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After 16 years, Ecobee is shutting down support for the original smart thermostat
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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I get the idea and it's kinda cool, but not +$100 cool when I can just turn it down/off before I leave.
No, my point is: using it as I described really saves money. The effective power price for my heat pump over the last year is at about 20% beneath market average because I use the thermal mass of my floors to store energy during low price hours. That needs to run automatically, controlling that by hand would be massively annoying or not possible at all when I'm not home.
In addition, when one of our cars is started at one of our respective work carparks the hot water supply is checked and gets heated if it is below the necessary temperature for a shower. So either the day brought enough solar energy that it's hot enough anyway or the water is heated very specifically for the after work shower for a person returning home. That prevents the heat pump from having to keep high temperatures all day in winter.
The blinds follow the sun when the room temperatures pass 22°C and the solar panels deliver more than 2kW, because in that case it's obviously sunny. Saves a lot of energy for the AC.
All that saves way more than 100€/year, so remotely controllable fixtures stop being just a gadget when you start to think about the whole energy management in your house, is my point.
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?