We just had a wifi enabled thermostat installed as part of a new hvac system in our house. We already had a programmable thermostat, and I am really not sure we are going to need to control the hvac remotely when we are not at home. The wifi thermostat came with the new system.
It is gathering information from sensors and sending the data to a server. It's just a thermostat that sends a signal to a wireless router. It almost seems like it is an obvious activitiy.
Skreal