[ceejayoz]

> I'm wondering if they provide any meaningful savings vs a cheap programmable thermostat.

In my experience, yes. I left town for two weeks and forgot to turn on away mode. If I'd had a cheap one, I'd have paid for two weeks of A/C keeping my house at 72. Instead, I was able to remotely tell it to let the house get up to 85 before kicking in.

Auto-away does the same thing on a smaller scale on a near-daily basis for me, as well. We've got a pretty unsettled schedule, so it's a wonderful feature.