i've had an ecobee (http://ecobee.com/ http://ecobee.com/) thermostat for a few years and it's little more than a way to bump the heat up while i'm lying in bed

i've had an ecobee (http://ecobee.com/ http://ecobee.com/) thermostat for a few years and it's little more than a way to bump the heat up while i'm lying in bed. i work from my home so i can't do much with pre-programmed schedules, and i have a dog so i can't let the place get super hot or cold if i'm gone during the day. when it first debuted, they tried to charge a monthly fee for the website (which is a key part of the product, though it can be adjusted from the display itself). my brother works for an hvac company and was having trouble selling any of them because of the monthly fee. eventually they ditched the fee and the website is free for life, and now they have an iphone and android app to easily see and adjust settings. i setup a hack that watched my wireless router to see if my android phone was connected, as a way to detect whether i was in the apartment or not and let the temperature slide more. http://jcs.org/notaweblog/2011/08/30/an_ecobee_automation_hack/ http://jcs.org/notaweblog/2011/08/30/an_ecobee_automation_ha...