The Nest Hello Video Doorbell - Upgrading from an old central intercom system

When I moved into my current house, it had a vintage central intercom system, with yellowed plastic indoor speakers, yellowed plastic outdoor speakers, and an archaic esthetic. We immediately pulled out the system components, drywalled over the cutouts in the interior walls, and I was left with two very ugly metal boxes in the brick at my front and back door.

The completed Nest Hello installation over the Nutone box

A bit of research lead me to the Wifi enabled video doorbells - very simple, they connect to your Wifi router, and ring your smartphone and interior door chime whenever someone rings at the door, and provides live video of the person at the door. In addition, you can use the internal speaker and microphone to speak with the person at your door - even from a distance away from your home.

I started out with a Ring video doorbell. Now I've purchased and installed the new Nest Hello video doorbell. This post describes how that installation goes.

Vintage Nutone Door Speaker and Connection Box - Don't forget to cut the power to your doorbell circuit before working with these wires.Unscrew, Remove the Wires

A Nutone Intercom Connection Box is 4 3/8" Wide and made of Steel

A Nutone Intercom Connection Box is 5 7/8" Tall

Nutone Intercom Box - can be identified by the Model IR-6 label.

The first step was removing the old Nutone intercom speaker. 2 screws, and I took note that the orange pair of wires in my installation was used for the 17VAC doorbell switch circuit. By connecting the Nest Hello Video Doorbell to your existing doorbell switch wires powered by an internal transformer, the Nest Hello will keep itself charged, and pressing the button on the Nest Hello will sound the doorbell in your house. Something to note here however - the Nest Hello will not ring the door chime if you have kept your indoor intercom speaker system - you also have to retrofit a normal door chime in your house.

I started by making a blank cover plate to fit over the old intercom connection box, countersinking the holes for the screws for a neat installation using a metal punch.

The Nest Hello is smaller and more compact than the Nutone Speaker unit. This caused an issue in my installation because the Nutone was installed in a custom installation box - set into my masonry. I decided to create an aluminum cover plate to hide the old box, and create a flat surface for installing the Nest Hello.

The Nest Hello Video Doorbell adapter plate is smaller than the Nutone Speaker installation Box, so an adapter plate is required. I cut a rectangle 4 3/8" wide by 5 7/8" tall to cover the old Nutone connection box in the wall.

Nest Hello baseplate installed on the aluminum adapter plate for the Nutone Door Speaker box

Just below where the doorbell wires will attach to the back of the Nest Hello , I punched an 8mm hole to fit a 6mm (1/4") grommet, to protect the intercom wires from the sharp edges of the Aluminum adapter plate.

I then reinstalled the Aluminum Adapter Plate over the old Nutone Intercom connection box, isolated the correct pair of wires running downstairs to the transformer, and...

From this point it was relatively simple to install the Nest Hello. Just clip the Nest Hello onto the Nest Hello installation plate.

On the inside - you need to install the Nest Hello Power Kit within your existing doorbell chime. I had removed the old Nutone Intercom System, including the Nutone door chime - and installed a simple Honeywell direct wired doorbell chime. It was simple to remove the cover and install the Nest Hello Power Kit following the instructions provided in the box.

Inexpensive Honeywell Mechanical Chime - Installed using the wiring run for the Nutone Intercom System

Now that all was installed, it was time to reconnect the power to the Nest Hello by turning the breaker back on for the doorbell transformer. Once you reconnect power, the Nest Hello will "speak" recorded audio configuration instructions, and the ring around the doorbell button will circle in white light.

Completed installation of the Nest Hello using the Aluminum Adapter Plate over the old Nutone Door Speaker

Now is the time to install the Nest Hello app on your smartphone, and run through the Wifi configuration sequence. That's pretty simple, just follow the sequence on your app until all is installed.

The Nest Hello Setup tutorial includes installation instructions. 

Once configured, you can test the doorbell button. You normal doorbell should sound inside the house, plus you'll hear the distinctive chime of the Nest Hello Video Doorbell.

With the Nest Hello app installed on your smartphone and/or tablet- ringing the Nest Hello doorbell switch initiates a video call with your smartphone or tablet. On the smartphone you get a notification on the home screen, and the video application launches so that you can see who is at your front door. You can decide whether to accept or reject a call to talk to whoever is at the front door - and this feature is available anywhere you have internet connection with your smartphone or tablet. Very cool. You can also set up motion notifications, and Nest has a service for archiving video and playback.

Sources and Links

I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions. I have started manufacturing blank and pre-drilled retrofit kits for the Google Nest Hello Video doorbell to popular intercom rough-ins and electrical boxes.

Click here to purchase a prefabricated aluminum adapter plate for the Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell on eBay.

New option - purchase a prefabricated aluminum adapter plate for the Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell on eBay for the single gang standard North American electrical box. 

New option - purchase a prefabricated aluminum adapter plate for the Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell on eBay for the double gang standard North American electrical box.