Posted on 01/09/2009 4:01:17 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
Alabama Power Co. will give customers a way to save $20 annually by allowing the electric utility to cut off their home air conditioners for brief periods on the hottest weekdays of summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Saves $20.00 annually? No deal.
Not nearly enough to suffer through one nasty, hot, muggy southern afternoon, much less the whole summer of them.
Stupid idea, when it comes back on it will work harder and take longer to recool.
It isn't stupid for the electric company then. :)
With all these people signing up, I imagine the electric company would be making a fair amount of profit out of such a gimmick.
20$??
someone should tell the utilities that we here in the US, sit on the largest natural gas deposit on the planet and we have one of the largest coal deposits in existance....
we next need to start building more nuke plants.
$20 to sweat in the summer? they can have my AC when they pry it from my dead COLD hands....
I would never do this...you could ruin the air conditioner.
A plan similar to this was offered on our utility bill recently. Get a $25 check now and $25 check at the end of the year if we allow our utility company to take control of our A/C during “periods of heavy use”. The pitch was that they’d change the setting a few degrees, “something most people wouldn’t even notice”. HAH - for $50? I think not!
Lok out folks, it may only be a matter of time....
Coming soon..no hot water.
It is also more intrusive into the private doings of your own home. The meters “communicate directly” with the power company meaning there is an overseer who can override the wishes and operations of the homedweller.
I don’t think so and I will fight its installation on my home. Private solar power is looking much more inviting.
I work for a utility in NJ that has been doing this for years-customers volunteer for it. The first time we “cycle” the boxes on the hottest summer days, the customers usually demand its removal.
Load sheading is a good idea. The trade off has to be a lower rate.
Why do you need to heat hot water. Another doofus 'expert.'
Coming soon- USA as a third world country.
Or likely freeze up the coils and run forever without cooling at all.
We had a program in Virginia...Got $4 a month credit. This was in 1990.
It may seem stupid at first blush for the reason you pointed out. But the issue for the utility isn’t total energy sold, it’s the problem of meeting peak demand on a hot afternoon. From about 1990 or so, it’s been cheaper for a lot of utilities to pay you to stop using power during peak demand times than to build the next “peaker” power plant. Used to be called “demand side management”. The biggest successes were with very large commercial buildings and industrial installations. The problem in the residential market is you have to change out everybody’s meter to be able to remotely control your power and that is VERY expensive. You really can’t do this on an honor system basis.
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