“Other than eliciting the usual and hilarious luddite reaction from some on FR”
I don’t get that either. Early on I replaced the old light bulbs with energy efficient ones and saved a ton of money.
The CFL technology is a transient technology, soon to be replaced by LED (as they become cheaper).
Lighting consumes about 11% of the US energy budget, so reducing this is in our National Interest.
The Internet of Things has an upside and a downside. I would like to be able to monitor my home from my smartphone. The downside is that were all being tracked constantly. Both in our physical movements and whatever we post on the Internet.
The technology has outrun custom and law and the government and industry and taking complete advantage of that fact.
Didja figger in the cost of replacement vs. saving in U/T bill?
On this site, we are VERY SUSPICIOUS of the terms “smart” or “intelligent”, because we understand what these technologies can do.
Before you guys go too far in making fun of us, you might want to read up a bit on what’s in store for “smart” (electric) meters. And even as they’re used today, find me a law in Texas that prevents disclosure of the data that can be gathered from these meters (such as when I go to work, when I go on vacation, etc.).
Call it paranoid, but look-up “Stingray” (not the animal), and what lengths the federal government and law enforcement went to keep it hidden (and that included dropping charges in felony cases, rather than disclosing its existence - and NEVER pulling a warrant). And then remember that people made fun of us for being suspicious and suspecting that a capability like that existed.