Energy saving.....

One plan is for a zigbee network to include your Smart Electric Meter and all other devices in your home. At times of heavy requirement the meter and devices reports are analysed and the Electric company will then be able to send a command to your house to turn off or turn down the air con. Obviously not much of a problem over here in coldsville but apparently significant in the hot States.

The obvious extension to this in the UK once the TV remotes are under Zigbee is for the government to select our viewing for us. They will be able to detect that we are watching the wrong channel and switch all TVs with a single network broadcast. Knowing this lot, this forward planning is the reason that TV remotes have suddenly been brought into the equation in the UK.