[npsimons]

Yup. I feel that the idea of smart interconnected devices talking to each other to decide "okay, now is when it will be most efficient to run" is a really awesome thing, but it's been ruined by capitalism. Just a race to the bottom to sell shit products and sell customer data to maximize CEOs' paychecks.

As it is, if you have the knowhow you could do it yourself. But that's a lot to ask the tech illiterati, and even I find myself just falling back to manual methods since they Just Work with no fiddling about with wires.