Is your thermostat smart?

[The Heretic]

'Switch by stealth’: Alarming rise in homes with smart meters being cut off remotely

Campaigners have called for urgent action amid reports households using smart meters are being cut off remotely.

uk.news.yahoo.com

granted - the UK - but still

I have not put any "smarts" in my house, except for my TV, phone and computer. I heat with firewood, and if I need to turn on my furnace I can do it manually - it doesn't take a lot to control the heat (although there have been times I left it on by mistake - big whoop!).

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[ValleyAR]

there was an incident in texas recently during high power usage one company locked users out of their thermostats. Hell was rosen.

anyway, its convenient but we dont have our thermostat connected to the network. even though we're not opted into the thermostat energy programs, we still wear our tinfoil hats most the time so its not hooked up.

 

[Mark W.]

Absolutely. We heat with a pellet stove and me being the guy that adjusts the feed and fan controls I am sure the thermostat is smart. Yep me smart.

 

[Tony617]

I have a smart thermostat that was included when we replaced the furnace and A/C back in 2018. I like it since I can put the system on hold when we are on vacation. Then once we are traveling back home we can adjust the termostat on our phone. I have since gotten a few inexpensive theromosts that measure the room temperature to see if the power company is playing any games. So far the room tempurature is the same as we set the furnace or A/C.

I have since lowered the furnace to keep it 67 when we are home and 64 degrees when we are away, I should buy a dumb one that was on before when it was time based but you could hold the temperature when you went on vacation. I also put my water heater on vacation mode more frequently since the price of natrual gas has gone up.

This is a picture of my Bryant smart thermostat:

 

[The Heretic]

I set the temp when I am away for more than 10 hrs (rare - very rare) to 50*F so the pipes don't freeze. My thermostat has timers in it - I think - but I have never used them.

I try to keep the day temps above 60*F in the winter as I find below that no comfortable. 65*F is more than comfortable during the day. I let the fire go out at bedtime and the temps go down into the 50s - how far depends on exterior temps. I am quite comfortable while sleeping at 53* to 60*F.

I don't need a smart thermostat for any of that.

 

[gmerkt]

Are we talking about "smart meters" or "smart thermostats?" Two different things.

Meters are where the power enters the house. Smart meters are able to record electricty consumption by time of day, so that if in effect, variable rates may be applied. I suppose really smart meters could also have features that allow management of the flow of current. Like if the utility gets stiffed for payment, they can turn it off remotely.

Personally, I don't see a problem with turning off the power due to lack of payment. It's a great incentive to pay and get it turned back on. But I imagine in this kinder, gentler era of Free Money, free tuition, free school lunches, EBT, debt forgiveness, and so on, free electricity might be an expectation.

We are served by a public utility district, they don't seem overly ambitious to change to smart meters. But there has been some discussion of it.

Thermostats, those are internal to the building and control the HVAC unit. We have a heat pump system, the thermostat for it incorporates what is called adaptive intelligent recovery which optimizes the use of the cheapest source of power. I'd call that a smart thermostat.

We also burn wood but not as a primary heat source since the heat pump was installed in 2019. Wood heat supplements the heat pump via recirculation most cold days. There is nothing so comforting as wood heat on a cold, wet day. But these days, I'm in the process of selling off cords of wood that I stored up when I thought I was going to live to be 115.

 

[Cavedweller]

A couple of years ago, the power company offered to give me a free smart thermostat ($400 "value" as I recall) with free installation if I would just give them permission to adjust it twice a day. Yeah, right. I'll pass on that. Not hard to see where that's going.

 

[gmerkt]

Then once we are traveling back home we can adjust the termostat on our phone.

When we got the heat pump, we were asked if we wanted a thermostat that had that access but I declined. We don't carry smart phones around with us. We are around here most of the time,

Our thermostat is set to come on at 0800 to 69 degrees, turn down to 63 degrees at 2200. Back to 69 degrees at 0800 the next morning, ad infinitum. It's set to go into AC mode at 77 degrees but that us a rare thing. The system phases in, so to be at 69 degree setting, it's going for a while before that time. It's a rare thing for me to even touch the thermostat. Mostly it stays at the same settings and the heat pump does it's thing year round.

 

[MTpockets]

Smart.....

My thermostat isn't Graduated.....So it doesn't have Degrees.



Seriously though....The thermostat has been off for at least a month. I haven't ever turned on the heat, but sometime in the Spring...I will have to turn the thermostat back on.

 

[Mikej]

Absolutely. We heat with a pellet stove and me being the guy that adjusts the feed and fan controls I am sure the thermostat is smart. Yep me smart.

That's OG! A man that can figure out how to heat his home to his liking. Did you have to go to special training for that?

Yeah, let big utilities, which are overseen by this current government, help you control the heat in your home.
What could go wrong!

I burn near a couple cords in my "Earth Stove" a year. Electric base-board is the other heat. House is well insulated and 1000sq'.

 

[albin25]

All these thermostats just APPEAR smart…
….'Cuz they seem to hang around with a bunch of idiots.
At best they might be CLEVER thermostats.

 

[Stomper]

I have Honeywell Wi-Fi enabled t-stats on the main floor and second floor (with zone-dampers and outside-air economizer controls for "free cooling") and have not enabled "data sharing" or granted user access to anyone besides myself to control them locally or remotely.

They're awesome, and even IF they were hacked and under the control of a greenie-weenie trying to freeze me in winter and broil me in summer…. being an HVAC (and technology) professional for over 32-years now, I know my way around HVAC controls to make things do what I want, when I want.

Ain't she a BE-ute?!

 

[Grumpy 1]

Hell yes my thermostat is smart, it's me. I get up at 6:00 am push the up button to 68. keeps the house at 69 all day. At 8:00 pm the down button to 65. I would say that is pretty smart. My house is ALL gas, furnace, stove and water heater. The house is 1,988 sq/ft, this month's gas bill is $45.37 which is double of last months because of more usage and the new rate increase {BIDEN TAX}!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[GrayGoose]

No my thermostat is dumb, but it is much smarter than the average liberal.

 

[MTpockets]

@Stomper , Do you know how to change the USER NAME on a smart thermostat?
Mine just keeps addressing me as DAVE.
And when ask it to turn up the heat, it says, "I am sorry Dave, I am afraid I can't do that."
It is a H.A.L. 9000 model, if that helps.

 

[Stomper]

@Stomper , Do you know how to change the USER NAME on a smart thermostat?
Mine just keeps addressing me as DAVE.
And when ask it to turn up the heat, it says, "I am sorry Dave, I am afraid I can't do that."
It is a H.A.L. 9000 model, if that helps.

Yes, but it requires a helmetless space suit, an air-lock, a "dam the torpedos" attitude, and a pair of HUGE bolahs.

But you wind up a large-eyed space fetus floating in space in the end.

 

[Tony617]

When we got the heat pump, we were asked if we wanted a thermostat that had that access but I declined. We don't carry smart phones around with us. We are around here most of the time,

Our thermostat is set to come on at 0800 to 69 degrees, turn down to 63 degrees at 2200. Back to 69 degrees at 0800 the next morning, ad infinitum. It's set to go into AC mode at 77 degrees but that us a rare thing. The system phases in, so to be at 69 degree setting, it's going for a while before that time. It's a rare thing for me to even touch the thermostat. Mostly it stays at the same settings and the heat pump does it's thing year round.

My dad had a dumb cellphone but they are retiring the 3G CDMA network so my dad got his first smartphone. He was carrying a clamshell cellphone for many years.

 

[The Heretic]

My dad had a dumb cellphone but they are retiring the 3G CDMA network so my dad got his first smartphone. He was carry a clamshell cellphone for many years.

He was smart, instead of the phone - or rather, he was wise

 

[gmerkt]

My dad had a dumb cellphone but they are retiring the 3G CDMA network so my dad got his first smartphone. He was carrying a clamshell cellphone for many years.

Mrs. Merkt and I have matching flip phones, they still make them. We had to update phones about a year ago due to system upgrades. At the time, the T-Mobile guy said they sell about six or so a week to old people like us. It's possible to send SIM messages on them, but I can't do that thumb action for multi-tap keyboarding on a 10 key pad. BUT: They are invaluable to receiving SIM messages when various banks, etc., send them for confirmation purposes.

 

[Stomper]

I'm sportin' an iPhone14Pro with 256GB of memory storage, it's amazing how far these have come…. and I can't wait to dump all of it when I retire in 6.5 years.