A little insight into the sustainability of selling sustainable, privacy-respecting smart thermostats... To earn the same as a full time minimum wage job, I'd need to sell about 172 thermostats per month. That's 171/mo more than I sell now. Of course, to accomplish that, I'd also need to have marketing budget, which means even more sales. And if I want to be paid for my work maintaining the software, and pay the projects I depend on, more money or less time per thermostat. It's not pretty. That's why most people don't spend their precious time on things like this and instead go out and get a job as an engineer for a large corporation. And I think that's unfortunate. It's why most of the goods available are made by big corporations and not individuals I am going to be the change I want to see in the world. While I might never be able to make a living at it, at least the open source products will be available beyond the DIY community I'll keep working to show people a better way. Oh, and BTW, I'm currently giving all the profits to Microsoft to advertise on DuckDuckGo (and presumably Bing). I basically break even for the cost of the hardware. And if they don't bring in enough sales to cover their costs, I'll bail on them. If you think you can do better, I'd be happy to have the profits go to an individual instead. But do realize we're currently talking $15/month. If you want to spread the good word of open hardware, partner up with me. You'll get paid for results.
