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Nest plans to offer its smart thermostat to Irish consumers for free when they sign up for a two-year contract with Electric Ireland. Nest chief executive Tony Fadell said at the Web Summit in Dublin that the deal could put his company’s thermostats in up to 1.6 million homes, according to CNET, and claimed that similar deals would be announced for other countries in the future.
[...] Google is infamous for its ability to offer consumers products which are paid for not by their users but by the ads those users see. Its products are among the best in their categories, and when it’s free to use them, there’s little reason for consumers to pay for another service. Now Google is just applying that same logic to the real world — and it will probably work out for it just as well.
Even I’ve grown sick of hearing this sentiment, but it’s more relevant now than ever: If you aren’t the one paying for a service, you are the product.
(Score: 1) by SacredSalt on Thursday November 06 2014, @06:22PM
I have a friend that takes frequent trips to Thailand -- at times these can become extended trips. He figured, well, no one in the house, I can just set the heat to kick on at 55 and go about my business. It was the last day of fall of when he left. Then we had a pair of the most bitter cold winter weeks we have had in 30 years (stuff Canadians wouldn't whine about, but when you get in the -17 to -20F range and don't have stuff like engine block heaters ... because you never needed one before ... yeah, its an issue!). More typical winter is 25-50F at that time of year. His pipes exploded in his house as that low of a kick on was too low to protect is pipes. The resulting damage was over 20K to his home.
I'm pretty sure he would now think "bitchin'! I can control this from my phone/internet!" is worth a few dollars per month.
(Score: 2) by strattitarius on Thursday November 06 2014, @06:58PM
So far I am in agreement with OP that it seems like a solution in search of a problem. Thermostats were a solution to a problem. Programmable thermostats were a solution to a problem.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 2, Informative) by novak on Thursday November 06 2014, @08:48PM
Because your house is not at 55F everywhere, and the pipes usually explode under the floor or in a crawlspace or in a place where it is colder than where your thermostat monitors it.
A lower tech solution to this problem is called "having friends check your house." Much less automated, much less snazzy, probably cheaper, and doesn't involve you with spy companies.
novak
(Score: 2) by strattitarius on Thursday November 06 2014, @10:09PM
There was an argument about who last touched the heater. 2 of us thought we had set it to 50-55 and figured someone else must have turned it off completely. The other roommates said they didn't touch it. Never occurred to any of us that we could have had frozen pipes with the heater set at 55, but that might explain how that happened.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 07 2014, @03:01AM
The technique for preventing pipes freezing is to leave the faucet dripping when it gets that cold. The pipes are under the house, and are not heated. The area under your house has to be vented to prevent moisture build-up, if your heater was heating that area your whole house would be cold even with the heater on max when you hit those types of temperatures. The solution for preventing pipes freezing during extended trips is to have the right sort of pipe insulation for your climate, and to install cold-weather insulated panels over the vents during winter.
It sounds like even after experiencing frozen pipes, your friend didn't learn about... frozen pipes. If it gets just as cold again, his pipes will still freeze. Frozen pipes isn't a special thing that happens when people are away, it happens just as likely if you're home. It only costs a few hundred dollars for the insulation to do it yourself. Of course, he didn't do any of it himself and lives in a giant multi-million dollar mansion, and also over-paid the plumber, since he spent 20k on frozen pipes. So maybe 5k for insulation. Still cheaper.