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Wanted: iPod programmable thermostat
5 comments- IT TOPICS:Hardware, Mobile & Wireless
The makers of programmable home thermostats should take a page from the iPod playbook.
I have a "simple" Honeywell programmable thermostat in place that I purchased off a wall of button-laden devices in Home Depot. It's so simple, in fact, that I keep the instruction sheet pinned to the wall next to it.
The problem is that everything beyond raising the current temperature setting is mode-based, cryptic and nonintuitive. To give you some idea of just how poor the user interface is for these devices, consider the instructions on the inside cover of my most basic unit:
Save or Modify the Schedule
1) Press [Pgm], 1 is displayed.
2) Select the day [Day] 3 sec. to select all days/week
3) Set the time (↓↑) [Clr] to clear (inactive program)
4) Press [P#]
5) Set the T of the current mode (↓↑)....
...
10) Press [Exit] to exit and save.
Try giving that to your grandmother to help her save on heating oil this winter.
In my household, the programmable thermostat has become a guy thing, right up there with tinkering with the computer (which always takes at least two hours) or tuning a lawnmower engine. It's not that my family wouldn't like to save on heating costs this winter. But for some strange reason they're not fascinated with the idea of fiddling endlessly with a user interface that only an engineer could love.
Other vendors have produced touch-screen models that supposedly make programming easier. However, the units don't take advantage of the touch screen interface to make life easier. They simply move the rows of push-buttons and crytic commands to the on-screen interface.
Programmable thermostats are a guy thing. Why? Because only real men enjoy tinkering endlessly with them. Who else would look forward to spending 10 minutes twice a year to relearn how to adjust for daylight savings time? It's the same gene that causes me to want to copy everything from the checkbook into Quicken so that I can generate and customize lots of wonderful reports. But somehow, it's my wife, not me, that always knows the balance.
Programmable thermostats were designed by guys for guys. It is only by learning the interface that we achieve our status of alpha dog over the trivial, that we can earn our tech merit badge and become real men.
On the other hand, the iPod interface is so much easier. If only Apple would produce a programmable thermostat, perhaps I could spend more time on the more important things in life... like figuring out why my PC suddenly started locking up when burning CDs.
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