As it turns out there is a patent on sprinkler timers with embedded web servers. The owner of the patent has posted hostile messages threatening legal action on any public facing website that posts about the handful of consumer products that might infringe on their patent.
Here is a link to the patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US7010396
If you want to poke around (literally) under the hood, you don't get to complain about complexity.
The only problem with the sprinkler in the article is that the internal clock is set wrong, and you can be pretty sure that the reason the internal clock is wrong is because the author tried to tweak things. Don't do that, and the problems go away.
Also, the OP is eliding over the fact that that controller is probably 10 years old.
When I looked into it in my own case, it worked out to slightly under 1 kWh/day in standby losses, or about $2/month. I turned off the water heater when I was gone for a month once, and the savings do seem to have been in the noise somewhere. Assuming a Nest-like device to do that for me would cost the same ~$250 that a Nest does, it would take 20 years to recoup the cost of the device, even assuming it was so perfect that it saved all standby losses.
And as others have pointed out I have a natural gas heater.
Yes. I've thought of it, but no, it is not a good idea.
Aside from the fact that you need the water to remain above a certain level or the water can become dangerous (e.g. legionella), what happens the night you play glow in the dark flag football and decide to take a shower? Or do a load of dishes? Etc.
The Nest "works" (in the absolutely marginal way that it does so) because it makes a middling difference. That would be a stark difference with a hot water tank.
My dishwasher contains a heating element and so does the clothes washer.
How's that going to work when the imagery isn't real time?
He's just making a wishlist of features; the particular method of implementation doesn't have to match.
Even the Nest, with it's simple dial would probably scare them, because smart things scare stupid people.
When I tell them that it's an Internet enabled thermostat, they must immediately think, "OMG CHINA HAXORS GUNNA STEAL MY THERMOSTAT MHZ" because that's what the scare-monger media has been telling them over the last six months.
Sigh. Yes, that's it. They must be "stupid."
1. When you want to change some parameter of the physical thing, you have to know where your phone is. You can't just go there.
2. You need to take your phone out of your pocket, navigate to the icon, press it, wait, probably tap a button or two, then slide your fingers along a smooth surface in some sort of complex pattern. Meanwhile, you could have walked downstairs and turned a dial, which you can actually feel with your fingers and you don't need to look at.
Nest makes big awesome dials. I too wish more startups with good designers would find some way to displace common hardware controls that are unfamiliar and complex.
Setting the time doesn't appear to be too painful.
I don't actually know the prices, I'm trusting the college coaches who have mentioned this to me over the last several years (I umpire on the side). One has been on artificial turf for three years, another put turf in this year, and the rest want them.
