Who Will Control Your Thermostat?

The American Thinker ^ | January 04, 2008 | Joseph Somsel

[Leisler]

"There is nothing wrong with your thermostat. Do not attempt to adjust the temperature. We are controlling your power consumption. If we wish to make it hotter, we will turn off your air conditioner. If we wish to make it cooler, we will turn off your heater. For the next millennium, sit quietly and we will control your home temperature. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your thermostat. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... SACRAMENTO!"*

Building codes and engineering standards are generally good things. Updating and improving codes and standards better protect us against earthquakes, for example, as we better understand the weak points and failure modes of existing construction techniques. Requirements that ensure proper handling of sanitary wastes can be largely credited with the increased life spans in industrialized countries through the reduction of communicable diseases.

In California, we have 236 pages of state-mandated standards for building energy efficiency, known as Title 24. This prescribes methods for calculating the sizes of your home windows, the capacities of your air conditioner and heater, the thickness of the insulation in your attic. A small cottage industry has sprung up to perform these engineering calculations that are required for any new commercial or residential construction or major change to existing structures. While I've never personally been involved in this branch of retail professional engineering, I've had colleagues who would moonlight doing Title 24 calcs. It is now just part of the mandated paperwork involved in the construction business these days in California.

A new revision to Title 24 is in the works for 2008[2] and it includes a number of improvements and enhancements that are largely good sense items and should be non-controversial. For example a new swimming pool will probably need larger diameter pipes between the pool, the filter and the pump than was former practice. This will reduce the fluid friction losses that your pump must overcome and hence reduce the pump's consumption of electricity, albeit at a minor increase in first cost for the larger pipes and fittings. Another good idea is a requirement for lighter colored shingles, the "Cool Roof Initiative." That is intended to reduce heat loss over cold winter nights by emission and heat gain on summer days by absorption. My neighbor and I both recently discovered that it is difficult to get roofers to NOT use dark colored shingles for some reason. Having a little state muscle behind us will help, especially for renters.

What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During "price events" those changes are limited to +/- four degrees F and you would be able to manually override the changes. During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.

In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control. Your desires and needs can and will be overridden by the state of California through its public and private utility organizations. All this is for the common good, of course.

In some technocratic worldview, it does have a justification. California's population growth and its affluence have strained the state's electric and natural gas resources. Famously, rolling blackouts have occurred due to shortages of electrical generation during peak periods. Unbeknownst to most citizens, short supplies of natural gas during cold weather have resulted in curtailments of delivery to industrial and large commercial customers. Those last kilowatts tend to be very expensive kilowatts and tend to drive up the average cost of electricity for all.

But the discomforts of compliance will fall unevenly across the state. Come the next heat wave, the elites might be comfortably lolling in La Jolla's ocean breezes or basking in Berkeley by the Bay, while the Central Valley's poor peons are baking in Bakersfield and frying in Fresno. California's coastal climate, where the elites live, seldom requires air conditioning. I've lived a middle class life style in Mill Valley, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo and now San Jose, and never have I lived in a home with air conditioning. Even in relatively warm San Jose, separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Coast Range, ceiling fans will get a family through the worst.

How will the state ensure compliance and prevent free riders? As above, coastal elites are already free riders as they will see the benefits while paying none of the costs except for the higher first cost of a PCT. For initial construction or home remodeling, it will be one of those items a building inspector will check before signing a certificate of occupancy. Replacing one's mandated PCT with a bootleg unit from Nevada should be within the skill of most homeowners. A low powered FM transmitter might easily be devised to override the broadcast commands for low cost. Even a metal wire shield around your PCT could block its FM reception. Adding a window air conditioner or an electric space heater are other work-arounds as neither have requirements for PCTs - yet. Sweating for the common good is for the chumps.

Another problem is that PCTs will obscure the price signals to power plant developers telling them that it will be profitable to build additional generation. As explained in this article, a deregulated electric market will come to resemble other commodity markets, like pork bellies, where shortages cause high prices that induce new capacity and low (or obscured) prices inhibit investment. When bacon prices are high, farmers arrange dates between their sows and their boars in hopes of future, profitable piglets. When bacon prices are low, farmers are more interested in chastity for their herds. If the state "shaves" peak loads by adjusting your thermostat during "price events," generators will not receive the higher prices. This effect will reinforce electrical shortages much like rent control discourages apartment building.

The real question poised by this invasion of the sanctity of our homes by state power is -- why are we doing this? It seems to me to be the wrong fix for a problem that we don't have to have. The common sense alternative is to build new power plants so that power shortages don't occur. Of course, they can't be coal or nuclear power plants! The coastal elites have their minds set against those undesirables. The state has wasted billions of our dollars on wind generation that hasn't helped to meet peak loads. For natural gas, offshore drilling should be considered. While we have one liquefied natural gas terminal in Mexico supplying us with Indonesian and, in the near future, Russian, LNG, another receiving terminal to be supplied by Australian LNG was rejected by the State Coastal Commission.

While nowhere in the Bill of Rights is there explicitly a right to set one's own thermostat to whatever temperature one desires (and is able to pay for), the new PCT requirement certainly seems to violate the "a man's home is his castle" common law dictum.

Californians have until January 30th to send their opinions and comments on the pending revisions to Title 24 to the California Energy Commission[1]. Legislators too[2].

*With apologies to the creators of the TV science fiction series, "The Outer Limits."

[PeteB570]

I can see the guy never lived in base housing. They do it all the time.

“Cold? Cold? It’s not cold yet. We don’t turn the heat on for base housing for another 2 weeks yet.”

[weegee]

The price doesn’t have to be “right”. You can save money entering into this program if they just increase prices for those who DON’T enter into this program.

[kimmie7]

I read the article to my hubby and these were pretty much the responses we came up with - before reading your post.

The stupid people will be at their mercy, though...

[Bud Krieger]

I guess the state doesn`t know about space heaters and window installed AC units...

[InterceptPoint]

You left out the easiest of all - an FM jammer tuned to your thermostat’s receive frequency. A microwatt should be good enough to jam any transmission from Big Brother. Yet another way for Amazon.com to make money in the future. $5.00 plus shipping for a small FM transmitter that will run off of a watch battery for 10 years.

[weegee]

The dirty little secret is that we are supposed to maintain current level of energy production (no increase) that we’ve had for decade but continue to accept millions of immigrants (legal and illegal) every year.

The shortage is man-made. And if the consumption falls to low, rates will be raised to make up for the shortfall in revenue.

[Hoffer Rand]

I can see the guy never lived in base housing. They do it all the time.

Oh man, does that bring back memories! A couple years in Germany as a teenager. They never turned on the heat before October 1.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

If the gov isn’t controlling your thermostat now, it wants to. It starts in gov-subsidized housing. Then in public buildings. Then in office buildings. Then in homes with people getting gov assistance. Then they cry “climate disaster” again for a few months and pass another law that gets the gov deeper into our lives.

[Solson]

Just to provide a little reality check to the article intent on scaring everyone away from this program....

One - it will be voluntary and programmable by the customer.

Two - it would only be employed to raise your setpoint, most likely by cycling the compressor in your condensing unit in 15 minute cycles, during EMERGENCY (read brownout or blackout conditions).

Three - it makes sense to reduce your use during times when prices are the highest. The PCT is designed to receive price and reliability signals. Thus, when real time pricing reaches California and the MARKET determines the price of energy, you will ALL be happy to have these in operation.

Four - this allows for very specific geographic load control and reduction of potential demand and constraint issues and helps the overall stability of the grid.

Now, to point you to some REAL information about the program, see below.

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Statewide Demand Response Network Update from California

12.14.07

Rick Boland, CEO and President, e-Radio USA, Inc. Karen Herter, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Heschong Mahone Group, Inc.

Article Viewed 762 Times
18 Comments

California continues to push forward with revisions to its Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards that will mandate a programmable communicating thermostat (PCT) for all new residential buildings. PCT's are thermostats that receive price or electric system reliability signals, and can be programmed by the customer to automatically reduce energy consumption through thermostat set-point adjustments. This initiative will be effective beginning in 2009.

PCTs are part of California’s strategy to develop a statewide demand response system that can be used to encourage a more informed and empowered customer base. In time, such a system is expected to reduce system costs and prevent system disruptions. Other North American states and provinces are closely watching the California Title 24 initiative with interest in adopting similar programs.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has proposed that all PCT’s will contain an embedded one-way FM-RDS radio communications module that can receive and decode messages. This communications system is intended as a low-cost statewide default messaging system that will precede but eventually co-exist with future home automation systems. To encourage interoperability, PCTs are also required to have expansion ports that will allow utilities and other service providers to add communications modules and establish links to other devices. Thermostat manufacturers are currently developing prototype PCT devices based on the California specifications, which include functionality for both pricing and load control programs. These devices may lead to a standardized U.S. or global PCT.

Policy and Regulatory Issues

The California Public Resource Code assigns the CEC with the responsibility of developing and maintaining standards for energy efficiency and load management. PCTs, a proposed addition to the 2008 Title 24 building standards, will enable new buildings with automated load management capabilities. The recently-released Title 24 revision proposal is currently in a 45-day comment period and has final adoption date of January 30, 2008.

The CEC is focusing on air-conditioning (AC) for many reasons. AC load control has long been considered a viable strategy for reducing peak demand because it is large and generally considered to be discretionary. AC is California’s largest peak load, so aggregate load drops can be significant - up to 30% of California peak load. However, since the full AC demand is made up of millions of individual loads, addressability in PCTs would allow for the isolation of very small and geographically focused loads. And for most homes and businesses, an increase of a few degrees would not significantly impact comfort or economics, particularly if it happens only during extreme emergencies (less than once per year).

Expected Benefits of a Statewide System

The development of a low-cost, statewide PCT standard is expected to reduce the costs of future utility programs by integrating support for pricing, efficiency, and demand response programs into a single interoperable and expandable device. PCTs or analogous technologies are envisioned to support dynamic pricing, incentive programs and system reliability. The recently completed California Statewide Pricing Pilot demonstrated the effectiveness of PCTs in achieving these goals. In addition, the PCT can provide a new source of messaging capabilities from utility companies to their customers and another method to communicate during disaster or emergency periods.

Currently, the CEC envisions that the primary function of PCTs is to allow customers to save or earn money by participating in pricing or AC load control programs offered by their service providers. These automated actions can lower everyday peaks and initiate significant demand response when wholesale costs are high, helping to avoid emergencies. Should an emergency occur, the secondary function of a PCT network is to avoid rotating outages by quickly dropping geographically-targeted AC load.

Pricing. Under time-of-use (TOU) rates, customers are provided with incentives to program the PCT to shift load from more expensive to less expensive time periods every day. Under critical-peak pricing (CPP) or real-time pricing (RTP) tariffs, pricing signals sent to the PCT can automatically initiate price-event control strategies as programmed by the customer – or, customers may choose not to respond to price events at all.

Programs. PCTs can also provide customers the option to earn money through voluntary participation in load control and other demand response programs that pay for participation and/or performance. Because control strategies are temperature-based, comfort impacts can be equalized across customers groups. In contrast, AC cycling can unduly affect those with smaller AC units.

Emergencies. During emergencies, PCTs can provide the option for electric service providers to exercise control over air conditioning (AC) loads to create “partial outages” in all non-exempt customer facilities as a last resort to avoid full rotating outages. Partial outages are more economically efficient than full rotating outages because the effects are limited to the reduction of a single discretionary service such as AC, rather than elimination of all services as occurs in rotating outages. Customers will not have the ability to override this type of load control event.

Messaging. Other non-emergency supported messaging programs to the PCT will allow the customer to respond to appeals for conservation and voluntary curtailment activities. The same system could be used for public service or emergency announcements.

How Will The Statewide System Work?

A preliminary operating schematic of a statewide network is provided below:

PCT Design Requirements

California has devoted a sizable effort developing standards for a statewide PCT. A PCT reference design has been established that specifies features and requirements. The statewide PCT will contain typical programmable setback and display features, a non-removable FM-RDS communications module, a 24-volt power supply and the ability to randomize the load rebound to a programmed set-point after an event.

The PCT will also contain a standard expansion port to allow the insertion of a utility-specific communications module to support utility demand response or home automation programs. In addition, the PCT will have addressability features to allow for targeted messaging to the substation level with a goal to address the individual PCT. The RDS communications module must also support encryption standards that are currently being developed to ensure a secure statewide network. Currently, several thermostat manufacturers have developed prototype Title 24 PCT devices.

Advancements in RDS Technology

California carefully considered several technologies for the communications method for a statewide network. A research team at UC Berkeley recommended the use of FM radio Radio Data System (RDS) to the CEC as the best communications solution for the Title 24 statewide network.

RDS leverages an existing FM radio infrastructure and a global communications standard that is widely used in the automotive industry. Other benefits of RDS include wide signal coverage that can effectively reach remote areas, strong building penetration, minimal message latency, addressability and encryption support and the reliability of 24x7x365 availability. RDS bandwidth and hardware costs are also lower as compared to other technologies.

In preparation for the enactment of revisions to the Title 24 standards in California, several technical initiatives and pilot programs are underway:

• Testing and validation of RDS technology under an initiative of the Energy Commission’s PIER program.
• The establishment of a demand response technology demonstration showcase at the California ISO headquarters. A portion of the showcase utilizes RDS to deliver messages to PCTs and other in-home display devices.
• A pilot program with a large California municipal utility to evaluate demand response programs utilizing RDS communications technology beginning in early 2008.
• The development and testing of RDS communications modules for PCT’s with various thermostat manufacturers.

Next Steps

There are several technical and operational issues that need to be addressed before a PCT system can be become operational on a statewide basis:

• Standard messages for activating control must be finalized so manufacturers can design PCT software to ensure a compatible statewide solution.
• Addressability must be compatible with CA ISO and utility control areas.
• Load impacts must be managed at the onset and conclusion of events to ensure a smooth return of AC load to the system.
• The building, testing and certification of a statewide RDS communications network of FM radio stations sufficient to cover at least 90 percent of the population.
• Approval of PCT response as a substitute for rotating outages.
• Determination of an entity to fund and oversee operation of the RDS system.
• Installation and PCT setup procedures for professional installers or the homeowner.

California continues to take steps to mitigate statewide energy crisis conditions it has encountered over the past decade such as sharply rising energy prices and rolling blackouts. A statewide system to communicate with PCT’s is a building block strategy towards creating a more reliable supply of energy and allowing utility company energy efficiency programs to develop and flourish. These programs are also consistent with California’s priorities to be a world leader in energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Link

http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=1622

[MrB]

There are those alternative heat/cooling devices, but this is a foot in the door to control your overall energy consumption.

Of course, you

ABSOLUTELY KNOW THAT THE “ELITES” WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO THESE RESTRICTIONS.

[6SJ7]

Next up; time locks on the refrigerator... for our own protection naturally.

[Hoffer Rand]

Yup. We see the same thing with gas prices and gas useage levels. Supposed to maintain the same levels, yet no mention of housing prices way too high to live close to work, so people move further and further out, to be able to afford a mortgage. Sure, that has no impact at all on gas useage. After all, people should just change jobs to be closer to the location of their house, right? Or they should use public transportation.

Dirty secret with public transportation is they don’t put it in “better” or newly developed areas, so people like me, who WOULD use it, don’t because of prohibitive time issues. My 20-25 minute commute would take over 90 minutes on public transit, and I’d have to change from bus to light rail to bus 3 times each way, AFTER I drive the 7 miles to the park and ride.

[Leisler]

Voluntary, programmable. Eh,yeah. For now.

As you well know, no state had f’d up energy like California. Who knows what a free market would be? California has not built or put online power generation for the reasons of NIMBY and Druids.

The same idiotic building codes that make people live in windowless bunkers, make people not have naturally vented houses.

There is no practical shortage of energy, just various ‘stake holders’ and politics. If you like public housing, schools and cheese, you love this.

[Hoffer Rand]

Yup. We see the same thing with gas prices and gas useage levels. Supposed to maintain the same levels, yet no mention of housing prices way too high to live close to work, so people move further and further out, to be able to afford a mortgage. Sure, that has no impact at all on gas useage. After all, people should just change jobs to be closer to the location of their house, right? Or they should use public transportation.

Dirty secret with public transportation is they don’t put it in “better” areas, so people like me, who WOULD use it, don’t because of prohibitive time issues. My 20-25 minute commute would take over 90 minutes on public transit, and I’d have to change from bus to light rail to bus 3 times each way, AFTER I drive to the park and ride.

[Leisler]

I could possible benefit from that type of state intervention.

[nascarnation]

I’ve had a power company interrupt on my elec water heater and house a/c for at least 10 yrs (rural Indiana) so this is not a new idea. So far it’s basically unnoticeable.

[nomad]

In every central heating/cooling unit I`ve ever seen there are two wires which run to the thermostat from the unit, by-passing these wires effectively by-passes the thermostat. Even better, running an auxiliary set to a second old fashioned analog thermostat will cut them out of the loop all together and they can then pound sand.

[texjan]

My daughter taught in Kiev for a year. On October 15th, the government turned on the heat in her apartment, on april 15th, they turned it off-—regardless of the outside temperature. A relic of communism I guess.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wood? You have got to be kidding me. The powers-that-be here in the SF Bay Area are working feverishly to ban wood on so-called “Spare the Air” days. They will send their troop inspectors out into the neighborhoods and use remote sensors to detect if your chimney is exceeding Ringelman 1 (a measure of opacity caused by smoke). If you are exceeding the limit, you’ll get a ticket.

The first tickets won’t amount to more than a warning, but they rapidly go up to $1,000 for succeeding violations. This will ban wood burning on about 20% of winter days. I’ve got no doubt this is nothing but a prelude to a complete ban on wood heat because, as we all know, envirowackos will NEVER EVER be satisfied with the environment until all humans are exterminated.

[RightWhale]

This is frightening.

Only to Freshmen. We upper class Conspiracy majors know lots of stuff so frightening that Freshmen Conspiracy majors down't even know enough to be scared of it. There are also Grad Students in either the Master of Conspiracy Theory or the Doctoral program right here on FR. Do you keep your cellphone put away in a dark soundproof place or do you let it just sit there with its lens and microphone scanning the room? Hm?