As Honeywell and Google’s Nest compete for control of the smart thermostat market, rival thermostat makers are tapping the top talent at coding boot camps to remain relevant.

Smart thermostats reduce a typical household’s energy consumption – and thus energy costs. A Nest smart thermostat can on average save customers about 15% on their heating and cooling bills. This translates to an estimated average savings of $131 to $145 a year. Other smart thermostat companies s claim to save as much as 30% on energy bills. Nest, which was founded in 2010 by two former Apple engineers and acquired by Google for $3.2. billion in 2014, has reportedly sold more than one million smart thermostats.

Rival thermostat makers are scrambling to gain greater market share. A key strategy for doing so is expanding the capabilities and services provided by smart thermostats.

Energy savings is not necessarily what differentiates the Nest thermostat from other smart thermostats. The Nest thermostat is elegant. It is also expensive. Simply put, Nest makes – or at least claims to make – a better thermostat.

“The Nest is the iPhone of thermostats,” according to Wired magazine.

The similarities go well beyond the design interface. The companies share similar platform strategies. They are both building product ecosystems based on proprietary standards. Think Apple’s iPhone – mac – iPod – iTunes ecosystem. Like Apple, Nest is constructing an ecosystem of products under the home automation umbrella, including products like smoke alarms. Nest is also partnering with utilities like Southern Company and non-utilities like SolarCity to sell its products to customers. Nest is also integrating its products with appliance and lighting makers, includingBig Ass Fans. In June, Big Ass Fans introduced its first smart residential ceiling fan called Haiku, which includes an on-board computer, an array of sensors and software called SenseMe that facilitates integration with Nest Labs using an iOS app.

o how are Nest’s competitors jockeying to remain relevant?

Venstar, the tenth largest maker of smart thermostats in the U.S., is pursuing one of the most intriguing strategies. Founded in 1992, Venstar is engaging the students at Codesmith, a coding boot camp located in the Playa Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, an emerging technology hub also known as Silicon Beach. Venstar is currently installing Wi-Fi enabled open API thermostats in the building where Codesmith coding students spend between 90 and 100 hours of every week for a period of three months.

“Learning to code changed my life,” said Will Sentance, a 28 year old entrepreneur from England who co-founded Codesmith in 2015. “After going to Oxford and then Harvard, I realized that I lacked the coding skills I needed to build the applications I wanted to build.”

Codesmith, which boasts that 96% of all graduates are hired, is a living laboratory for students to develop software applications that improve Venstar’s thermostats. How their efforts will impact Venstar’s commercial prospects is an open question, but we may have an answer sooner than you think.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2016/07/05/a-new-front-opens-in-the-smart-thermostat-war/#4cca49031e7e