Google just bought Nest

Nest is the company that has a wifi-enabled house thermostat that can be changed over the internet.  They're also coming out with (or has already began marketing) a wifi-enabled smoke detector.

I have such a thermostat that was provided (free) by Gulf Power and they also hooked my water heater to the internet too.  I can turn off (or turn down) my heat/air conditioning and water heater during periods of peak loads.  They have it set up where I pay an exorbitant amount per kilowatt during exceptionally high peaks, like we had last week with the polar vortex.  They only made this time interval an hour or two, so it was no big deal to dial back my power usage during that time.  I get a small break over normal electricity charges when demand for electricity is low.  We keep things dialed down (comfort-wise) when we are up in Hoover.  When we're driving down to P'cola, Christine can use her phone to "dial-up" our thermostat and water heater and make the house more comfy by the time we get there.

I look forward to more items of house automation and I'll bet that Google will help push Nest into more innovative ideas.  I hate fumbling with a key at the front door and it would be nice to have one of those new wifi door locks.

I also use Apple's wifi-enabled "Airplay" system to shunt music wirelessly from my iPad to my receiver.

Am I the only one here that likes the idea of a "smart" home?  What else could be wifi enabled that is practical?

My oldest daugher's house is one of those that has all the latest electronic gadgetry. She can turn her thermostat up right before she arrives home, that kind of thing. I'd love to have one but I'm a slow learner and sometimes technology is just too much for my ancient cranium to handle.
We do have the keyless door entry though Eric- even us "unlearned" don't fumble with our keys anymore. LOL

Just picking at you..

If you have an all-electric home, have a wifi router, and are not getting billed on the averaging system, Gulf Power will send a contractor to your home and install all the equipment needed to run your thermostat and your water heater, and your pool pump if you have a pool... free of charge.

The obvious benefits to you is that you can manage your power usage more carefully.  The incentive to the power company is two-fold... they boast that they're helping customers... and the system pricing discourages heavy usage during peak times, helping to keep their costs down.  They have to pay more for electricity generation during those times as less efficient and more costly generating units must be brought online to satisfy demand.

When we are away from home, we run the water heater only during the cheapest period of the day (usually the early morning hours).  It keeps the water in the water heater from getting stagnant and it keeps it warm.  Sometimes we forget to turn the hot water heater back on when we are headed down to P'cola.  Surprisingly, there is still a decent amount of hot water in the evening hours.  If we were on an austerity budget, we could get by with just running the water heater at the cheapest time of the day.

The system hasn't performed flawlessly, however.  A couple of times we have had it balk on logging in, and although you can operate the thermostat manually, it is like programming a fancy watch where a few buttons do a lot of different things based upon the menu you have called up.  I have never learned how to change the thermostat settings manually.  The web interface is handy and informative and it shows you detailed power consumption on a graph if you're into pinching pennies.

We had this option offered for free by our alarm system company. Since our house is so old, we opted out for now.

I love our alarm company - Vivint. It has saved us on three occasions so far - a break-in, an illness with need for an ambulance, and a small kitchen fire. If we opt to go with the net operated house, we will probably go through them.