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?
Great idea, Bill!
ReplyDeleteYou 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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