Smart Thermostats or Not.

I know you have seen Smart Water, we are being promised Smart Cities and of course the ubiquitous Smart Phone!

As with the smart phone (it’s only been 7 years since Apple iPhone came out), we adjusted to being connected 24/7/365 and Apps brought us Candy Crush, Tweets and Angry Birds; so too a connected thermostat will bring such changes.

Currently, there are apps that allow control over the thermostat and home lighting but it seems more a gizmo than a tool. A big advance in the usability of a connected thermostat will be when appliance manufacturers and energy companies allow pricing to be priced each hour.

Imagine: it’s 4PM and the price of electricity is $0.10 / kWh and you just load your washing machine and turn it on. However, it doesn’t start. It flashes you that it will begin at 8PM when the price is scheduled to be $0.03 / kWh. This type of pricing is called Time-of-Use (TOU) and it’s been available for very large energy users for some time. It will become available to energy consumers of all size.

The savings from one wash will be relatively small but in aggregate across a year and across a City could be very large, perhaps even smart!

So, what would it take you to want to buy a Smart Thermostat?

Some additional information on Smart Thermostats is available at: http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/15/01/smart-thermostats-could-help-utilities-combat-death-spiral?utm_source=2015_01_28&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=IU_DAILY&utm_content=4521

Realgy Energy Services, a natural gas and electric energy provider, advocates for the use of technology that allows consumers greater control over their choice of energy supplier and the use of energy.