Following strong momentum, smart thermostat startup Nest Labs has raised $80 million in new funding, with a valuation of $800 million, according to a GigaOM report.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nest Labs attracted a lot of attention in 2012 and launched the second-generation of its smart thermostat back in October. That model is slimmer and offers compatibility with 95 percent of low-voltage heating and cooling systems in the U.S.

A Nest spokesperson told VentureBeat that “we don’t comment on funding,” so we only have GigaOM’s report to go on.

Google Ventures reportedly led the new round of funding, while Venrock participated as a new investor. In the past, Nest has raised “tens of millions” but hasn’t specified exactly how much. Previous investors include Kleiner Perkins, Generation Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Shasta Ventures.

Nest is apparently shipping 40,000 to 50,000 of its high-class thermostats per month, a figure that could reach 1 million per year if the company’s sales continue to rise. Most of Nest’s sizable growth is happening in Europe and the United States.

Nest photo via Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

After launching the incredibly polished Nest Learning Thermostat last year, you’d think there wasn’t much room for improvement from the team at Nest Labs. But you’d be wrong: Today, the company is unveiling the second generation Nest, which features a slimmer and more refined design, as well as compatibility with 95 percent of low-voltage heating and cooling systems in the U.S (up from 75 percent).

At first glance, the new Nest thermostat doesn’t look that much different from its predecessor, despite being 20 percent thinner. But upon closer examination, the additional polish becomes clearer: Now there’s only a single stainless steel ring between the front of the unit and the wall mount, instead of the split ring design from the original unit.

Under the hood, the Nest now has 10 wires to support more systems — the new unit adds support for two-stage cooling, three-stage heating, heat pump emergency heating, and whole home humidifier and dehumidifiers. As you can see in the images below, Nest Labs has also tweaked the wire orientation to be circular, which the company says will make it easier to install.

The new Nest is also sporting version 3.0 of the company’s software, which will be available to original Nest owners as a free update. With the new software, Nest is even more efficient and will customize its behavior to suit your heating and cooling system. For example, a new Early-On feature will make sure forced air systems begin early enough to reach your ideal temperature, and True Radiant capabilities make it easier to deal with notoriously complex radiant systems.

The thermostat’s Auto-Away feature, which lets the Nest tweak your heating and cooling when you leave the house, has also been radically improved. Now Nest can hit Auto-Away mode in as few as 30 minutes, and Nest’s software will also do a better job of learning your habits.

In addition to the existing Android phone and iOS apps, Nest has also released an Android tablet app. All of the mobile apps can give you more detail about specific heating events.

Overall, the updated Nest isn’t something existing Nest owners will need to rush out and get — but for everyone else who’s been eyeing the thermostat, it provides a tempting reason to get one. Maxime Veron, Nest’s head of product marketing, said the company’s goal isn’t to force existing users to upgrade. First-gen Nest owners can expect continued software upgrades for some time.

The second generation Nest thermostat is now available for pre-order for $249 on the company’s website. It will start shipping in the middle of October, and will be available in retail stores by the end of the month. To clear out old stock, Lowe’s (and possibly other retailers) will be reducing the price of the original Nest unit to $229.

Thermostat maker Nest is joining forces with its first utility company, Reliant of Texas. The energy provider plans to distribute the smart thermostat to customers who sign up for the Reliant Learn & Conserve two-year plan.

The Nest thermostat attracts customers from energy-savers to design lovers. The design comes from a pair of former Apple employees: Tony Fadell, an ex-senior vice president in charge of the iPod group; and former iPod software lead engineer Matt Rogers. The two paired Apple’s taste for design with smart energy controls to create a round, Internet-connected device that can control your house’s temperature remotely.

The new partnership is an opportunity for Nest to branch out (no pun intended) from e-commerce and consumer home improvement distribution channels. Reliant’s Learn & Conserve program is a price-fixed, two-year plan for Texas residents. Each household that signs up for the plan receives one Nest thermostat. GigaOm reports that Nest will not allow Reliant to control household energy usage through the device’s remote control capabilities.

Nest provides iOS and web applications that let you monitor your energy consumption and change your home’s temperature accordingly. The thermostat provides suggestions on how to save money, such as, “Lowering your temperature one degree will save you $20 a month.” It also learns your family’s habits. If everyone leaves around 8 a.m. each morning, Nest will turn down your thermostat to save energy and then turn it on again prior to you return to the house (say, 6 p.m.). You can also turn on the heater or air conditioning from your phone so your house is the perfect temperature even if you get home at an unusual time.

Nest has a number of distributors other than Reliant. It recently struck up deals with Amazon, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and Apple’s online and retail locations.

Image via Nest

It’s become a tired pattern these days: create an innovative product, then sit back and watch the patent lawsuits pile up. That’s what happened to the smart thermostat maker Nest, which wowed the world with its gorgeous web-connected device in October, but later faced a patent infringement lawsuit from Honeywell.

Today, Nest officially denied Honeywell’s claims (PDF filing), and made it clear it wasn’t going to let up without a fight. The company has brought on former Apple chief patent counsel Richard Lutton Jr. as a vice president and general counsel, who has been advising it for several months.

Nest Labs is no ordinary startup — it was founded by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, two people who were instrumental in developing Apple’s iPod, and it has the investor backing of Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, and other heavyweights. Fadell tells The Verge that investors are “totally behind us,” which means Nest is better equipped than most small companies to take on industry heavyweights like Honeywell.

“This lawsuit is a bald effort by Honeywell to inhibit competition from a promising new company and product in a field that Honeywell has dominated from decades,” Nest wrote in today’s court filing. “Instead of countering product innovation with its own new products, Honeywell has a track record of responding to innovation with lawsuits and overextended claims of intellectual property violations.”

Honeywell claims Nest is infringing on seven of its patents, but Nest refutes that in today’s filing. The company points out that many of the patents require a mechanical hardware like a potentiometer, which the Nest doesn’t have, and it says many of Honeywells patents are invalid since they were never disclosed to the Patent Office.

“We’d be more than happy to have a professional discussion with Honeywell to understand what their issues really are” Fadell tells the Verge, adding that Nest is open to multiple options “if there’s something that makes business sense to our investors, our employees, and our consumers.”

The Nest Learning Thermostat was plenty smart when it was first released five months ago, but even genius products sometimes need a bit of tutoring.

Today Nest users will receive the first major update for the thermostat, which will offer a more detailed Energy History, as well as a new feature called AirWave that can more intelligently cool homes. New Nest owners will also  have an easier time installing the device starting today as well, thanks to an improved backplate.

The Energy History upgrades will allow Nest users to learn more about how the system works, and ultimately use that information to save energy, Nest marketing lead Maxime Veron told VentureBeat in an interview.

Nest users have been able to see a simplified version of their usage for the past 7 days on the device, but now they’ll also be able to see a more detailed Energy History report that covers the past 10 days on the Nest iOS and Android apps, as well as on the web. The report will let you know how long your heating system was cooling or heating your home, and breaks down the activity with even more granularity if you click on a specific day.

For example, if you noticed that your air conditioning kicked in while you were away at work, you could tweak the system to avoid that. Veron tells me that a one degree change could mean up to 5 percent in energy savings.

AirWave, a completely new feature that can save users up to 30 percent in cooling costs, shows that Nest Labs isn’t slowing down innovation. With AirWave, Nest can cool your home to a target temperature without running air conditioning as much as traditional systems. The system can intelligently turn off cooling, but continue to run fans that push out cool air remaining in your vents and in the air conditioner’s coils.

Veron tells me that AirWave will work for half of its customers across the U.S. (some don’t have AC at all, and some live in climates that are too humid to effectively use the feature). He says that existing home cooling systems can also continue to run fans to spread out cooling, but they’re not nearly as smart as Nest, since they can only turn off the AC after your home reaches a target temperature.

As for the hardware changes, Veron says the company wanted to make the Nest’s already simple installation even easier. The new Nest back plate sports larger press connectors, so even fat-fingered novices can connect the thermostat. The company is also including new custom screws that can be installed onto a variety of surfaces without wall anchors.

The Nest mobile apps will also see some updates this morning. Both the iPhone and Android apps will allow users to remotely change away temperatures and will also sport new at a glance screens. Notably, Nest says that its Android has finally reached feature parity with the iPhone app.

Since I’m stuck in an apartment, I haven’t had the chance to try out the Nest for myself, but this latest round of updates is making me even more jealous of Nest users. Co-founded by some of the brains behind the iPod, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, Nest has seemingly done the impossible by making gadget hounds lust after a mere thermostat as much as an iPhone. But consumers aren’t the only ones paying attention, the company is currently facing a lawsuit from Honeywell, which claims that the smart thermostat violates its patents.

The Nest Learning Thermostat costs $249 and is available online and in Best Buy stores.

Scott Hublou, the company’s senior vice president of products, said EcoFactor’s software looks at many different data points that are relevant to your home climate system — the weather outside, the size of the home, energy pricing, and more. Then it makes many small adjustments to your thermostat during the day to keep the house at the desired temperature while keeping energy usage and costs low.

By improving on the clunkiness of standard thermostats, homeowners with EcoFactor can just enter their desired temperature once, rather than having to adjust it throughout the day or set a timer. Over the course of a year, the company estimates it will make 14,000 adjustments in each home, leading to an energy cost reduction of 20 or 30 percent

EcoFactor sells its software to businesses that can include it as part of their home climate system. The Redwood City, Calif. company has raised $5.9 million from Claremont Creek Ventures and RockPort Capital Partners.