I'm an open source fan, but realize it's not a panacea, in and of itself...great care and a full understanding of potential negative consequences is only prudent...
Personally, I'm content with nursing along older appliances that were made well...but, I'm a bit of a handyman, and hate to give up on any machine until I'm convinced it's totally worn out, so IoT is unlikely to invade my home on a large scale any time soon...
"One such story was from a couple who were out of town when their furnace went nuts and raised the temperature in the house high enough that it melted every piece of plastic in the entire home."
There's just no way that a home furnace can generate enough heat to do that. Sounds like scaremongering to me.
I'm inclined to agree that a home thermostat is probably not the best place to be hacking around--especially, but not only, in cold climates--although this is really a comment on DIY generally rather than open source. Heck, I'm not even inclined to trust a Nest over a more traditional thermostat.
There are plenty of opportunities to fiddle around with sensors and other "smart home" gadgetry. But there are some areas where it makes sense to be very cautious.
There's the potential for DIY open source misuse, with negative consequences:
Here, a poster's bad experience with a properly-installed OEM product prompts a "warning", directed at the open-source DIY community...
https://community.particle.io/t/spark-powered-thermostats-bu...
The poster referenced this DIY...
http://blog.particle.io/2014/01/17/open-source-thermostat/?r...
I'm an open source fan, but realize it's not a panacea, in and of itself...great care and a full understanding of potential negative consequences is only prudent...
Personally, I'm content with nursing along older appliances that were made well...but, I'm a bit of a handyman, and hate to give up on any machine until I'm convinced it's totally worn out, so IoT is unlikely to invade my home on a large scale any time soon...