  Thermostats are primary interfaces for occupants of office buildings to
express their comfort preferences. However, standard thermostats are often
ineffective due to inaccessibility, lack of information, or limited
responsiveness, leading to occupant discomfort. Software thermostats based on
web or smartphone applications provide alternative interfaces to occupants with
minimal deployment cost. However, their usage and effectiveness have not been
studied extensively in real settings. In this paper we present Genie, a novel
software-augmented thermostat that we deployed and studied at our university
over a period of 21 months. Our data shows that providing wider thermal control
to users does not lead to system abuse and that the effect on energy
consumption is minimal while improving comfort and energy awareness. We believe
that increased introduction of software thermostats in office buildings will
have important effects on comfort and energy consumption and we provide key
design recommendations for their implementation and deployment.
