Our power company offers a $50 rebate for the Nest or Ecobee; I like the idea that it seems to be saving people money on their powerbills, but I'm not sure it would work for us. We only rarely need to use heat (once or twice a year at most) and we almost always have our windows cracked open during spring and summer for the pets, so we really couldn't program the AC to turn on before we got home. Under these conditions, would a Nest/Ecobee still somehow cut our relatively high summer AC bills? Is there any way to use them without connecting to the Ap, avoiding the privacy issues but still saving energy/money, or is the fact that it turns on by itself the main selling point? Seriously I don't mind hitting the on button when I walk in the door...