A utility company locked thousands of customers out of their smart thermostats in Colorado

[Kent Sharkey]

The Verge[^]:

Thousands of Colorado residents found themselves locked out of their smart thermostats during sweltering temperatures last week in an effort to prevent power demand from overwhelming the grid.

"I am so smart, S-M-R-T"

[Nelek]

Smart would be per se not bad alone... but when it comes with connected to the cloud... you are not the owner anymore. And some people still wonder why I prefer the offline solutions.

M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

[Greg Utas]

The control freaks are ever with us.

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[MikeCO10]

This is not a connected to the cloud issue. It's being played to the tinfoil hat community as that, but these people took the coin ($100 +$25/year) to opt in. Not sure if it is truly "cloud" based, the original systems were not; they used signals sent over the power lines. Anything IP based is easy to disconnect so I'm imagining it is still the old school from 20 years ago.

[obermd]

Yep - Xcel Energy is at it again. I live in Colorado and am so glad I don't have Xcel Energy.

[Bernhard Hiller]

Kent Sharkey wrote:

S-M-R-T

Smrt means death in some slav languages...

Oh sanctissimi Wilhelmus, Theodorus, et Fredericus!

[Kent Sharkey]

Then that’s doubly appropriate then. :~

TTFN - Kent