My Google Nest Thermostat Set My AC to 95°F in the Middle of a Phoenix Summer

Phoenix in July is brutal. I've lived here for 25 years, so I know what I'm talking about. When the temperature hits 115°F outside, the last thing you want is to come home to a house that feels like a sauna. But that's exactly what happened to me las...

Phoenix in July is brutal. I've lived here for 25 years, so I know what I'm talking about. When the temperature hits 115°F outside, the last thing you want is to come home to a house that feels like a sauna. But that's exactly what happened to me last month. I work as a teacher at a middle school in Phoenix. I leave my house at 6:45 AM and I don't get home until after 4:00 PM. I have two dogs—a labrador and a beagle—and I was worried about them in the heat. I bought the Google Nest Learning Thermostat about a year ago because I wanted to save money on my energy bills. I was tired of paying $400 a month in electricity costs. The Nest was supposed to learn my schedule and optimize my cooling. For the first 6 months, it worked great. My bills dropped to $250. I was thrilled. I recommended the Nest to all my friends and family. I was a total Nest evangelist. I'd tell anyone who would listen about how much money I was saving and how smart the technology was. Then it started to malfunction. I came home one day in July to find my house at 95°F. The Nest had decided that 95 was the 'optimal temperature for energy savings.' I couldn't believe it. My plants were dead, my dogs were panting on the tile floor, and I was sweating within seconds of walking in. I reset the thermostat to factory settings. I set the schedule manually. I turned off the 'learning' feature. I even disabled the energy-saving mode. I thought I had fixed it. But it kept happening. Every few weeks, the AI would decide to crank the heat. I'd wake up in the middle of the night sweating. I'd come home to a sauna. I've called Google support three times. They say it's 'working as intended' and that I should 'trust the algorithm.' I don't trust anything anymore. I've started checking the temperature on my phone every hour while I'm at work. I'm paranoid that my dogs are going to die because of this stupid thermostat. I've even started leaving my windows open during the day just to let some cool air in, but in Phoenix, that just makes it worse. I bought a portable AC unit from Amazon as a backup. It's loud, it's inefficient, and it was expensive, but it gives me peace of mind. I'm considering switching to a Honeywell dumb thermostat. At least it won't try to kill me. My neighbor has the same Nest and hasn't had any issues. I asked her what she did differently, and she said she never enabled the 'learning' feature. She said she kept it in manual mode from day one. I wish I had done the same thing. Now I'm stuck with a thermostat that thinks it knows better than I do. I've read about AI algorithms addiction and how technology is supposed to make our lives easier. My Nest is doing the opposite. It's making my life harder. I hate it. I hate the feeling of being helpless against a piece of software that thinks it knows better than me. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm at my wit's end. I'm seriously considering going back to a dumb thermostat. I'd rather pay $400 a month in electricity bills than come home to a house that feels like the inside of an oven.