#thermostats — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #thermostats, aggregated by home.social.
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The Placebo Button
The elevator in my building has a door-close button that does nothing. I learned this the way everyone learns it, which is to say I pressed it for years under the impression that it was speeding up my departure. The button lights up. It makes a small click when pressed. It provides every sensory signal of function. What it does not do is close the door any faster than the door was going to close on its own. The elevators in most American buildings installed since 1990 have door-close buttons wired to nothing, because the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the door to stay open long enough for a person using a wheelchair or walker to enter, and the button that overrides that requirement is accessible only to the fire department with a key.
The elevator industry has not hidden this. A 2016 New York Times piece by Christopher Mele quoted Karen Penafiel of the National Elevator Industry confirming that the buttons in non-emergency elevators do not function for ordinary passengers. The buttons remain on the panels because removing them would require rewiring, because passengers expect them, and because a button that does nothing costs less to leave in place than a button that does something. The fire department button works; the button passengers press does not. Both are labeled the same way.
The phenomenon extends well beyond elevators. A February 2004 New York Times piece by Michael Luo, titled “For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button,” reported that of the 3,250 crosswalk buttons in New York City at the time, more than 2,500 functioned as mechanical placebos and only about 750 still worked. The rest were deactivated when the city moved to computerized signal timing in the decades after 1980, and the buttons were kept in place rather than removed because removing them costs more than leaving them attached to nothing. A pedestrian pressing a crosswalk button on Sixth Avenue at Thirty-Fourth Street is performing a gesture. The gesture has no effect on when the light changes. The light changes on a fixed timer that does not know the pedestrian pressed anything.
Office thermostats are the third common case. HVAC contractors working in large commercial buildings have for decades installed decoy thermostats in zones where the actual temperature is controlled from a central building management system. A Wall Street Journal column by Jared Sandberg, who wrote the Journal’s Cubicle Culture column on office life, reported that a significant share of office thermostats were non-functional decoys, installed because building operators had discovered that employees who had a thermostat to adjust reported feeling more comfortable than employees who did not, regardless of whether the thermostat was connected to anything. The decoy thermostat was cheaper than the actual climate complaint.
What unites these three cases is that the placebo button is engineered to produce the sensation of causation without the mechanism of causation. The Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer spent much of her career documenting what she called the illusion of control, the human tendency to overestimate personal influence over outcomes that are actually random or automatic. Her 1975 paper on the subject in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology remains the source text, and the elevator button has become an unintended memorial to her findings. The button is a compliance device. It gets the passenger through fifteen seconds of waiting without becoming the kind of passenger who kicks the door. The crosswalk button operates the same way. The thermostat operates the same way.
The object lesson is small. A button that does nothing is a minor embarrassment in the built environment. The interesting question is where else this logic operates, and the answer is most of civic life.
Public comment periods on federal rulemaking accept submissions from citizens by the hundreds of thousands. Agencies are required to read those submissions and consider them. In the vast majority of cases, the final rule reflects the draft rule. The comment did not change the outcome. Its filing was registered. Citizens who submit receive an acknowledgment. That acknowledgment was the point.
City council meetings in most American municipalities include a public comment segment during which residents address the council for two or three minutes each on matters of local governance. Council members are not required to respond. A council member is also not required to incorporate the comment into deliberation. Votes that follow get decided in committee or caucus before the comment begins. The resident goes home having pressed the button. Its light comes on. That door closes on the timer it was going to close on anyway.
Surveys distributed by employers after reorganizations, by airlines after delays, by hospitals after treatment, by universities after lectures, arrive with the implicit promise that the responses will influence future decisions. Response data gets aggregated and presented in quarterly reports to executives who have already made the next round of decisions. The survey is a button that lights up. No door closes any faster.
Electoral systems with gerrymandered district lines produce outcomes pre-determined by the shape of the district rather than the preferences of the voters. A voter in a district drawn to favor a party by twenty points is pressing a button connected to a timer set six years before the election. Ballots get counted. The vote does not change the outcome. An illusion of control persists, and the citizen who pressed the button walks out of the polling place with the civic sensation of participation.
The placebo button is not a conspiracy. No central authority installed these systems to deceive. An elevator button represents a cost-benefit decision by building owners. A crosswalk button persists as legacy infrastructure nobody retired. Public comment periods exist as procedural requirements written into administrative law in 1946. Gerrymandered districts result from partisan legislatures drawing maps within a legal framework the Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to revise. Each placebo button got there through a defensible local decision. The pattern they form together is a democracy where the buttons light up reliably and the doors close on the schedule they were always going to close on.
The dangerous version of this pattern is the one where citizens learn the buttons do nothing and continue pressing them. Compliance does not require belief. The door-close button still gets pressed by passengers who know it does nothing, because pressing it is what one does in an elevator, and because the alternative is standing silent in a small box with a stranger for fifteen seconds. Voting in a gerrymandered district still gets done by voters who know the district will produce the predetermined outcome, because voting is what one does as a citizen, and because the alternative is admitting the system is closed.
The recognition that matters is the one that separates the buttons that work from the buttons that do not, and the organizing that follows is the organizing that rewires the boxes rather than the gesture of pressing. Ballot initiatives that establish independent redistricting commissions are rewiring. Lawsuits that force agencies to respond substantively to public comments are rewiring. Municipal charters that require council members to respond to comment on the record are rewiring. The door-close button in the elevator is a lost cause and not worth the fight. A crosswalk button at Thirty-Fourth Street is not worth the fight either. Ballots and comment periods and council meetings are worth every fight we can bring, because the apparatus behind those buttons is still capable of connection, and the difference between a democracy and an elevator panel is whether the wires on the other side of the panel still reach the doors.
#button #fakery #harvard #intention #nyc #placebo #psychology #tech #thermostats #wire #wires -
LMFAO the company I bought #smartthermostats from wants me to #beta test their newest model, in the #summer of all seasons of the year. Like why? My #thermostats are off all summer since they are for #baseboard #heaters, they should be doing the beta testing for this in #winter, do beta testing for the #AC & #heatpump thermostats in the summer instead. #smarthome
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A rare look at the #EU version of the #HestiaPi with the 240V AC -> 5V DC power adapter (the black rectangle in the photo). Everything else is the same hardware. It also uses the same software, just different settings.
I hate to ship these across the ocean, but there's literally not a single person, #hackerapace or #Makerspace in the EU who is willing to build these #OpenSource #thermostats. So I make them available, and ship them all the way from America.
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#Google is collecting troves of data from downgraded #Nest #thermostats
First- and second-gen #NestLearningThermostats are still transmitting information to Google about temperature, humidity, lighting, and more.
#privacyhttps://www.theverge.com/news/820600/google-nest-learning-thermostat-downgraded-data-collection
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#Google Is Collecting Troves of Data From Downgraded #Nest #Thermostats
Even after disabling remote control and officially ending support for early #NestLearningThermostats , Google is still receiving detailed sensor and activity data from these devices, including temperature changes, motion, and ambient light.
#privacy -
What do #Nest owners think about #Google's decision to not only kill support, but also make the smart thermostats into dumb thermostats?
Is it fair for them to take away the features you paid for?
Will you get another smart #thermostat from the same company again?
Are you in the market for alternative #smart #thermostats?
#IoT #tech #technology #PlannedObsolescence #waste #recycle #repair #repurpose #reuse
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Less than 2 weeks left until the old #Nest #thermostats go through their metamorphosis to become dumb thermostats.
Honestly, it might be a win for the owners in terms of #privacy. But if they want a wifi enabled thermostat that is open source and will never abandon them like this, please suggest a #HestiaPi.
You can make one yourself, buy a kit, or buy a prebuilt unit. If it ever breaks you can #repair it. If it doesn't do what you want, you can customize it. #FOSS #OpenSource #OpenHardware ❤️
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Ohio House bill HB 427 would allow utility companies to remotely control their customers' thermostats and water heaters. Programs would be voluntary.
#utilityprograms
#thermostats
#bigbrother heatershttps://www.wowt.com/2025/09/06/proposed-bill-would-give-utility-companies-control-customer-thermostats/ -
Google killing 2 million nest thermostats next month
#HackerNews #Google #Nest #Thermostats #Nest #Thermostat #Shutdown #TechNews #SmartHome
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I had one today try to refute what I told him days ago, because he 'looked it up".
He just did not want to believe me based upon my personal experience and what a Mechanical Engineer had previously confirmed to me.
It was about accuracy, specifically the lack thereof.
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#Google ends support for older #Nest #thermostats – and will stop selling new models in Europe completely
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I'm having a blowout #sale on the clicky version of the #HestiaPi #thermostats!
https://www.tindie.com/products/eternalsunshine/hestiapi-one-clicky/
No #cloud service here.
No data collection.
No company who is going to discontinue the model and leave you without #security updates.
No dystopian nonsense!
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Call to #hackerspaces & #makerspaces around the world, lets join forces!
Hi. 👋 I make #OpenSource smart #thermostats that don't spy on you. I don't ship internationally for two reasons: financial cost and environmental cost. I'd like to join a network of Makerspaces to have them be produced regionally so people outside of America can get a pre-made unit.
Does this network already exist? If so, how do I join? If it doesn't exist, would you like to help build it?
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One more week of sale prices on the #OpenSource #thermostats. I ❤️ open source and enjoy building these for people.
https://www.tindie.com/products/eternalsunshine/hestiapi-one-clicky/
https://www.tindie.com/products/eternalsunshine/hestiapi-one-silent/
I'm doing my part to help us all collectively beat #enshittification. Our project has gone 5 years (and counting!) and we still support #security updates for our #IoT devices. Try getting that level of service from a #BigTech company! What better way to celebrate #cybersecurity awareness month?
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Not sure why you're having trouble finding them, but #thermostats with a #humidistat that will do "off-cycle dehumidification" (i.e. run for short periods when #humidity is high even if #temperature doesn't exceed the #setpoint) are all over the place in USA/Canada. You sometimes don't find them in new construction because the contractor can save 5 bucks by putting in a "stupid" 'stat.
"Off-cycle #dehumidification" may be the search term you're looking for.
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I'll be putting in another order to stock up on parts soon. I need to batch order up as much as possible in order to offer #HestiaPi #thermostats for the prices I do.
My next order is going to be from the evil Amazon because I can't find the LCD touchscreens or AC to DC converters elsewhere.
When I ran the numbers to do my taxes last month, I saw I had spent thousands of dollars on thermostat parts and still have not broken even yet. It's because I want them to be as inexpensive as possible! 😎
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Getting ready to build some more #OpenSource #thermostats this week so I have them on hand, ready to ship out on a moment's notice!
If this sounds interesting to you, the full details can be found at https://www.tindie.com/products/eternalsunshine/hestiapi-one-silent/
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I think I may have found the pogo pin I have been looking for. This is super exciting because it will allow me to build #HestiaPi #thermostats with a #RaspberryPi Zero 2 W AND still have a functional reset button on the side.
Currently, I can build units with the Zero 2, but there's no way to reset it. Instead, you have to flip the breaker to the furnace/air conditioning to power cycle it (& can't access the web interface). While it's not the end of the world, it's a "nice to have".
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I'm doing my taxes and I found that I'm only about $115 in the hole over the past 3 years for my efforts to make #HestiaPi #thermostats available to people!
This is good news because I've spent thousands of dollars on this project, so it feels really good to be almost there.
Of course if I got to $1 in the black, it'd mean I was paid a dollar for literally thousands of hours of work, but I'm just going to not think about that 🫣
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For anyone who is just now discovering me, hello 👋. I build, maintain and sell #OpenSource #thermostats. They can be #WiFi controlled & respect your #privacy.
Unlike the #Google #Nest, or the #Honeywell or #Amazon ones, they don't phone home with data about you to be sold to the highest bidder.
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Any body else having trouble with #eneloop in clocks and or #thermostats or other #electronics where the voltage isn't sufficient to power the device? I just had a #honeywell thermostat declare low battery with the two cells at 1.26 Volts. I put fresh (1.30 Volt) cells in place, and it still said low battery, so I couldn't get my heat to go back on. I just 'fixed' it temporarily:
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How #hot has it been in the #Northland today?
This hot!
It doesn't get this hot this late in the calendar year in this corner of the world.
Watching the #thermostats to see if it gets any hotter in spots. Could someone reach 100°?
(Last time, and maybe the only time, was Ashland on 9/7/76.)
We will have to wait and see...
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"In #Spain businesses are leading the way and mandating workers finish (and start) their gig earlier.
[#Japan] launched its “#CoolBiz” policy almost two decades ago.
As well as asking workers to don short sleeve shirts, the government’s recommendations include keeping office #thermostats to 28°C or above, getting staff to come into work earlier, allowing workers to take longer #holidays in the summer, and banning #overtime."
#ClimateAdaptation
https://fortune.com/2023/07/17/workers-ditch-9-5-for-6-2-climate-change-university-oxford-study/ -
(12/n)
Today's #AI is definitely not conscious yet.
In a long but interesting dialog with #Stanford professor #AlisonGopnik* about how future sentient #AGI's would need to be reared, he even classified them as "#thermostats."
The starting point of the exchange is #TedChang's #SciFi #HugoAward winning novella,
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects."
There even is a link to the story's online edition:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lifecycle_of_Software_Objects
*
"Developing Al Like
Raising Kids -... -
#Nest 2020 #thermostats receive #Matter update, which adds #AppleHome compatibility
#Google is still looking into support for the Nest models people actually own.
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@derek in the meantime we installed eco bee #thermostats (much better than the nest) which has a setting to recirculate air for x minutes every hour. we now use less #oil for heating but yes, #geothermal is my dream
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Big Brother is controlling your thermostat - 22,000 smart #thermostats in #Colorado #locked over ‘energy emergency,’ sparking outrage
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Les opérateurs Karakurt diffusent des données relatives aux activités de :
- 🇺🇸 Tom Barrow Company (
tombarrow.com) - 🇺🇸 Metropolitan Associates (
metropolitanassociates.com)
#usa #industrial #hvac #building #automation #manufacturer #innovative #climate #solutions #careers #smart #equipment #heat #pumps #commercial #retails #electronics #cyber #cooling #thermostats #catalog #factories #supply #employees #digital #clients #online #electrical #karakurt #emergency #facilities #refrigeration #systems #ventilation #maintenance #compliance #design #services #experts #safety #contractors #residents #insurance #databreach #companies #housing #communauty #business #houses #familiy #services #industry #property #design #web #management #seniors #apartment #provider #informatique
- 🇺🇸 Tom Barrow Company (