My heat is controlled and automated with open source software for the grand total of about fifty bucks and a free surplus server.

I don’t know how that can be true. Can you tell us more?

I'm considering making an OpenTherm controller for my heating boiler, I just researched this topic a few days ago - it's absolutely true, there are ready-made Arduino libraries for that.

It's incredibly easy to do (caveat - at least if you're familiar with software dev already).

Most thermostats are literally just digital thermometers that control a relay that turns the furnace/ac on and off.

A simple arduino (or much cheaper IC) can easily do the same thing if you wire it in.

And then on the software side... there's several large, open-source projects that exist in this space and provide nice api tooling for interacting with those devices. Things like:

OpenHab: https://www.openhab.org/

HomeAssistant: https://www.home-assistant.io/

HomeBridge: https://homebridge.io/

etc...

Even Alexa has basically drop-in self hosted alternatives like Mycroft: https://mycroft.ai/ or ADA/Almomd (now Genie) https://genie.stanford.edu/

It's not only true - I strongly suspect you can do it for much less than 50 bucks if you don't need the physical thermostat to have buttons/screens.

Makes sense. My setup doesn't allow for that. Hence my ignorance. Good for you!

So DIY solutions exist that raise the cost to an education in computer programming and $50 in hardware...to avoid touching a thermostat four times a year. That's neat.

I inherited a 1980's model AC/Furnace and controlling the AC at least is extremely simple and cheap. A 12V relay in the compressor housing activating the 220V switch, connected to another relay controlled by a Pi zero which is controlled by yet another PI zero with a $10 DHT 22. A bash script check the temp and activates the compressor via SSh when the temp goes above 74F. The furnace control hasn't died yet so I haven't bothered replacing it. Putting the cooling system on IoT total cost = ~ $100

What if you charged someone to build and install the same system in their house? You'd probably charge a lot more than $100, and that's what the real cost would be for most people.

Nobody has suggested professional installation though, the original suggestion was just a nice home automatic project to play with.