Canadian Chat → Re: Ontario giving away free smart thermostats

I see that the new Nest E was launched today. $229 Canadian. Is it on the list of approved models?

The Ecobee is a superior product.

They mention Honeywell, Nest and Ecobee, but no specific models, the new Nest E probably would be ok, it offers the same control features as the Nest.
Suppose a house doesn't have wifi, or internet access, having any one of these WiFi enabled devices is a waste of money. And as for the person in the story which complained about kids playing with the temperature, for a fraction of the cost you can install a lockable box over a thermostat, and a low cost programmable thermostat would work just as well.

The announcement is pre-election green washing, back when the fit program was introduced if the government geared the program towards Urban home owners and offered incentives to install solar (and or thermal) panels tax payers might have seen a reduction in power rates because no hugely expensive transmission upgrades would have to be installed and large government friendly companies would not be reaping massive profits at the expense of both rate and tax payers.

This announcement is a drop in a leased bucket that no-one can afford.

You're missing the big purpose of this program - it's obvious what it actually is (and has nothing to do with "green washing"). The real part of this program is getting their people in your home to do the energy audit. Most people wouldn't bother to sign up for a free energy audit (or would even be against it) -- but many/most will if they get a freebie for it.... And what does the energy audit do - it tells you "Your windows are leaky, your furnace needs an upgrade, your insulation is sub-part, and you need weatherstripping and caulking done if you want to make your home more efficient and save on your utility bills".... What does that do? It drives the entire home renovation/upgrade industry -- 100,000 people or more will get a $200 "bauble" and in return most of them will spend likely $500-$5000 doing renovations afterward in an attempt to save a few $ each month on their utility bills. That's a huge return on investment in the economy.

The program seems geared towards those that don't have money in the first place, hence why they haven't replaced their thermostats.

A couple of things;

I bought the Nest on Day 1, so I've been following the "growth" of the device for the past few years, I was mostly interested in the remotely controlled capacities of the device, but the device itself (at least before Google bought it and stopped giving a fuck) aggressively promotes energy savings through it's learning feature (something that was really difficult to turn off) and it also promotes signing on to getting controlled by the utility, for meager savings.

I'm not a conspiracy type by a longshot, but my initial impression is that these devices are there to collect energy data, and promote the idea that the utility should be controlling your AC unit.