Thanks for a rational explanation in a thread filled with half-baked assumptions, misunderstandings, and deliberate misinformation.
Just like you, we opted in for this years ago as a way of reducing our a/c costs. We are almost never aware of our service being interrupted and our home stays cool. Although our control is via a separate meter that is in communication via a radio signal, I believe that Smart Thermostats are being used in a similar manner for newer enrollees to the program.
I don’t even remember when we replaced the A/C, but it was probably in the mid to late 90s. Despite the hysterical cries that this cycling will ‘kill the compressor’, we’ve neither had this happen nor have had to have the system recharged.
Last year, DTE supplied an energy efficiency kit that supplied us with several useful items, including LED bulbs and a Smart Thermostat. And it works very well, thank you. DTE doesn’t change my settings. I have it set for automatic heating and cooling, a constant 68 for heat, and cooling to 76 (78 at night) in hot weather. It works very well.
When we head up north, I let the house temperature rise to 82/84 for the weekend and I can set it back to 76 from my phone on the way home. No returning to a hot house, and no paying to keep it cool when we’re not there. (We lost our cat last year, so it’s ok to raise the temperature higher when we’re not home…)
I’m as cynical and distrusting as anybody, but the program details are a contract that binds both DTE and us. They have honored the commitment.
Gotta call a spade a spade, here. It’s not a ripoff or a con job.
We have 2 hvac units. One is for quote our entertainment area, maybe a few hours a week. The temp is set by a hand control thermostat and stays at 62 unless we are entertaining. Then, it goes to 70.
For the rest of our life (98%), where we live, eat, sleep, shower and use electronic gear is controlled by a NEST.
The NEST turns off whatever heating/cooling, we need at bedtime and comes on auto if needed at 6 am. We get up at 7 am and go to bed about 9:30 pm.
It also works with my cell phone or my wife’s. We keep it at 62 when we are away and back up 68 about 39 minutes before we come home.
Our PG&E bills are about 50%-60% lower than neighbors with similar homes. We just received our June combo bill, and our gas and electric total was $105. Some neighbors had $600 bills.
One family which runs their system 24/7 had a $1200 bill. Their home is next to ours and faces the same directions, and it is about 500 less square foot than ours.