Spent $120 on a smart thermostat and my partner still walks over to adjust it manually

I installed this fancy Nest thermostat last month in our Dallas apartment, really thinking it would save us on the electric bill. But my partner just ignores the app and the schedule I set up, walks right past it, and cranks it up or down by hand whenever they feel hot or cold. I got annoyed at first, like why did we spend the money if you're not gonna use it? But then I realized I was the one obsessing over the settings and the data while they just want to be comfortable in the moment. It hit me that my belief in 'smart tech fixing everything' was clashing with the simple reality that not everyone wants to optimize their life through a phone screen. Has anyone else here had a gadget fail because the people in your house just refuse to play along with the automation?

3 comments

3 Comments

alexbennett26d ago

Did your partner actually give the Nest a fair try? My buddy in Houston gave his wife a smart thermostat for Christmas and she just taped the manual dial over the screen so she could keep her old routine.

corablack26d ago

Bought a Roomba for $600 last year thinking it'd be a game changer for our house with two shedding dogs. My partner unplugs it every single day because the noise bothers him, and I keep finding it shoved in the closet like a broken toy. We literally just vacuum by hand now and the robot is basically a very expensive dust collector.

michael66926d ago

Stop looking at this like a gadget problem and look at it like a people problem instead. Your partner probably doesn't care about the schedule or the savings, they just want the air to feel right right now without jumping through hoops. Sometimes the simpler fix is admitting the tech was more for you than for anyone else in that house.