You may recall my dismay in my last post to discover that the Sensibo device does its thing via a cloud-based system. Turns out this was justified: the other morning, my modem decided to pack it in, and I no longer had control over the heat pump.
The pump remained at its previous setting, just as it would if the batteries in the remote control wore out; but I couldn't change the settings via the app.
I assume that pre-programmed settings would also not work. However, I don't know whether programmed changes to settings would be reinstated once the modem was repaired, as I didn't have any programs set at the time the modem went offline.
Of course the remote control still worked, as it is entirely local.
So overall I remain convinced that something that works entirely locally, or that defaults to local when needed, would be preferable.