid area, you may have just learned to deal with it… or plan on moving. Before you give up, give your Nest Learning Thermostat a shot at solving the problem.
The Cool to Dry setting uses your air conditioning unit or heat pump to remove humidity from your home. When it senses hot, humid air over 70 percent humidity when you’re at home, it will switch on your AC. When you’re away, it will start to dehumidify if the humidity rises over 65 percent.
This option is available on the Nest Thermostat E ($169.00 at Dell Home) , first-gen Nest Learning Thermostat ($219.99 at Amazon.com) and the second- and third-gen Nest Learning Thermostats.
How does it work?
When the humid air passes over the refrigerated coils in your AC, the moisture is condensed into water. The air coming out of the AC is much drier. The Cool to Dry setting cools to 3 degrees F (-16.1 C) lower than your scheduled temperatures or 5 degrees F (-15 C) lower than your Eco temperature settings when high humidity is detected in your home.
If the Nest detects that the humidity level isn’t changing, it will shut off so that it doesn’t waste any extra electricity.
If your AC or heat pump has its own dehumidifier, it will use it to more efficiently remove humidity from the air.
How to turn on the Cool to Dry setting
Here’s how to turn it on using the app:
- Open the app.
- Tap on the Settings icon (it looks like a gear) in the upper right of the screen.
- Choose Equipment Continue > Continue >Dehumidifier >Set Humidity.
- Follow the onscreen directions.
If that doesn’t work, you may have an older Nest. Use these steps:
- Tap the screen.
- Choose Settings.
- Scroll to Nest Sense and select it.
- Scroll to Cool to Dry and select it.
- Select Yes.
Keep in mind that having this option turned on all the time will raise your electricity bill, since your AC unit will work more than it usually would. If you hate humidity, though, it may be worth it.
Editor’s note: This article was published on June 10, 2017, and has been updated.
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A Nest Thermostat is a smart home appliance. It is a beautifully designed thermostat that helps you stay comfortable and save energy as well. The Nest Thermostat has been proven to save your energy significantly. What’s better is that it comes with smart home features.
For instance, whenever you are away from your home, the device will turn itself down. Also, you will have complete remote control over it using an app installed on your smartphone. You will have remote and smart temp sensing that will adjust according to your room’s temperature.
Does Nest Thermostat Automatically Switch Between Heal And Cool
Nest Thermostat has plenty of smart features. Some users have noticed their thermostat automatically switch between heat and cool. This has raised some questions among the community. Many people have been seen asking the question “Does Nest Thermostat automatically switch between heat and cool?”.
To answer this question, yes, it does. But it mostly depends. There are multiple modes in a Nest Thermostat. Each mode changes the functioning of your Thermostat. Hence, to properly understand this, we will be explaining each one of the modes:
- Heat Mode
In heat mode, the Nest Thermostat will only heat your home. It won’t start cooling until your Safety Temperatures are reached. If any scheduled temperature has been set, the Thermostat will heat the room to maintain that temperature.
- Cool Mode
If you have set your Thermostat on cool mode, it will only cool your home. It will only heat your home when the safety temperatures are reached. If you have set any scheduled temperature, the Thermostat will keep cooling the house to maintain that temperature.
- Heat-Cool
In Heat-Cool mode, the Thermostat will either heat or cool to keep your house within a temperature range you have set the device to him. If you have noticed your Thermostat automatically switch between heat and cool, then your Thermostat is probably set to this mode. The Heat-Cool mode is useful for climates that need both heating and cooling on the same day.
- Off
If the thermostat is set to off, it will only heat or cool your house when you need to maintain your safe temperature. At all other times, your Thermostat will disable all other heating, cooling, and fan control. Even if there is any scheduled temperature is set, your Thermostat will not turn on unless you switch the modes.
- Eco Mode
In Eco mode, the Thermostat will either heat or cool to maintain your house’s temperature within the Eco temperature range. If the Thermostat is manually set to Eco and your house is set to away, it will not follow any temperature schedule. However, if it is automatically set to Eco because you were away from your house, then it will follow your schedule.
Conclusion
So, to answer the question “Does Nest Thermostat automatically switch between heat and cool?” Yes, but only in Heat-Cool, and Eco mode. All the other modes will only heat/cool once the safety temperature limit has been reached.
Most homeowners don’t realize that your air conditioner actually has two responsibilities: to cool and dehumidify your home.
But if you’re leaving your thermostat fan setting to “ON”, you prevent your AC from removing as much moisture from your home.
And humidity inside your home isn’t just uncomfortable, it can cause damage and even make your family sick.
Let’s take a look at how this thermostat setting increases humidity and what setting you should be using instead.
How leaving your AC fan “ON” increases humidity
First off, it’s helpful to know the two settings for your AC fan and the difference between them:
- AUTO—This setting runs your fan only when your AC is blowing cold air. In between cooling cycles, the fan shuts off.
- ON—This setting runs your fan constantly, even when your AC isn’t actively producing cool air.
Setting your fan to AUTO instead of ON better dehumidifies your home.
Think of how a glass of ice water beads up and “sweats” when you place it in the sun. This is how your AC unit works.
Your AC’s refrigerant coils absorb heat and moisture from the air inside your home. That cold air is then blown into your home but the moisture is left behind sitting on the coils.
Photo courtesy: central-air-conditioner-and-refrigeration.com
And what happens to that moisture next depends on the setting of your fan.
If your fan is set to AUTO, it shuts off between cooling cycles. This allows time for the moisture on the cooling coils to collect and drain outdoors like it is designed to do.
But if your fan is set to ON, the fan runs continuously and blows the moisture right back into your house.
High humidity levels: the perfect conditions for mold
Although low humidity levels are often associated with comfort, it also serves a higher purpose and protects your family from health hazards such as mold.
The Department of Health and Human Services states that around 70% humidity or higher is the perfect breeding conditions for mold.
Mold can cause breathing problems, skin irritations and a variety of other health concerns.
Leaving your AC fan set to ON allows the moisture in your home to accumulate and reach mold-growing levels of humidity.
To ensure that you and your family stay cool and healthy this summer, keep your AC thermostat fan setting to AUTO.
Coolray is your Atlanta-area home comfort expert with specialists in heating, air conditioning, air quality and plumbing. Have more questions? We’d be happy to help – just contact us online.
Related articles:
- Tired of the Humidity? 3 Cheap, Natural Ways to Give it the Boot
- How Should I Set My Thermostat for the Summer?
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When the air conditioner is running during the summer, it may not necessarily be functioning in a way that optimizes your home’s humidity level. With the Nest Thermostat, you can tell your air conditioner to cool your house based on the humidity level, so your house doesn’t feel like a Florida swamp.
When the air conditioner operates in the summer, it does not necessarily operate in a way that optimizes the humidity in your home. With the Nest thermostat, you can tell the air conditioner to cool the house based on the humidity level, so your house will not resemble a Florida swamp.
Most thermostats don’t come with a humidity sensor. If yours does, it likely just serves the purpose of telling you what the humidity is inside your house, and nothing more. The Nest Thermostat, tells you what the indoor humidity is, but it can also cool your house and give focus to the humidity rather than just the temperature that you have it set to.
Most thermostats do not have a humidity sensor. If so, it may only be used to tell you the humidity inside the house, nothing more. The Nest Thermostat can tell you what the humidity is in the room, but it can also cool your house and focus on humidity, not just temperature.
For example, if your air conditioner cools your house to 73 degrees, but the indoor humidity is still really high, your Nest can tell your air conditioner to keep cooling your house until the humidity level goes down to a comfortable level. The only downside is that it might be a bit colder in your house and you’ll spend more money on your utility bill using this method, but if it’s something that you really want, the Nest Thermostat can do it.
For example, if your air conditioner cools the house to 73 degrees, but the indoor humidity is still high, Nest will tell your air conditioner to continue cooling the house until the humidity drops to a comfortable level. The only downside is that the temperature of the house may be lower. You will spend more money on utilities using this method, but if you really want to do this, Nest Thermostat can do it.
Start by opening up the Nest app on your phone and select your Nest Thermostat on the main screen.
First open the Nest app on your phone, then select Nest Thermostat on the main screen.
On the next page, you’ll see what the humidity is inside of your house. You want to keep it in between 40-60%. Any higher and you could invite the growth of mold, and any lower can dry out your skin and ruin wood furniture.
On the next page, you will see the humidity inside the house. You want to keep it between 40-60%. Higher positions can cause mold to grow, while lower positions can dry out the skin and damage wooden furniture.
If the humidity is a bit high in your house, your Nest has a feature to deal with this, and you can access it from the settings gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
If the humidity in the house is a bit high, Nest can solve this problem and you can access it from the settings gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
On the next page, tap on “Nest Sense”.
On the next page, click “Nesting Sense”.
Next, select “Cool to Dry”.
Next, select “Cool to dry”.
That section will expand and explain what the feature is. Simply tap on the toggle switch next to the green leaf to turn it on.
This section will expand and explain what this function is. Just click the toggle switch next to the green leaf to turn it on.
Of course, if your air conditioning unit already has a dehumidifying feature, you likely don’t need Cool to Dry on, but if not, the Nest Thermostat can serve as a decent substitute. The feature will turn on the air conditioning if humidity levels rise above 70% inside your home, no matter what you have it set at. However, there are limits. It will only cool to 75°F, or 5°F below your set temperature–whichever is higher.
Of course, if your air conditioner already has a dehumidification function, it may not need to be cooled to dryness, but if not, Nest Thermostat can be a good substitute. If you set the humidity in the house above 70%, this function will turn on the air conditioner. However, there are limitations. It will only cool to 75°F or 5°F below the set temperature (whichever is higher).
The neat thing about this feature is that if your Nest Thermostat senses that the humidity isn’t dropping, despite Cool to Dry being on and active, it’ll automatically return to your regular temperature setting to avoid wasting any more energy.
The ingenious thing about this function is that even if the “cool and dry” function is active, even if your Nest Thermostat feels that the humidity has not dropped, it will automatically return to the regular temperature setting to avoid wasting more energy.
At that point, you could just buy a dehumidifier for your house, but most consumer models are only meant for one room in your home, and a whole-house unit can be pretty costly. So be sure to weigh your options and shop around.
Until then, you only need to buy a dehumidifier for the house, but most consumer products are only used in one room of your home, and the price of the whole house can be very expensive. Therefore, be sure to weigh your options and shop around.
Your home’s thermostat is used to regulate the temperature, but it can also affect indoor humidity levels. In both the summer and winter months, humidity plays a role in your comfort and HVAC performance.
Air conditioners are used to cool your home as well as remove humid air. Without this dehumidifying effect, you may find that as soon as you turn on the heat, your house becomes unbearable.
Learning how to control your thermostat’s settings will help you improve indoor humidity and enjoy a more comfortable home year-round.
Relative Humidity Control
The Relative Humidity (RH) measurement is the level of moisture in the air. During the winter, RH levels indoors should be 40 percent or lower, while it can rise to over 60 percent in the warmer months.
Your home’s relative humidity is impacted by your HVAC system and thermostat settings. If humidity levels are too low, the air becomes dry, which can cause illness, discomfort, warped wood floors and furniture and an accumulation of static electricity.
High humidity levels can cause mold and bacteria to grow, which not only damages your HVAC system but also pose significant health risks to anyone inside. One of our HVAC professional technicians can help you strike the right balance between temperature and humidity indoors by taking your personal preferences, outdoor temperature and type of system into account.
Keep the Right Temperature
During the summer, your thermostat should be between 72 and 78 degrees. The “auto” setting on your thermostat can help cool your system’s evaporator coils and dehumidify the air routinely.
It is recommended to set your thermostat back to 68 degrees while you’re at home in the winter and lowering it when you’re away or asleep. Doing so can save you up to 10 percent on your energy bill while also giving your system time to recalibrate and dehumidify.
Setting your thermostat to a cooler temperature when the air conditioning is running will not make the house cool any faster; it only increases the strain on your heating and cooling system, which can lead to premature system failure and breakdowns.
Programmable Thermostats
A programmable thermostat stops you from having to manually adjust the temperature during the day and night. You can program the thermostat to be warmer during the day, cooler at night and take the seasonal weather changes into consideration. An HVAC professional from Master Mechanical can help you choose the right programmable thermostat and teach you how to use it to best suit your needs.
Contact us today to learn more about humidity management, thermostats and for any of your heating and cooling needs!