Here in Ontario, we used to get ads for these from the power company regularly - at least here, they can modify your thermostat “by a few degrees” at peak load

Here in Ontario, we used to get ads for these from the power company regularly - at least here, they can modify your thermostat “by a few degrees” at peak load time, and you get a rebate on your bill. (I don’t have one, and I’ve never really thought about it before, but I suppose you could get one, hook it up to 12V power but not to your air conditioner, then get the rebate on your bill and make the electricity company think they’re controlling your thermostat, when really they’re not doing anything… But you’d still need to let their IoT device on your network, and I assume it’s rubbish.)