Tin foil? I've read where people are insulating around them for some reason. They're building some kind of thick, insulated box around them inside their homes.
Honeywell, BTW, has a camera lens no bigger than a flea that has mutable "eyes". It views everything like the eye of a fly. I know that's a fact, because I worked on the project that developed them decades ago.
We’ve had utility controlled electric water heater shutoffs here in Indiana for decades. You get a small credit on your bill every month for having it. Only kicks in on the hottest A/C days when you really don’t notice it anyway.