Yeah, I really wish there was more focus on not wasting energy. Off the top of my head:
We have a normal furnace/air conditioner combo (I live in a climate where summer air conditioning is essential), it has no concept of outside air temperature. I really would like a system where it doesn't have the concept of being set to cool/off/heat, but rather a concept of ideal temperature/heat-to/cool-to. Before running the high energy systems it looks at the outside air temp to see if it would be more efficient to turn on a fan to bring in outside air. It also will use that fan to adjust the temperature towards ideal but will not use the high energy systems to do so.
The HVAC should also be able to communicate with the refrigerator. If heat is desired in the house the refrigerator uses coils inside the house to dispose of it's waste heat. If heat is not desired it uses outside coils.
We have a normal furnace/air conditioner combo (I live in a climate where summer air conditioning is essential), it has no concept of outside air temperature. I really would like a system where it doesn't have the concept of being set to cool/off/heat, but rather a concept of ideal temperature/heat-to/cool-to. Before running the high energy systems it looks at the outside air temp to see if it would be more efficient to turn on a fan to bring in outside air. It also will use that fan to adjust the temperature towards ideal but will not use the high energy systems to do so.
The HVAC should also be able to communicate with the refrigerator. If heat is desired in the house the refrigerator uses coils inside the house to dispose of it's waste heat. If heat is not desired it uses outside coils.