So Google is telling us, they cant make a product if there are standards or requirements for what they are doing?
That means whatever US customers are buying, theres something in it, that does something illegal in EU.
This is why companies want US citizens to believe that EU is a bureaucratic hellscape (I mean there’s also the forces that want to tell them it’s communist for the same reason I guess)
Aah, the US.
The only place in the world where everyone knows the word ‘communism’ and nobody knows what it is.
Russia and China are not communism btw. :shocked Pikachu:
I think most of the “requirements” they’re referring to are the technical ones, not governmental.
North America’s residential HVAC landscape is pretty simply and dumb compared to a lot of what is happening in Europe. Dumb forced central air systems dominate residential HVAC.
It sounds like they don’t like developing for all the weird hardware configurations that appear in Europe.
Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes
AKA. Europe probably has hardware and software requirements that make it so Google can’t
A) Harvest your data; and/or B) Must be able to function without an internet connection (aka. they can’t kill it)
This is a thermostat (although an analog one). You set a temperature with it. “3” corresponds with about 20°C.
I can’t think of many companies I would be less willing to buy home automation tech from than Google.
Imagine a thermostat needing an internet connection.
It’s not a hard requirement, but it’s sure nice to leave the house at a low but non-freezing temp in winter while you’re away for a few days, then use a web app to bring the temperature back up right before you come back in.
Being on the home LAN, though, is a requirement for me. That is extremely convenient.
I do NOT want my thermostats to phone home. I don’t see any value of that.
But they are connected to MY smart home system (Hone Assistant), and THAT is accessible from the internet.
I get the remote monitoring and control that I want, and they don’t get any of my data. Perfect!
Yeah, I got some z wave thermostats for home.
I got an Emersonl “homekit” thermostat for my in-law and managed to get it on wifi without “cloud”. Unfortunately you have to be careful because the follow on model requires their cloud service for online control.
It’s a real shame that most every house is well equipped to do standalone hosting for remote access, but most of the investment has gone toward cloud connected to force the recurring revenue opportunity.
Anyone in Europe looking for an alternative might want to check out Tado
We have a Tado system, not the current generation but the one before. It was easy to self-install and configure and has never given us any trouble. There are a couple UX quirks, such as not having a confirm dialog after you touch the Shut Down All or Max Out the Heat buttons, but overall it’s one of the rare electronic gadgets that has led to no buyer’s remorse.
Yes
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/tado
You can also control locally (i.e. without internet connection) using homekit integration.
Been working fine for me for a couple of years.
