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After 16 years, Ecobee is shutting down support for the original smart thermostat
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I get the idea and it's kinda cool, but not +$100 cool when I can just turn it down/off before I leave.
Assuming I:
"No you idiot, you just have to spends thousands of dollars on equipment and then you can save $100 a year"
Do you realize how ridiculous you sound? Good for you that you're saving money, but I'm just giving a personal anecdote here, not writing a thesis on home energy management.
You don't need solar panels. Could also just be dynamic energy pricing. Also do not need a water heater. Thermal mass could just be heating the place at a certain time. Don't get the bit about temp changes, maybe you mean you never heat or cool your place?
A lot of those smart thermostats do not support things like OpenTherm. As a result they often either start the heating or they do not heat. There's no modulation.
OpenTherm is from 1990s. Having a thermostat with a presence sensor is also not really anything new. Adding remote functionality would be nice if those "smart" wouldn't be so utterly terrible at being a thermostat. Meaning, the lack of modulation. And no modulation is pricy way to heat your home.
Yeah, but don’t give the power company control over the temperature in your house. That has gone poorly in Texas with people unable to turn on their AC on super hot days because they opted in to some program that they may not have understood.
The built in features of occupancy detection / geo fencing are cool though.