Since the financial crisis, several trends have
kept it
in check, including a surge
in business models which are less asset heavy, a shift
in focus toward
consumer - facing technologies, and passive investing strategies that reward companies for
spending free cash on stock buybacks rather than capital goods.
The thermostat add - on lets
consumers set a limit to what they want to
spend on cooling and heating and then it controls the temperature to
keep energy use
in check.