Roughly half of U.S. broadband households own a...

Roughly half of U.S. broadband households own a programmable thermostat and 11 percent have a thermostat that can connect to the Internet, said research from Parks Associates. Roughly one in five U.S. broadband households has smart lighting or electronic door locks, Parks said, in an email promoting Parks’ Smart Energy Summit to be Feb. 17-19 in Austin, Texas. Keynotes at the smart energy conference will be by executives from Nest, which Google said Monday it was buying for $3.2 billion, Comcast’s Xfinity Home security service, Austin Energy and smart thermostat manufacturer ecobee. Parks said the summit will provide a forum to discuss growing consumer demand and business products for utilities, service providers, retailers and manufacturers.