Vent: My $80 smart thermostat was supposed to save me money but instead it just fights me

I bought this fancy thermostat back in March because I read online it would cut my heating bill by 20 percent. So far it has mostly made my house feel like a roller coaster of hot and cold. Last Tuesday it decided to crank the heat to 74 right before bed because it thought I was coming home early when I actually was stuck at work. I spent $80 on the thing plus the installation kit which ran another $25 for the right wiring adaptor. Now I keep the manual in my nightstand because the app keeps sending me notifications that don't make sense. Has anyone else had a smart home gadget that just made your life harder instead of easier?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley8011mo ago

The 20 percent savings number you saw online probably came from a Department of Energy study that assumed you'd actually program the thing right. I had a similar Nest model last winter and it drove me nuts until I realized the auto-away feature was based on my phone's GPS, which would glitch out when I was in the basement with bad signal. What finally helped was turning off all the "smart" learning stuff and just setting a basic schedule like my old dumb thermostat. Those energy savings only kick in if the thermostat isn't fighting you at 2 AM.

price.jake1mo ago

Oh man I feel this. I had to kill all the auto learning stuff on mine too because it kept trying to heat the house for a phantom version of me that never showed up. Just set a simple timer schedule like my old one and it stopped trying to be clever at 3am.