OK, I can see that a thermostat that allows me to monitor the temperature in my house from anywhere in the world will save me a few sleepless nights not knowing if I'm going to come home to a frozen house because the furnace died while I was away. Ditto if I had hot water heat and the house froze because the circulating pump stopped circulating.

But, what on this Good Earth would anyone use an internet ready thermostat for besides that?

That is, once you find out that the temperature in your house is 75 degrees F, so that you're confident that nothing is wrong, what more would you do with an internet ready thermostat?

I guess what prompted this post was that I recently found out that an upgrade to the Tekmar 265 boiler control on my heating system has been introduced by Tekmar. The new 275 boiler control has the option of being able to read it's operating parameters and program it via the internet from anywhere in the world. And, I just couldn't understand why that would ever be an important enough feature to entice someone into buying it versus the less expensive 265 boiler control. That is, why would something like this be a selling point? To me, it's about as important as being able to control the temperature in my computerized refrigerator from anywhere in the world. Why would I even want to be able to do that? What is wrong with leaving the fridge alone until I get home and then turning the thermostat dial up or down myself?

Would someone please explain what I'm missing here?