Appreciation post: My 'smart' thermostat tried to save energy by freezing me out

I set my Nest thermostat to 'Eco' mode last winter, thinking I was being so clever about cutting my gas bill. The other night, it dropped the house to 55 degrees while I was asleep... I woke up shivering under three blankets. It hit me then that I'd been so focused on the tech doing the work, I forgot the basic step of just wearing warmer clothes and using a better blanket at night. Has anyone else had their 'green' gadgets backfire in a simple, avoidable way like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_harris982mo ago

Honestly, I used to be all about letting my smart plugs and lights run on schedules to save power. Then my living room lamp kept turning off while I was reading, and I realized I was just sitting in the dark to save like five cents. It made me see that sometimes the old way, like just flipping a switch myself, is way less of a headache.

mary7682mo agoMost Upvoted

Tell me about it. I once set my bedroom light to turn off at midnight to be good. Forgot and was sorting laundry in the dark like a total goofball. The tech is supposed to make life easier, but sometimes it just makes you feel dumb. I still use the schedules, but now I check them twice because I cannot handle another sock sorting crisis. That old switch is looking pretty smart after all.

faithb7623d ago

My buddy set his coffee maker to start brewing at 6am on weekdays, forgot to disable it on vacation, and came home to a rock-hard carafe of moldy sludge a week later. He just uses a timer now and stops trying to outsmart his own appliances.