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My smart thermostat outsmarted ME during a heatwave in Phoenix | Ethical Frontiers - Thought Shares

My smart thermostat outsmarted ME during a heatwave in Phoenix

So I live in Phoenix where it hit 118 degrees last month, and I thought I was being clever with my smart thermostat set to eco mode while I was at work. The thing is, the thermostat decided to learn my 'patterns' and cranked the AC to 60 degrees an hour before I usually get home, thinking it was being helpful. I walked into a house that felt like a walk-in freezer with the AC running for 3 hours straight. My electric bill that month came out to $340, which is DOUBLE my normal summer bill. The worst part was that my cat was shivering on the couch looking at me like I betrayed her. I had to manually override all the 'smart' features and now I just set it to a steady 78 degrees like a normal person. Has anyone else had a smart home gadget backfire on them like this? What do you even do with a thermostat that thinks it knows better than you?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.jana5mo ago

Oh man, this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me miss my old dumb thermostat. I had a smart lock that decided to randomly lock me out of my house at 2 AM once because it thought someone was tampering with it, and I stood there in my pajamas for an hour until a neighbor let me use their phone to call a locksmith. It's like these gadgets want to be helpful but end up making everything way more complicated than it needs to be.

gibson.avery5mo ago

Did you ever find out what caused the lock to go haywire like that, or was it just a one time glitch that never happened again after you got it replaced?

linda1145mo ago

Ugh, that sounds like a nightmare! I actually just read an article about how a lot of smart home stuff uses the same cheap sensors and it can mess up like that. Something about wifi interference or maybe even a low battery making it act crazy... I swear, my friend's smart doorbell started ringing at all hours because a spider web triggered the motion sensor, and he couldn't figure it out for weeks. Makes you wonder if these companies test their stuff in a real house or just in a lab somewhere.