3 ms·
Do any of the smart thermostats have this function (tying in with rates?)
by michaelbuckbee 7y ago
Do any of the smart thermostats have this function (tying in with rates?)
- abootstrapper 7y agoYes they do. Austin Energy has the Rush Hour rebate program that precools your house before peak demand. It’s compatible with several programmable thermostats. It’s an opt-in program and you can override your thermostat if you want. Austin’s rates don’t change with demand, but they are tiered and increase the more electricity you use per month.
- ceejayoz 7y agoMy Nest is signed up with my local power provider. In the summer, they turn up my temp a couple degrees from 2-6pm a couple times a month. There's a pre-cool from 1-2 where they drop the temp, and if I leave it alone for the entire four hours, I get $5 off my power bill that month.
- mjn 7y agoMy parents (who live in Texas) get a rebate like this from their electricity company, which surprised me by even having an option to do it manually without a Nest-style internet-connected thermostat. If it's a day that the company wants reduced peak usage, they text+email you that you can get a rebate if you reduce usage during a certain set of hours. They judge whether you did or not by measuring your usage during those hours against your historical usage on similar-temperature days, so you can get the credit just by turning up your thermostat manually for a few hours. (This does require a new-style meter that reports hourly usage.)