Quote:
Originally Posted by mp2526
They have a similar system with Austin Energy. My suggestion is to make sure you know what you are getting into. The friend of mine who has one, says that the electric company kept cycling his AC and for the most part ran it in a way that actually used more electricity and kept his house warmer (I don't remember the specifics, but what he told me made sense). When he called them up to see what the deal was, he was basically told that the usage policy was designed to save the electric company energy and not necessarily the individual user. My guess is it helps the energy company manage peak electricity usage possibly at the expense of some individual users.
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It's very simple. He got a free programmable thermostat that is valued at $79 bucks or so with free installation that would cost $100 bucks and Austin Energy gets to turn his AC off for 10 minutes in the rare event that they are temporarily overloaded. Seems like a fair trade to me given that there are usually less than 12 days per year that they even have to use this feature. Plus, the programmable functionality of the thermostat alone will save him money and makes the deal well worth it and he can also feel good that he is doing his part in helping his entire city save energy and money.