It’s not actually that nice being left without heating during winter
(Mirror Daily, United States) – The Internet of Things is slowly but surely taking over pretty much everything. With IoT beds, security cameras, thermostats, and even refrigerators, it’s only a matter of time until connectivity will become the defining characteristic of our age. But what happens when a device of the type fails? This is what multiple clients found out, as they discovered a glitch affecting Google’s Nest thermostat.
Although it may be news to some, the Internet of Things has become such a widespread reality that even Uber is going to remind you, should you wish, to turn on the heat before you get home. So, of course, if a device connected to it fails, there are going to be repercussions.
And this happened at the worst possible time – although I guess it could have been worse, were the temperatures really reminiscent of winter – for a number of Google’s Nest thermostat users, as the device failed them following a December update.
Being a smart thermostat, Google’s Nest can be accessed from wherever in the world you happen to be, by tapping the smart phone app a few times. However, being smart doesn’t unfortunately mean that the device is infallible.
You see, the thermostat’s December update came with a bug – not a major one, but one that made it run out of power and stop doing its job of keeping the house warm.
The glitch in the Nest’s software only manifested in January, and what it did was to turn the device on and off again, until it drained all the battery.
Many users were affected by this issue, as their thermostat stopped working, leaving their house in the winter’s coldness – albeit a warmer temperature than we’re used to this time of year.
And sure, the fact that your internet connected thermostat stopped working for a time might seem like a first world problem, but it’s actually much more troublesome than it initially seems.
Aside from plunging the house in cold and rendering the shower unusable, the glitch could have easily let to pipes bursting due to very low temperatures.
Despite the fact that the worst thing that resulted from this glitch was for a few customers to be cold for a few hours, the issue speaks to some of the potential dangers of having everything connected to the internet.
The fix was actually quite complicated, as the users had to plug a USB cable into the device, and the push the not too easily accessible reset button, while leaving to charge.
Image source: Flickr