It's getting to be winter -- 45 degrees out there right now, though you couldn't tell it from me; I have shorts and a T shirt on -- and so its time for me to sing the song I sing every year around this time: why aren't thermostats programmable?
Oh, I know that there are thermostats that are called programmable, usually with a little bitty screen to set days, temps, and such. They're nice - though the three that we have downstairs (our home has zoned heat) have a flaw; if the power goes out, they reset to their coldest setting (which I found out about one day when walking into my mother's room and feeling the chill). But they do work. Not snappy enough for me, though.
I want ones that are smart enough to figure out for me when I tend to turn the heat up in the mornng, and down at night, and just do it. I want them to know when its colder outside than normal, or warmer, and adjust the inside heat accordingly. And I'd like them to be network-addressable, so that I can do it from this laptop, rather than peering at that little screen.
Take cae of that, will you?
2 comments:
Great idea, Bill!
You should send it in to one of the big dailies as a letter. Someone would come up with the solution; of course, you wouldn't get a penny. So maybe you should apply for a provisional patent on the idea? :-)
Carolyn Ann
Conceptually, its an easy concept. And if there doesn't have to be intelligence at the device -- ie, if its smarts are based on a remote PC telling it turn up, turn down -- then the only problem I can see would be making it network-addressable -- an area about which I know effectively nothing. Though I did read about wireless thermostats in a speculative article the other day, but I could not tell if it was based on reality.
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