Smart thermostats could really be a lot smarter, in particular if you had a little bit of local battery storage, but even without that it's possible to imagine

Smart thermostats could really be a lot smarter, in particular if you had a little bit of local battery storage, but even without that it's possible to imagine a thermostat that could be set to lower electric bills based on real-time monitoring of electrical prices. > "With few exceptions, when the load peaks, the price also peaks. So, if you can move some of your electricity consumption away from the peak times, real-time pricing will enable you to save money by buying more of your energy at lower prices." There are many ways to implement this but it might result in a fairly pricey thermostat requiring an internet connection and the ability to automatically switch from grid power to local battery power as prices fluctuate. It would likely reduce demand variation however. https://extension.psu.edu/real-time-pricing-for-electricity https://extension.psu.edu/real-time-pricing-for-electricity Some people have also rolled out notions like allowing utilities to control thermostats remotely but I think that'd be very unpopular for most people, it has too many dystopian Big Brother connotations.