When living in a shared student housing accomodation, we had issues with the house thermostat. The central heating system heated the entire house, but the thermostat was located in the kitchen. The temperature it measured had little bearing on whether people were comfortable in their own room, especially if a door or window was left open. Also, people would forget to turn down the thermostat at night, or when they went away, resulting in high heating bills.
To address this, I made the Semi-Automatic StudentPro Thermostat Deluxe. Cold? Press the button, and it'll heat the house for a while. Comfy? Don't press the button. It's easy.
One button press would turn on the heating for 15 minutes. Press up to three times for 45 minutes of heating. The red LEDs indicate how much heating time is left; one button press adds 4 LEDs, so about 4 minutes per LED. When heating, the lights slowly count down.
Finally, holding down the button for a few seconds would reset the heater timer to zero.
Okay, some smarts
The controller also features frost protection; when its internal temperature sensor measures below 10°C, it unconditionally turns on the heating.
Finally, it has an ambient light sensor, which adjusts the LED brightness. This made the LEDs readable in bright daylight, and pleasantly dim at night.
