I don't know how the thermostat logic is designed, but thermostats generally have tolerances built so that the heat/AC isn't always turning on and off right around the set temperature point. So is it possible that the journalist turned down the thermostat, but this "woke up" the thermostat and made it react to the temperature sooner than it would have, and upon seeing it still to be colder than desired (even after the change, or maybe a millisecond before), start a heating cycle, before later correcting?