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In Texas, companies give away Nests [0][1] to lure customers, thanks to the deregulated market. Competition is so healthy, they are even trying to capture 'gre

by fsckin 13y ago

In Texas, companies give away Nests [0][1] to lure customers, thanks to the deregulated market. Competition is so healthy, they are even trying to capture 'green' customers who use less. [0] http://www.greenmountain.com/nest http://www.greenmountain.com/nest [1] http://www.reliant.com/nest‎ http://www.reliant.com/nest‎

sliverstorm 13y ago
If I was to guess, I'd say they are most interested in the idea of smoothing demand. The more base load and the less peak load, the more profitable you can be.
- jellicle 13y ago
  If I were to guess, I'd say that buying electricity at 3 cents/kWh and selling it at 12 cents/kWh is profitable enough that you can afford to give away a thermostat to attract new customers. There's a $300 cancellation fee so they'll get their money back if you depart early.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  I suspect there may be a little federal grant money floating around for the Nest thermostats. Some providers are offering free nights, they have so much fluctuation in demand. Having a fairly hot, but not record-setting day today (61,340 MW). http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/loadForecastVsActualCurrentDay.html http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/loadForecastVsActualCu... http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_conditions.html http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_condi... Note: Our peak capacity is ~68,000 MW. There are some peaking-plants that may be brought online if we exceed that, or we'll begin having rolling-blackouts like last summer.
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
Yup. Along those lines. Has anyone had any luck with these incentives and grants for various improvements? http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=TX54F&State=federal&currentpageid=1&ee=1&re=1 http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=...
conductr 13y ago
These companies also charge a higher rate and lock you in to a long term contract. So they are just financing it for you. It probably works out to a crazy interest rate but people love it.
pxlpshr 13y ago
Thanks for pointing this out. Many people think we're a "yeehaw" state, but we have more wind farms than California to the tune of 2x more [1] thanks to oil money. I guess you can say cowboys like their texas tea, lower taxes, and greener pastures. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm
- mjn 13y ago
  Some of it is just having a lot more wind, which sure helps when it comes to wind power. Texas's 50m wind-resources are somewhere around 20x California's [1], mostly because the usable generation area in Texas is across a huge area, while in California it's limited to some areas of the Sierra Nevada [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_generation_potential_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_generation_potential_in_th... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Wind_Potential.gif http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Wind_Potential.gif
- KevinEldon 13y ago
  I think Texas is a great state. I live in Georgia. I travel to Texas a lot. I've visited Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Dallas is fine; although I never really got the feel for it. Austin is awesome. I could visit Austin any time; if I wasn't happy here in Georgia I could easily live in Austin.
  - mjn 13y ago
    Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Now I'm wondering what I missed in Houston. I lived there for years, and graduated from high school there. But what do cowboys have to do with it? My experience of it was that it was just a modern American city like anywhere else, with a heavy focus on sprawling suburbs. I didn't feel there was a lot of uniquely "Texan" culture or anything. Life had little to do with cowboys; it revolved around living in suburban houses that cover literally hundreds of square miles (most of the city), and doing things like studying to get into good colleges and trying to get a decent job. Nobody I knew even spoke with a Texan accent, which was something more associated with West Texas or the Panhandle, places like San Angelo or Lubbock. Now if you had said flying cockroaches, africanized ants, hurricane evacuations, and 6 months of the year where you can't reasonably go outside because it's >90 F and humid as hell, then yes, it's great if you can embrace that part of the lifestyle. ;-) I do like visiting nowadays, but only in December.
bluthru 13y ago
>thanks to the deregulated market A nest could just as easily be mandated like all of the other energy codes we have in a regulated market. Frankly, profiting off of something that society has an interest in NOT consuming (energy) is anti-thetical to conservation.
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  If we're going the route of reducing usage, I'd rather the gov't give a tax credit for reducing energy usage each year. The consumer should decide how that energy is reduced. If they want to use a Nest, great. If they want to manually adjust, fine. Give the consumer incentive to reduce energy usage and then allow them to decide how that's done. If gov't forces a specific thermostat, chances are the process will be corrupt and inefficient.

by fsckin 13y ago

sliverstorm 13y ago

If I was to guess, I'd say they are most interested in the idea of smoothing demand. The more base load and the less peak load, the more profitable you can be.

jellicle 13y ago
If I were to guess, I'd say that buying electricity at 3 cents/kWh and selling it at 12 cents/kWh is profitable enough that you can afford to give away a thermostat to attract new customers. There's a $300 cancellation fee so they'll get their money back if you depart early.
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
I suspect there may be a little federal grant money floating around for the Nest thermostats. Some providers are offering free nights, they have so much fluctuation in demand. Having a fairly hot, but not record-setting day today (61,340 MW). http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/loadForecastVsActualCurrentDay.html http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/loadForecastVsActualCu... http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_conditions.html http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_condi... Note: Our peak capacity is ~68,000 MW. There are some peaking-plants that may be brought online if we exceed that, or we'll begin having rolling-blackouts like last summer.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

Yup. Along those lines. Has anyone had any luck with these incentives and grants for various improvements? http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=TX54F&State=federal&currentpageid=1&ee=1&re=1 http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=...

conductr 13y ago

These companies also charge a higher rate and lock you in to a long term contract. So they are just financing it for you. It probably works out to a crazy interest rate but people love it.

pxlpshr 13y ago

Thanks for pointing this out. Many people think we're a "yeehaw" state, but we have more wind farms than California to the tune of 2x more [1] thanks to oil money. I guess you can say cowboys like their texas tea, lower taxes, and greener pastures. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm

mjn 13y ago
Some of it is just having a lot more wind, which sure helps when it comes to wind power. Texas's 50m wind-resources are somewhere around 20x California's [1], mostly because the usable generation area in Texas is across a huge area, while in California it's limited to some areas of the Sierra Nevada [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_generation_potential_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_generation_potential_in_th... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Wind_Potential.gif http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Wind_Potential.gif
KevinEldon 13y ago
I think Texas is a great state. I live in Georgia. I travel to Texas a lot. I've visited Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Dallas is fine; although I never really got the feel for it. Austin is awesome. I could visit Austin any time; if I wasn't happy here in Georgia I could easily live in Austin.
- mjn 13y ago
  Houston is a decent city once you get to know it and if you can embrace the cowboy-style. Now I'm wondering what I missed in Houston. I lived there for years, and graduated from high school there. But what do cowboys have to do with it? My experience of it was that it was just a modern American city like anywhere else, with a heavy focus on sprawling suburbs. I didn't feel there was a lot of uniquely "Texan" culture or anything. Life had little to do with cowboys; it revolved around living in suburban houses that cover literally hundreds of square miles (most of the city), and doing things like studying to get into good colleges and trying to get a decent job. Nobody I knew even spoke with a Texan accent, which was something more associated with West Texas or the Panhandle, places like San Angelo or Lubbock. Now if you had said flying cockroaches, africanized ants, hurricane evacuations, and 6 months of the year where you can't reasonably go outside because it's >90 F and humid as hell, then yes, it's great if you can embrace that part of the lifestyle. ;-) I do like visiting nowadays, but only in December.

bluthru 13y ago

>thanks to the deregulated market A nest could just as easily be mandated like all of the other energy codes we have in a regulated market. Frankly, profiting off of something that society has an interest in NOT consuming (energy) is anti-thetical to conservation.

MichaelApproved 13y ago
If we're going the route of reducing usage, I'd rather the gov't give a tax credit for reducing energy usage each year. The consumer should decide how that energy is reduced. If they want to use a Nest, great. If they want to manually adjust, fine. Give the consumer incentive to reduce energy usage and then allow them to decide how that's done. If gov't forces a specific thermostat, chances are the process will be corrupt and inefficient.