Submission + - California Utilities to control thermostats
TeraBill writes: It seems that the California Energy Commission is looking to give utlities in the state the power to control the termostats in peoples homes via a radio signal. The idea is that during times of significant energy crunch, the utilities could force thermostats to higher temperatures rather than having to implement a rolling blackout. The thermostats have been around for a while and new ones were on display at the CES show in Vegas this week. The New York Times story is here.
While I can see the argument for it, we just had a Polish kid (no joke intended) take over a tram system with a remote control, so how long before our thermostat gets hacked by the neighbors. And I'd almost rather have the power drop than have someone significantly raise the temperature in my home if I had a computer runnig there. (UPS and a graceful shutdown versus cooking something.) And I don't know how I missed those thermostats at CES either.
While I can see the argument for it, we just had a Polish kid (no joke intended) take over a tram system with a remote control, so how long before our thermostat gets hacked by the neighbors. And I'd almost rather have the power drop than have someone significantly raise the temperature in my home if I had a computer runnig there. (UPS and a graceful shutdown versus cooking something.) And I don't know how I missed those thermostats at CES either.
