I am a VP of Tech for an energy services company. This is nominally NOT about smart thermostats. This is happening because these idiot families signed up for a program where they ALLOWED the energy company to do this. It's literally right in the article:

The agreement states that in exchange for an entry into sweepstakes, electric customers allow them to control their thermostats during periods of high energy demand.

In the industry we call this "Demand Response", and normally you get paid for it. It's actually a very mutually-beneficial program for industrial companies. I would not advise residential customers to do this (hence why I called them idiots).

So for them to turn around and belly-ache about smart thermostats is uneducated at best and self-serving+untruthful at worst.

I am a VP of Tech for an energy services company. This is nominally NOT about smart thermostats. This is happening because these idiot families signed up for a program where they ALLOWED the energy company to do this. It's literally right in the article:

The agreement states that in exchange for an entry into sweepstakes, electric customers allow them to control their thermostats during periods of high energy demand.

In the industry we call this "Demand Response", and normally you get paid for it. It's actually a very mutually-beneficial program for industrial companies. I would not advise residential customers to do this (hence why I called them idiots).

So to turn around and belly-ache about smart thermostats is uneducated at best and self-serving+untruthful at worst.