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Comment by apexalpha | Hacker News Reader

>For home use I have yet to see a device that make any sense.

Slightly off-topic but I have a thermostat that only turns on when my phone (or me) is on the way home and it automatically turns it off when I leave my home.

It saves me _considerable_ amount on my heating bill, especially since I'm not home on a regular schedule and often don't know until hours in advance.

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I'm also a proponent of smart thermostats. It's a godsend to be able to have the heating turned up automatically before waking, and as I'm getting home. I have no regrets whatsoever although of course, I'm concerned about my presence data being available to the company running the tech. But I would never put in a smart lock - I see no benefit whatsoever.

And my no1. argument against this is the same as against almost every other IoT device - this heating business should be between your thermostat and your phone. It should not go through third party servers and cloud services.

Smart devices are fine for me. Using them as an excuse to turn a product into a service isn't.

They had programmable thermostats that didn't tell everyone who had access what you're up to. They fit the use cases of almost everyone.

I am intrigued now to see if I can figure out whether it's sending my data outside of the system.

Hmmh, I on the other hand, turn on the heating when I come home, then exercise. Once I'm done, I feel warm and soon it actually is. But that's just me.

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