As one of the authors of both the Zigbee Smart Energy Profile v1 [0] and the pre-IEEE seed that became P2030.5 Smart Energy Profile 2.0 [1], we did anticipate t

As one of the authors of both the Zigbee Smart Energy Profile v1 [0] and the pre-IEEE seed that became P2030.5 Smart Energy Profile 2.0 [1], we did anticipate this and included a randomized modifier to any demand response or price signals coming from the grid to provide the “jitter” discussed in other comments. The problem here is that these thermostats have NTP-synched clocks and come with default schedules out of the box and failed to consider the importance of staggering over a 5-min time period. It’s understandable from a consumer acceptance standpoint (“I set it to start at 6a, why did it turn on at 6.03a?!”), but that could be solved with some messaging. Better still would be for future thermostats to be required to connect to the Internet and to the grid’s price signals or utility’s servers in order to receive rebates. This would see them base behavior on pricing signals, which would include a device-specific random offset to the price taking effect. Resideo (formerly Honeywell Home) acquired some very cool tech that would solve this issue, too. Developed by Whisker Labs (formerly WeatherBug) It combines a weather feed with a custom thermodynamic model of each home to adjust the start time of each setpoint. This provides both energy savings and more comfort. For example, if it’s an abnormally cold Feb day, it would start the heater earlier to reach the desired setpoint rather than a normal thermostat starting at a precise time and hitting the setpoint later in the morning.[2] Final fun fact: ~40% of smart thermostats never get connected to the Internet. Many people are price insensitive enough to buy a communicating thermostat and just slap it on the wall without bothering to program the Wi-Fi settings. There are sneaky ways some manufacturers and ISPs are trying to overcome this, though it’s a borderline dark pattern. [source: I used to work for a large ISP’s connected home ecosystem team] [0] https://zigbeealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/docs-07-5356-19-0zse-zigbee-smart-energy-profile-specification.pdf https://zigbeealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/docs-0... [1]https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/2030.5/5897/ https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/2030.5/5897/ [2] https://www.resideo.com/us/en/corporate/newsroom/all-articles/resideo-acquires-responsive-energy-efficiency-technology/ https://www.resideo.com/us/en/corporate/newsroom/all-article...