iPod creator switches attention to 'smart' thermostats (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

The man known as the "godfather" of the iPod has invested his energy in a home appliance: a thermostat.

Tony Fadell caused surprise when he quit Apple in 2008 after heading its music player division. Fortune magazine once tipped him as a successor to former chief executive, Steve Jobs.

Mr Fadell has now revealed his efforts went into the Learning Thermostat.

The smart device adjusts the temperature based on the presence of people and their habits.

It can "learn" about a house's cooling and heating patterns to optimise its performance, and adjust itself to the weather conditions.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15446359




The article also references a similar device by another company.

[FBaggins]

1. If only we could get suppliers to price to consumers based on demand cycles

And then get these smarter thermostats to become part of that conversation.

[wtmusic]

2. Are you referring to daily demand cycles?

'Cause my utility already does that.

[FBaggins]

3. Even more granular than that.

I'd like it to be as "live" as possible. Yes, some areas are getting closer, but most of us still live with a single monthly price.

This is a necessary step as variable generation penetration grows. I don't want the utilities to be able to turn off your A/C (or worse a production line) on a windless cloudy day, but I would like prices to reflect what's actually going on and empower the consumer to make informed decisions. I'd like a thermostat that I can tell "I want the house at 68 degrees unless the price rises above 'x'... at which time I want it at 65 degrees." Even better if that calculus can include time of day and household activity levels and weather forecasts (telling you both what the heating needs for the day should be AND predicting prices).

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. You asked for it, you got it (well, at least for the weather aspect)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20124057-52/ipod-creators-next-quest-making-thermostats-sexy/

…

Even better, Rogers added, the system was built to learn about a household's use of cooling or heating, and to autonomously adjust temperatures based on current and forecasted weather conditions, as well as whether anyone is home, their schedules, and their normal usage patterns. Rogers said the Learning Thermostat picks up on those patterns in about a week.

…

[FBaggins]

6. Yep. And you know that he can make it intuitive.

I have a great programmable thermostat now, but it's still "dumb" in too many ways. It should be networked and I should be able to access it with a phone app. You could turn things down while you're on vacation and still have the home comfortable by the time you return. Integration with weather reporting would be a big plus. No point in turning on the furnace early in the morning if you know that the home will warm up on its own as the sun rises... but if it's going to be overcast crank it up.

I still think that the longer-term key will be variable pricing.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. You asked for it, you got it

…

Upending a static industry

Two years ago, Fadell and Rogers came together with the intention of upending an industry that sells 10 million units a year, but which Rogers said hasn't really innovated in decades.

Nest's thermostat can be controlled by an iOS app--and soon, an Android app as well.
(Credit: Nest)…

[FBaggins]

10. I'll take six!

Well... ok... two.

Let's see if I can come up with something they haven't thougt of.

No reason why you need seperate thermostats for an upstairs unit and a downstairs unit. You should be able to control both with one device that has wireless temperature sensors that you can install anywhere. Give the device an outline of your home, orientation, window location, etc... then place wireless thermometers where they are needed. It should be able to help you adjust your vents for the most efficient setup. Heck... you might be able to give it baffle control as well so that it can cool/heat portions of the home independently. Cut back on heating in the kitchen when the oven is doing the job just fine (etc).

Now... if you could just get Majel Barrett's voice into the interface... :)

[wtmusic]

8. The utility regulatory framework is a mess

It's going to take some innovative, out-of-the-box thinking to figure out:

1) A way to provide reliable power to everyone who wants it (ideally)
2) A way to allow small generators to feed into the grid, and be compensated
3) A way to allow personal generators/storage to feed into the grid, and be compensated
4) A way to allow larger utilities to profit without monopolizing markets
5) Who will pay for maintenance on shared infrastructure.

There's no way, right now, that Obama will empower FERC to make these decisions. He's having a hard enough time rescuing the EPA. Most Americans don't know how fragile their electrical supply is and don't care - as long as the light goes on when they flip the switch.

[Tesha]

5. I'm all for a major revolution in thermostat design.

A couple of years ago, we "upgraded" our home's HVAC to all
the absolute latest and greatest offered by Lennox. Everything has
at least one microprocessor in it: the furnace, the zone controller,
and each latest-and-greatest re-badged Honeywell thermostat. The
furnace can run at infinitely-variable speed and the blower can run
at at least a wide range of speeds. These things *OUGHT* to be
great, throttling the system so it always runs at exactly the output
level to keep the entire house at a constant temperature.

Only it ain't so.

The 'stats still use the same five-wire control that was popular back
in the 1950s. And the zone controller tries to guess, based on that,
what action it should take. It then passes five-wire control to the
furnace which tries to guess, based on *THAT*, what action *IT*
should take.

Moronic!

These things all ought to be sharing a common CANbus/LONbus,
exchanging all sorts of data about temperature trends, heating/cooling
loads, and so forth, but they're not; they're simply talking at the level
of "Hey! When you can, send some heat to the second floor!"

And the UI on the 'stats sucks as well; our Home Depot cheap
retrofit 'stats had a much simpler, just as functional UI. The old ones
even kept good time-of-day, something the new 'stats can't seem to
manage. The only real improvement that the new 'stats offer is
automatic change-over between heating and cooling; if it weren't
for that, we'd put the old 'stats back!

This is definitely an area of technology ripe for *MAJOR, MAJOR*
improvements!

Tesha

[jwirr]

9. We need this thermostat and things like it more than we need ipads.