The Buckets by Greg Cravens for June 29, 2021

It is hotter than a spoon at Hunter Biden’s house.

I’m with Frank. You shouldn’t need a manual to do something that feels like little more than setting a number.

There are three stages (IMO) of the evolution of a technology:

(1) Basic. Low tech, basic function but simple to use;

(2) Complex. Medium tech, high-function but complicated to use;

(3) Mature. High tech, medium-function and simple to use.

Stage 1 is the basic function. It probably has only a few parts, and anyone with a few brain-cells can get their head around it. The transition from stage 1 to stage 2 happens when bright people start thinking about all the things they could do with the tech, and add lots of bells and whistles (that most people never use, and that make the thing over-complicated and hard to understand and operate). The transition from stage 2 to stage 3 happens when smart people realise which of the extra function most people actually find useful, remove most of the bells and whistles, and start concentrating on making the interface simple and useable again.

What most (emphasis on most) people need is either stage 1 or 3; thermostats today seem to be stuck (if you’ll pardon the pun) in stage 2.

Um..Pop, it’s Heat; Off; and Cool! Three cheers for no internet!

But what about scheduling?

The real problem is the ones with WiFi that let others (they who must not be named) spy on you.

A bit after we moved in, I realized the heat pump wasn’t working right. The tech spent about four hours checking it and decided the SMART thermostat was only using the emergency heaters, nothing wrong with the heat pump itself. He said he couldn’t replace it because the ‘stat was only sold to dealers. The prior owners had left a box of manuals and stuff. I pulled an identical ’stat labeled “BAD” out of the box and told the tech I didn’t need three strikes. The new thermostat is not SMART, but it works.

He’s right, you know. Some things can’t (shouldn’t) be “improved”.

and that is all they should need

It takes a while to program it at first, but once you have it done, it takes care of itself. We also dress for the season. (No shorts and t-shirts during the winter unless they are under your sweats). New thermostats are now accessible via the internet. Just what you need, you thermostat hacked.

Some years ago we had to remove our thermostat due do water damage. I inadvertently found that if two of the wires touched we had AC, and it stopped when the wires were separated. We used that until the AC was serviced!

My wife controls the thermostat here, I don’t touch it

She understands it a lot better than I do, and menopause has her far more temperature sensitive than me

OLD thermostats you mean, granp…

I thought Frank lived w/ the family?

oh wait, right, Greg makes up gags, and draws around the gag. :P

Instructions?! Real men don’t need instructions!

The instructions that came with my unit is for repairmen. There nothing in it to tell you how to operate the thermostat. And when I did operate the thermostat, I had to call a repairman.

We finally got rheostats from google. Turned off the wifi on them. Yay. So much easier.

My in-laws always called me when they needed to adjust their thermostat after they replaced their AC.

The nice thing about my programmable thermostat is I don’t have to get up with the house at 59° in the winter. I like it cool to sleep, but not those cold floors at 5:45 a.m. I can set the heat to start up at 5:30 and be comfortable when the feet hit the floor.

The last time I visited my grandmother in her home it was well over 80 degrees as she had apparently forgotten how to operate her thermostat.