Some Texans Smart Thermostats are Being Raised Remotely
It may be time to rethink that smart thermostat of yours.
Before I go any further, I need to admit to having a love/hate relationship with smart devices. Yes, they’re incredibly convenient, but with convenience comes tradeoffs.
Some folks down in the Houston area are getting firsthand experience with the tradeoffs involved with owning a smart thermostat.
Brandon English, a resident of Deer Park, said that he arrived to a hot home when got off of work on Wednesday (June 16), according to KENS 5.
Someone had turned the thermostat up remotely while his wife and daughters were taking an afternoon nap. It had gotten so hot in the house that they all woke up sweating.
His wife ended up getting an alert on her phone after the fact, notifying her that the thermostat had been adjusted remotely during an “energy saving event” that lasted three hours.
The English family had their smart speaker installed with a new security system a few years ago. They enrolled the smart thermostat in EnergyHub’s “Smart Savers Texas” program, which allows them to control customers thermostats remotely in exchange for being entered into a sweepstakes.
I don’t know about you, but there’s no prize on this planet that’s worth allowing someone else to control the devices in my home.
Wisely, English unenrolled their thermostat once he figured out what was going on.
On Tuesday (June 15), energy grid operator ERCOT urged Texans to conserve energy through June 18 due to a combination of increased demand due to the summer heat and many generators being down for repairs.
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