6 ms·

A thermostat company shut down every thermostat in the middle of a cold night

17 points by pizza 8y ago

joezydeco 8y ago
I own an Ecobee. The internet connection is only used for remote adjustment and monitoring. When the internet connection is down, the thermostat maintains the current program. I'm not quite sure what the outrage is here. If the OP was home, he could walk over and change the temperature. If OP was away, one would hope the base program was set to something that didn't freeze the pipes. The owner finally mentions that the thermostat is in a location that's not accessible 24/7. While that's a great use case for a net connected device, it's puzzling why you would sleep in a place where you have no control over your HVAC.
- sorokod 8y ago
  Not as puzzling as to why would one want to let "the internet" control their HVAC in the first place.
  - mvid 8y ago
    I understand this a popular opinion for IOT naysayers, but HVAC is one of the few features where IOT seems to make sense. It can cause a noticeable change in the cost of your utilities and general comfort.
    - sorokod 8y ago
      But you do see that there is a downside - right? Speaking of making sense, why does your thermostat needs to make a connection to a computer that is not under your control?
      - nonplus 8y ago
        I'm with mvid. The benefits to the average user far outweigh the negatives. It's unfortunate that for me using something like an ecobee requires a sandboxed network connection to protect my other devices from the ecobee and vis-a-vis, but that's how it goes in 2019. We are not as security conscientious as we need to be yet. Or we can all live in caves in isolation. That's okay too I guess.
  - aiyodev 8y ago
    In some states you can receive credit on your bill for lowering your thermostat during peak usage times. The Ecobee allows you to do this automatically.
    - sorokod 8y ago
      "lowering your thermostat during peak usage times" like with a timer?
      - joezydeco 8y ago
        Like with real-time electricity pricing based on grid demand and excess load. I've been on a real-time plan with my utility for the past decade now, overall I've saved about 15% by shifting some loads to off-peak times. Being able to dynamically hold off the air conditioning compressor is a key part of this. What's odd, though, is that the major net-connected thermostat makers (Nest, Ecobee, Honeywell) have not integrated with the utilities at all. The capability is there, but for some reason this is still a far-off feature.
      - aiyodev 8y ago
        Automatically. Power company signals the thermostat which adjusts the temperature if you have opted in. You can then manually adjust it at the device or through the app if you like.
- seeker61 8y ago
  Some of the twitter users in the linked thread said that the Ecobee reverts to defaults when it loses internet connectivity ... not quite the same thing. Not sure which one is true, but if it's the latter ... Oh well, I'll never own one of the stupid things anyway.
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    It might be a more serious problem where the unit locks up when some kind of connectivity issue pops up. That’s not good news.
- manyxcxi 8y ago
  I specifically chose Ecobee for two reasons: 1. It works like a programmable thermostat when there’s no network 2. The additional remote sensors (our original thermostat wiring is in a crappy spot for keeping the house at even temps) I’ve suffered through internet outages (some of my own making) on very hot and cold days and my thermostat keeps humming along on it’s programmed schedule for AC and heat. I’ve even got an “exotic” config with only reading sensors in certain rooms at certain times of day (like ignoring downstairs when we’re all upstairs sleeping), a cycle of warming up before wake up times, a cycle of cooling down after bed times. This has all just worked for 3 years, through storms, snow, ice, and internet outages. The Twitter user seems unreasonable in their assignment of blame here. Yeah, they had a crappy time- but a little self reflection here might be better than the lashing out. They installed their HVAC controller in a spot they can’t access 24/7? What would they do without an Ecobee or similar? What’s up with their default schedule being so wonky that the heat shut off or wasn’t running hard enough? Obviously, it’s best if Ecobee doesn’t have to take their servers offline but it really seems like a combination of user error and bad timing.
rolph 8y ago
I think this is germaine to the comments https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-glitch-battery-dies-software-freeze.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-g... when convieniences are affected thats one thing but when it goes into potentially life threatening or extremely destructive, like the IoT refrigerators [~7000] found to have a default password, prone to mal usage such as remotely putteing them all into THAW mode, thats a black eye. Please lets find some way of purging the default password, and developing a non damaging default mode that persists during power or command & control outages. Unfortunately landlords want to skrimp on utilities so, they lock thermostats and hot water tank shunts away in a service chase or closet. Ive lived in a place like this as a kid and it was always freezing in winter and luke warm showers had to be supplemented with stove top hot water.
21 8y ago
This guy complains, but he is the one who bought a Internet connecting thermostat. Darwin effect at work here.
- gmiller123456 8y ago
  Letting the public know about your experience is what helps others not make the same mistake.
pizza 8y ago
sorry, the tweet has since been deleted
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dkoston 8y ago
As mentioned, your internet connected thermostat works based on settings that are stored locally. It’s not making a http request every second asking “should i change the temperature?” The original poster clearly woke up angry and wanted someone to blame but is misrepresenting the situation and that’s why the tweet was removed. Let’s let logic prevail here instead of getting up in arms over penny press headlines.

17 points by pizza 8y ago

I own an Ecobee. The internet connection is only used for remote adjustment and monitoring. When the internet connection is down, the thermostat maintains the current program. I'm not quite sure what the outrage is here. If the OP was home, he could walk over and change the temperature. If OP was away, one would hope the base program was set to something that didn't freeze the pipes. The owner finally mentions that the thermostat is in a location that's not accessible 24/7. While that's a great use case for a net connected device, it's puzzling why you would sleep in a place where you have no control over your HVAC.

sorokod 8y ago
Not as puzzling as to why would one want to let "the internet" control their HVAC in the first place.
- mvid 8y ago
  I understand this a popular opinion for IOT naysayers, but HVAC is one of the few features where IOT seems to make sense. It can cause a noticeable change in the cost of your utilities and general comfort.
  - sorokod 8y ago
    But you do see that there is a downside - right? Speaking of making sense, why does your thermostat needs to make a connection to a computer that is not under your control?
    - nonplus 8y ago
      I'm with mvid. The benefits to the average user far outweigh the negatives. It's unfortunate that for me using something like an ecobee requires a sandboxed network connection to protect my other devices from the ecobee and vis-a-vis, but that's how it goes in 2019. We are not as security conscientious as we need to be yet. Or we can all live in caves in isolation. That's okay too I guess.
- aiyodev 8y ago
  In some states you can receive credit on your bill for lowering your thermostat during peak usage times. The Ecobee allows you to do this automatically.
  - sorokod 8y ago
    "lowering your thermostat during peak usage times" like with a timer?
    - joezydeco 8y ago
      Like with real-time electricity pricing based on grid demand and excess load. I've been on a real-time plan with my utility for the past decade now, overall I've saved about 15% by shifting some loads to off-peak times. Being able to dynamically hold off the air conditioning compressor is a key part of this. What's odd, though, is that the major net-connected thermostat makers (Nest, Ecobee, Honeywell) have not integrated with the utilities at all. The capability is there, but for some reason this is still a far-off feature.
    - aiyodev 8y ago
      Automatically. Power company signals the thermostat which adjusts the temperature if you have opted in. You can then manually adjust it at the device or through the app if you like.
seeker61 8y ago
Some of the twitter users in the linked thread said that the Ecobee reverts to defaults when it loses internet connectivity ... not quite the same thing. Not sure which one is true, but if it's the latter ... Oh well, I'll never own one of the stupid things anyway.
- joezydeco 8y ago
  It might be a more serious problem where the unit locks up when some kind of connectivity issue pops up. That’s not good news.
manyxcxi 8y ago
I specifically chose Ecobee for two reasons: 1. It works like a programmable thermostat when there’s no network 2. The additional remote sensors (our original thermostat wiring is in a crappy spot for keeping the house at even temps) I’ve suffered through internet outages (some of my own making) on very hot and cold days and my thermostat keeps humming along on it’s programmed schedule for AC and heat. I’ve even got an “exotic” config with only reading sensors in certain rooms at certain times of day (like ignoring downstairs when we’re all upstairs sleeping), a cycle of warming up before wake up times, a cycle of cooling down after bed times. This has all just worked for 3 years, through storms, snow, ice, and internet outages. The Twitter user seems unreasonable in their assignment of blame here. Yeah, they had a crappy time- but a little self reflection here might be better than the lashing out. They installed their HVAC controller in a spot they can’t access 24/7? What would they do without an Ecobee or similar? What’s up with their default schedule being so wonky that the heat shut off or wasn’t running hard enough? Obviously, it’s best if Ecobee doesn’t have to take their servers offline but it really seems like a combination of user error and bad timing.

rolph 8y ago

I think this is germaine to the comments https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-glitch-battery-dies-software-freeze.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/fashion/nest-thermostat-g... when convieniences are affected thats one thing but when it goes into potentially life threatening or extremely destructive, like the IoT refrigerators [~7000] found to have a default password, prone to mal usage such as remotely putteing them all into THAW mode, thats a black eye. Please lets find some way of purging the default password, and developing a non damaging default mode that persists during power or command & control outages. Unfortunately landlords want to skrimp on utilities so, they lock thermostats and hot water tank shunts away in a service chase or closet. Ive lived in a place like this as a kid and it was always freezing in winter and luke warm showers had to be supplemented with stove top hot water.

21 8y ago

This guy complains, but he is the one who bought a Internet connecting thermostat. Darwin effect at work here.

gmiller123456 8y ago
Letting the public know about your experience is what helps others not make the same mistake.

pizza 8y ago

sorry, the tweet has since been deleted

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dkoston 8y ago

As mentioned, your internet connected thermostat works based on settings that are stored locally. It’s not making a http request every second asking “should i change the temperature?” The original poster clearly woke up angry and wanted someone to blame but is misrepresenting the situation and that’s why the tweet was removed. Let’s let logic prevail here instead of getting up in arms over penny press headlines.