51–60 of 72 posts
You'd think a thermostat should be a trivial device. But you'd be amazed at the complexity people come up with for thermostats, including hundred page manuals, etc., and no way to turn the heat off.
I don't understand, why do we need a thermostat in house? Isn't the normal environmental temperature outside just good. Why artificially change it?
I'm wondering about the installation part. It doesn't seem to me that the average user is just doing to go grab one and get it in himself. I made my own computerized replacement for the thermostat in my house(1) and discovered that there were about 5 different possible wiring patterns depending on if you've got heat pumps, multi-stage, e-heat, gas, etc. After much research I figured out how they are wired, how my hou…
This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts both ways, people don't have obvious, specific problems with their thermostat (for the most part). It's a thing, it came with the house, it turns heat on and off, whatever. Why do I need to spend $250 on it? The very first thing (or maybe second, after the pict…
This is brilliant. This is the kind of innovation that we should idolize. I feel like we tend to get excited about things like Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram or Color, if it combines all the right buzzwords like social, mobile and photos. We tend to forget what real innovation is. Well, this is it. You're taking a boring, underserved segment of the market and revolutionizing it. And guess what, the potential for soc…
I would agree that it breathes life into a pretty neglected piece of equipment, but my concern would be that it isn't in any way entertaining, and the common element in the great innovations as of late have all catered to just that; keeping people entertained. Its defintely an exciting idea, but I just can't see anybody become truly taken with their thermostat.Perhaps its a jaded world view, but I feel that there is…
I'm wondering about the installation part. It doesn't seem to me that the average user is just doing to go grab one and get it in himself. I made my own computerized replacement for the thermostat in my house(1) and discovered that there were about 5 different possible wiring patterns depending on if you've got heat pumps, multi-stage, e-heat, gas, etc. After much research I figured out how they are wired, how my hou…
This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts both ways, people don't have obvious, specific problems with their thermostat (for the most part). It's a thing, it came with the house, it turns heat on and off, whatever. Why do I need to spend $250 on it? The very first thing (or maybe second, after the pict…
People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. Or their cassette tape players for that matter. Are you saying the iPod was a bad idea?
Look at DVD -> Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has not had a good adoption. For most people, they don't see the difference between digital and HD (see the number of people who incorrectly tune their TVs to not use the HD channels on their HD TV). All the pain points were solved by VHS -> DVD.
I'm wondering about the installation part. It doesn't seem to me that the average user is just doing to go grab one and get it in himself. I made my own computerized replacement for the thermostat in my house(1) and discovered that there were about 5 different possible wiring patterns depending on if you've got heat pumps, multi-stage, e-heat, gas, etc. After much research I figured out how they are wired, how my hou…
Very cool. Mind sharing some details? Did you blog it? What kind of hardware did you use? How did you figure out how/what to do? What other "smart-house stuff" did you come up with?
This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts both ways, people don't have obvious, specific problems with their thermostat (for the most part). It's a thing, it came with the house, it turns heat on and off, whatever. Why do I need to spend $250 on it? The very first thing (or maybe second, after the pict…
Also tout the AI aspect of it. With Siri and Watson, people recently have started hearing more about interesting AI applications. Tell them this thing learns and adapts, has AI.
There is another aspect -- energy tax credits and other incentives. Unfortunately it would be hard to get your device rated & approved I would guess. Imagine if there was a state or federal rebate to pay for 25% of the cost, even 10% would get people excited.
Up until last year there was a $1500 tax rebate on upgrading to a high efficiency HVAC systems. Some states have their own rebates on top of that. That led to quite a few people I know to all of the sudden decide to 'upgrade' their heat pumps... go figure.
This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts both ways, people don't have obvious, specific problems with their thermostat (for the most part). It's a thing, it came with the house, it turns heat on and off, whatever. Why do I need to spend $250 on it? The very first thing (or maybe second, after the pict…
People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. Or their cassette tape players for that matter. Are you saying the iPod was a bad idea?
I hated carrying around a clunky CD player plus a collection of CDs that I could lose at any moment. Fidgeting too much with the player would also, you know, scratch and destroy the physical media that stored my music.
There were a number of obvious problems with CD players. Thermostats...not so much.