Letting the power company control your thermostat?

[Walt34]

No way no how not ever. Same with allowing the car insurance folks to monitor driving. Smacks too much of Big Brother to me.

Now if they want to up the savings rate to $100/month or more I might think about it, but for a measly $5/month? Nope.

 

[isisdave]

Here in Southern Indiana, CenterPoint offers a whooping $20 a year for participating (after a $75 signup bonus).

Participants agree to brief, limited adjustments of their thermostats during peak electric demand periods from June 1 through September 30. Enrolled customers can anticipate at least one adjustment and a maximum of 15 adjustments per summer. Peak demand periods for adjustments typically occur on especially hot days. Adjustments will not occur on weekends or holidays.

Participants will receive a $75 one-time bill credit after being accepted into the program and an additional $5 bill credit per device during the months of June through September for staying enrolled in the program.

At the start of an adjustment event, your thermostat will be automatically adjusted up to four degrees above the current temperature.

The adjustment will typically last no more than four hours on non-holiday weekdays and will occur between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. [Note: peak temps here are usually 4-7pm]

Once the temperature adjustment is over, your thermostat will return to its normal set point and/or schedule.

In some cases, your thermostat may be adjusted down 3 degrees prior to an adjustment event to precool your home. [I'll bet .. this would mitigate their income loss.]

You can opt out of an event at any time from your mobile device, web browser or thermostat. You can also opt out simply by adjusting the temperature. When you opt-out of the precool, you also are opting out of the temperature adjustment.

This kind of arrangement can make sense if no one is home weekday afternoons, but if you've already set your thermostat to save power in those hours, $20 a year isn't going to make you want to sign up. We had a similar program in that Big Western State, but the carrot was about $100 per month during the four summer months.

 

[Retiired]

We have done this for years and I can never recall a time when I felt that my AC was being cycled.

Per the current rules we get a $10 credit per month from June through September for cycling a maximum of 15 minutes every half hour, for up to 12 hours between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. It changes a little each year; used to be for only 3 months and different cycling hours etc.

I think we have saved at least $300 in the program with no observable impact.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Nope.



While I do allow my auto insurance co to track our driving (a $600/yr savings), I draw the line at allowing outside control of our thermostat. Unfortunately the power company still has the last word on our heating and cooling via outages.

Can you elaborate on this? Not the A/C. The auto discount. What is the program called and what does it mean they are tracking your driving? $600/yr is attention grabbing. Thanks.

 

[MC Rider]

It's not worth $5 or $10 a month to me. We do what we can to save by using the 2 evap coolers until it gets past 100 degrees out. They work quite well. To a point.

 

[REWahoo]

Can you elaborate on this? Not the A/C. The auto discount. What is the program called and what does it mean they are tracking your driving? $600/yr is attention grabbing. Thanks.

It is USAA's "Safe Pilot" program, other insurers have similar programs. You install an app on your phones and allow the insurer to monitor your driving. You get a 10% discount for signing up and then up to a 30% discount based on how safely you drive. You are "dinged" for phone handling, harsh braking, taking/making calls while driving, etc. We've earned a 27% discount which works out to be a $600 savings per year for us.

More details on the program: https://www.usaa.com/insurance/safedriving/?akredirect=true

EDIT: Here is a thread from last year discussing these programs. https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/auto-insurance-discount-115142.html

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Well my thermostat shows we will have a Smart Energy Event today between 5 and 7PM and they may raise my thermostat up to 4 degrees. I think it's more than $5 a month in discount but I never actually look at my bill, it's on autopay and the highest I think I've ever been is about $75 so I don't pay much attention.

 

[MC Rider]

It is USAA's "Safe Pilot" program, other insurers have similar programs. You install an app on your phones and allow the insurer to monitor your driving. You get a 10% discount for signing up and then up to a 30% discount based on how safely you drive. You are "dinged" for phone handling, harsh braking, taking/making calls while driving, etc. We've earned a 27% discount which works out to be a $600 savings per year for us............

But wild bursts of acceleration are OK? Because those are kind of fun on a motorcycle.

 

[REWahoo]

But wild bursts of acceleration are OK? Because those are kind of fun on a motorcycle.

Unfortunately, no. The app dings you whenever your phone senses any aggressive lateral g-force like when you do a very a sharp U-turn or floor it when the light turns green.

Interesting that it ignores dropping your phone...

 

[aaronc879]

Sounds like it's an opt-in so if you find it creepy, of course you wouldn't. I don't, I can do that myself if I want to. Just like I don't opt-in for a car insurance discount to let them track my info.

That is not at all a reasonable comparison. The car insurance discount is not at all as intrusive as the power company changing your temperature whenever they want. That would be like the car insurance company being able to adjust your speed whenever they want. Nope. They can track what I do but they can't change what I do as i'm doing it any time they want.

 

[MuirWannabe]

It is USAA's "Safe Pilot" program, other insurers have similar programs. You install an app on your phones and allow the insurer to monitor your driving. You get a 10% discount for signing up and then up to a 30% discount based on how safely you drive. You are "dinged" for phone handling, harsh braking, taking/making calls while driving, etc. We've earned a 27% discount which works out to be a $600 savings per year for us.

More details on the program: https://www.usaa.com/insurance/safedriving/?akredirect=true

EDIT: Here is a thread from last year discussing these programs. https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/auto-insurance-discount-115142.html

Very interesting. Thanks. I’m with USAA but somehow hadn’t heard of this. I assume any ‘dings’ from detected bad driving maneuvers can’t actually total up to a insurance increase? Sounds like worst case you get the 10% discount for signing up even they don’t reward your driving for anything additional.

I need to read the links you sent.

 

[scfr]

We participated when we were lived in Texas. We saved a little money and it felt like we were doing our little bit to help prevent blackouts that could have a serious impact on the most vulnerable. I did notice the temp raised a couple times, and yes it got a little uncomfortable in the house, especially since we already kept it at 79-80.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

I've been in it for years and my discount was $36 last month.

 

[badatmath]

Well my thermostat shows we will have a Smart Energy Event today between 5 and 7PM and they may raise my thermostat up to 4 degrees. I think it's more than $5 a month in discount but I never actually look at my bill, it's on autopay and the highest I think I've ever been is about $75 so I don't pay much attention.

People here are spending $7-$12 a day on energy I think. So you know, hundreds a month? So yeah . . . Looks like you get about $25 a YEAR (per thermostat) . . after the initial partial rebate for the therm.

I didn't read it super carefully and there is more than one power company. They jack the rates up to super summer something for a couple months anyway to discourage usage.

 

[badatmath]

Very interesting. Thanks. I’m with USAA but somehow hadn’t heard of this. I assume any ‘dings’ from detected bad driving maneuvers can’t actually total up to a insurance increase? Sounds like worst case you get the 10% discount for signing up even they don’t reward your driving for anything additional.

I need to read the links you sent.

I think some companies this can cause a rate increase if they don't like your patterns so definitely check fine print.

I know my friend piloted one many years ago and it kept dinging them for driving 75. That is a normal legal speed limit here in some places.

 

[jollystomper]

Everybody has a price. $5/month discount is not my price.

 

[swakyaby]

I will never understand how EV are supposed to work if we can't keep up with normal AC demands in summer.

Our EV can be programmed to charge during non-peak demand, from midnight till morning. So, not an issue.

 

[thod]

I participate in a program here in Texas, I get some money back when I use less electricity than they expect based on my historic usage patterns (having smart meters installed allows them to do this.)

They do not control my thermostat, but instead send me a text message that indicates that if I can use less electricity than they expect in a 3 or 4 hour window, they will give a rebate.

I do not think I get a discount amount as large as some of you are indicating, but I did not opt to allow them to control the thermostat. Instead I have to do it manually and they just monitor the usage.

 

[levindb]

Our program in SC is the free installation of up to 2 ecobee smart thermostats and $10/mo savings...that is $300 for the equipment and $120/year reduction on our bills. We travel for 4-5 months during the year, so we are often not even around when they fiddle with the temps...which are already at vacation settings.

That is 40 free hot dog lunches/year at Costco for DW and I.

The electric meter reports my hourly usage to the electric company which I can read online...and that does not use my wifi.

 

[isisdave]

A relative worked for USAA and they had this built into the company cars. He didn't like being dinged for evasive maneuvers made necessary by other drivers.

 

[REWahoo]

A relative worked for USAA and they had this built into the company cars. He didn't like being dinged for evasive maneuvers made necessary by other drivers.

Agreed, it is definitely an irritant. Penalizing you for braking hard to avoid an accident doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

However, over the 6 months the program tracks your driving before coming up with a discount, you can have several harsh braking instances with little negative impact to your score/discount. I think I was hit with seven or eight plus a handful of phone handling and hands free call dings and still ended up with a 27% discount.

 

[Music Lover]

Everybody has a price. $5/month discount is not my price.

There are a lot of ways to save a few $ a month. Letting someone else decide the temperature inside my house isn't something that I have any interest in.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I find it creepy.

But I also have some engineering sympathy for the power companies. Renewable energy puts them in a bind. They cannot predict when the sun will shine (clouds) or wind will blow. And old school power stations burning natural gas, coal, or oil, need to run at a certain level to stay efficient. So there are many legit technical challenges they face.

It's also hard to store power at any large scale in most places. So at noon when everyone's solar is cranking out power into the grid much of it is lost.

Being able to adjust demand is actually a good technical solution. But yeah I find it a little creepy to give that kind of access to my home.

Utilities also have a lot of "stranded assets," generating equipment built decades ago and paid for by rates that were abandoned when deregulation occurred or that are no longer needed.

 

[Sue J]

Before the internet .......

In 1979 my in-laws moved from northeast Ohio to Parker, CO, outside of Denver. They built a new house. There was no natural gas connection in the new development. Everything was electric.

The house had no air conditioning which is common in the area. The heat was radiant panels in the ceilings (this never made sense to me), which was seen as being the new thing.

Being that everything was electric they had a new up to date management system called a Dencor. The Dencor kept track of what was using electricity and if your usage went above a certain level it would start to manage things for you. It prioritized the refrigerator and heating, I think you could customize it and tell it what was important to you and what was low on your priorities. My inlaws left it on the default settings and that worked for them.

One year at Christmas we were all visiting. Lots of people in the house using hot water, hair dyers, 2 ovens, stovetop, laundry, etc. The Dencor started managing things for them. First it was the clothes dryer. Mom thought it was broken and kept trying to get it to work. Then the ovens turned off and the stovetop went to half power. It took them a while to realize it was their Dencor system managing their usage. Eventually, they dug out the instruction booklet and figured out how to override the thing. Fun Times!

 

[Zathras]

I think some companies this can cause a rate increase if they don't like your patterns so definitely check fine print.

I know my friend piloted one many years ago and it kept dinging them for driving 75. That is a normal legal speed limit here in some places.

Was he driving in one of the areas where 75mph is legal?
If so, I’d ask the company about it and/or stop using the system.

On the other hand, if he was driving 75 in a 35mph zone, I’d give him a huge ding ;-)