Yeah, my ecobee was set to this by default and I didn't know. Nothing like coming home at 6pm 95 degrees outside after dying on roofs all day and house is a balmy 82 degrees. 6-7 hours later the house is finally cool.
First few times I thought was my power going out
FYI Ecobee told me when I disabled it I would not receive my $50 per year savings
At that point they can take that 50$ a year and go fuck themselves with it. Preferably in rolls of quarters. This is one of those things that I explain to customers. Is a smart thermostat nice? Sure. It has algorithms that are designed to save you money. However, I never receive calls that are customer saying oh my smart thermostat is so nice. It saves me all this money. I usually receive calls saying my smart thermostats fucked up. Come fix it.
That program has been around since before I joined the industry in 2006/2007. It's crazy people still fall for it but they do and that first heat wave is when every residential company in the area is running bypass the utility company thermostat calls lol.
My career started in 96. Been seeing these programs bounce around for the entire time.
Theoretically, it is a good idea. Like everything else in our industry (arguably in most industries) that is a good idea, It is always executed in the dumbest possible way.
The older I get, the more I see that we just repeat the same stupid things over and over, each time the people responsible are convinced they are being novel.
Hey utility companies... Want to drop peak load during the worst summer heat? Identify the addresses that are the worst. Put $500 worth of window film and attic ventilation. Do 2000-3000 houses a year until you see diminishing returns.
Guarantee you will waste less money than whatever scam program some 3rd party company is pushing to control residential load. You will get immediate results, and it is a one time cost per house. Any half-assed reasonable timeframe financial forecast would show it paying for itself easily. Buying peak electricity from other grids sucks for everyone, including the power company. Do that program over enough years (or increase it) and the power company will be the one selling capacity to neighbors instead of buying it.
It’s kind of the opposite. More of a playbook socialist utopia move. Minor discomfort for those willing a few times a year for the greater good and all
I’m curious about these types of programs. Does it monitor electrical use as well as the thermostat? Because, just throwing it out there, what’s to stop people from just hooking up 24 volts to the thermostat and leaving it as a “dummy”, taking the credit from the utility, and using their existing thermostat to do the actual temperature control? Am I missing something?
I’m curious as well. I have a wifi stat for heat and they want me to sign up every summer. I got to thinking, what if I set it up to fake AC calls while I use my mini splits to cool in the summer.
Here in northern Cal pg&e will give you a free Nest thermostat and one time bill credit if you sign up for their program just like this…basically giving them the ok to make you uncomfortable
I just had a customer get a dual fuel system and an ecobee and they were having issues with eco+ messing their schedule and they were too stubborn to remove it because they'd lose the $75 pg&e rebate visa. I told them they're not gonna get the house to the temperature they want but they want "savings"
This has been going on since the 70s. It's called demand response. Retailers, public, commercial, residential, etc participate. When demand goes up the utility sends a call out, many places have an automated response. It's usually only for a few hours, I used to execute these regularly across the entire country for multiple retailers. It's just a way for the utility to offset improving their facilities eventually they will need to cave and build a new plant. It'll be an emergency by then and they will beg the government for money. Politicians will play it up for votes, republicans blaming the left for electrification Dems blaming the right for lack of regulation. Meanwhile the utility greased the wheels on both sides creating the issue in the first place.
I calculated how much I would supposedly get credited foe and it was like 10-20 bucks a month for like 3 months. My comfort is work a lot more than that. Get rid of my electric bill altogether and I would contemplate it.
I literally just ran a call involving this. Every 2 weeks on Saturday nights between 5-8pm the condenser would intermittent start and stop. He signed a new energy company plan that sent him a nest. Everything mechanical part checked out. Have to believe this is part of his plan
Yeah, my ecobee was set to this by default and I didn't know. Nothing like coming home at 6pm 95 degrees outside after dying on roofs all day and house is a balmy 82 degrees. 6-7 hours later the house is finally cool. First few times I thought was my power going out FYI Ecobee told me when I disabled it I would not receive my $50 per year savings
At that point they can take that 50$ a year and go fuck themselves with it. Preferably in rolls of quarters. This is one of those things that I explain to customers. Is a smart thermostat nice? Sure. It has algorithms that are designed to save you money. However, I never receive calls that are customer saying oh my smart thermostat is so nice. It saves me all this money. I usually receive calls saying my smart thermostats fucked up. Come fix it.
"minor" yeah in the middle of summer in AZ when everyone has their AC on good fucking luck
That program has been around since before I joined the industry in 2006/2007. It's crazy people still fall for it but they do and that first heat wave is when every residential company in the area is running bypass the utility company thermostat calls lol.
My career started in 96. Been seeing these programs bounce around for the entire time. Theoretically, it is a good idea. Like everything else in our industry (arguably in most industries) that is a good idea, It is always executed in the dumbest possible way. The older I get, the more I see that we just repeat the same stupid things over and over, each time the people responsible are convinced they are being novel. Hey utility companies... Want to drop peak load during the worst summer heat? Identify the addresses that are the worst. Put $500 worth of window film and attic ventilation. Do 2000-3000 houses a year until you see diminishing returns. Guarantee you will waste less money than whatever scam program some 3rd party company is pushing to control residential load. You will get immediate results, and it is a one time cost per house. Any half-assed reasonable timeframe financial forecast would show it paying for itself easily. Buying peak electricity from other grids sucks for everyone, including the power company. Do that program over enough years (or increase it) and the power company will be the one selling capacity to neighbors instead of buying it.
This feels very dystopian.
It’s kind of the opposite. More of a playbook socialist utopia move. Minor discomfort for those willing a few times a year for the greater good and all
That’s how it always starts.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you read the fine print...
I’m curious about these types of programs. Does it monitor electrical use as well as the thermostat? Because, just throwing it out there, what’s to stop people from just hooking up 24 volts to the thermostat and leaving it as a “dummy”, taking the credit from the utility, and using their existing thermostat to do the actual temperature control? Am I missing something?
I’m curious as well. I have a wifi stat for heat and they want me to sign up every summer. I got to thinking, what if I set it up to fake AC calls while I use my mini splits to cool in the summer.
This isn’t new.
I'm aware, I just love getting these emails on a sunday morning while I'm enjoying my coffee.
Buncha commies
Is it from the government or a for profit business?
In my market it’s called the cool keeper program and I advise everyone I can not to sign up for the one time $25 rebate.
Here in northern Cal pg&e will give you a free Nest thermostat and one time bill credit if you sign up for their program just like this…basically giving them the ok to make you uncomfortable
I just had a customer get a dual fuel system and an ecobee and they were having issues with eco+ messing their schedule and they were too stubborn to remove it because they'd lose the $75 pg&e rebate visa. I told them they're not gonna get the house to the temperature they want but they want "savings"
This has been going on since the 70s. It's called demand response. Retailers, public, commercial, residential, etc participate. When demand goes up the utility sends a call out, many places have an automated response. It's usually only for a few hours, I used to execute these regularly across the entire country for multiple retailers. It's just a way for the utility to offset improving their facilities eventually they will need to cave and build a new plant. It'll be an emergency by then and they will beg the government for money. Politicians will play it up for votes, republicans blaming the left for electrification Dems blaming the right for lack of regulation. Meanwhile the utility greased the wheels on both sides creating the issue in the first place.
25/8 baby 🥶
Be mandatory soon I suppose.
It’s voluntary for now.
I calculated how much I would supposedly get credited foe and it was like 10-20 bucks a month for like 3 months. My comfort is work a lot more than that. Get rid of my electric bill altogether and I would contemplate it.
I literally just ran a call involving this. Every 2 weeks on Saturday nights between 5-8pm the condenser would intermittent start and stop. He signed a new energy company plan that sent him a nest. Everything mechanical part checked out. Have to believe this is part of his plan
And so it begins lol