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Comment by iramiller | Hacker News Reader

Why not setup a system that detects the presence of your Bluetooth phone? Perhaps even look for your phone on the wireless network if a sensitive detector is not sufficient?

It would not be a stretch at that point to have a simple website served from the device that let you see the history and choose some basic night/day setback points.

It takes some time to raise/lower the temperature of the house depending on the outside temperature so learning the rate at which the house warms/cools is required to reach the desired set point at the requested time. Including the local weather forecast as a sensor and being able to see a graph of temps and system demand cycles would be really nice.

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Why not simply have it get the data from an online API connected to something like Google Latitude or Apple's Find My Friend system? Then you could even have it make decisions when the users are much farther away, e.g. "he's 100 miles away, just keep the house above freezing" or "he's come back within 10 miles, return the house to comfortable levels."

I know some folks who have a heater in their winter cabin they can activate remotely (via text, I think) to turn on before they arrive for the weekend. An automated version of that would be even better.

I had something a while back... A little script thingy I found online that would lock/unlock my laptop (MBP) based on if it was paired via BT to my phone. The problem with BT occupancy sensing is that the range is kind of limited, so you need several sensors, and the pairing dance that goes with that, it's kind of a hassle.

I would be willing to carry something-er-other in my wallet which would alert my home automation system (which I don't have) to my presence/location in my home. I usually leave my wallet in our bedroom when sleeping, so it would still be accurate at night. My wife might be willing to wear a small ring or something like that, but it would be a harder sell.

The benefits to the phone, you already have it and keeping it charged and in general not forgetting it at home are more or less taken care of.

If I were considering options for additional units to purchase for determining occupancy (perhaps the kids do not have cellphones yet) then a small zigbee type mesh sensor would be ideal. This type of solution would give many options for those with zone based heating and cooling and would lend itself to even more pretty visualizations.

Edit: Getting a post right the first time from a phone is harder than it should be.

Bluetooth drains the battery too quicky. An app running in the background with gps pings would be better.

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