To get rebates in NS need to put a head per level. Also the systems can typically work a temperature sensor that's not in the unit. It can be in the remote or in a wired thermostat. This avoids the unit shutting off because the ceiling is hot.
Some smart thermostats have links in their apps that search for local incentivized rebate programs. The mechanism of it is likely integration between the power company and the smart mfgr's cloud, especially to prevent blackouts during peak capacity shortfalls.
Edit: I have an ecobee4 (calls it "eco+") but I had a Sensi thermostat on PG&E that called it something else.
Here in Ontario, we used to get ads for these from the power company regularly - at least here, they can modify your thermostat “by a few degrees” at peak load time, and you get a rebate on your bill.
(I don’t have one, and I’ve never really thought about it before, but I suppose you could get one, hook it up to 12V power but not to your air conditioner, then get the rebate on your bill and make the electricity company think they’re controlling your thermostat, when really they’re not doing anything… But you’d still need to let their IoT device on your network, and I assume it’s rubbish.)
They're aware; they're saying that targeted temperature is a simpler control that obviates the need to try to manually tune the fan, used vents and degree of heat.
The silly thing is that I can simply adjust my thermostat to a lower temperature, so that the effective temperature is the same as without this program.
As an example, if I set it to 74, then when Energy Savings kicks in, it may set it to 76, which is too warm for me. So I simply set the "standard" temperature to 72, and it will set it to 74.
I use the same energy as without this program, yet I get my $25 energy savings rebate.
This might be the killer feature I mentioned in a previous post on this article. I own a 120 year old house with odd nooks and crannies and strange airflow. My thermostat knows the temperature in my living room, but not upstairs by my bedroom, which can be 10°F warmer or cooler, and we have to set the downstairs thermostat to odd temperatures at night just to make it remotely comfortable, and it's rarely the same temperature from night to night. That hassle would be worth some amount of money to eliminate. $150? Hell no. $100? Probably not. $60? Sign me up!
This is genius. If they can prove that the thermostat actually results in significant energy savings, there is potential to take advantage of utility sponsored rebates for the device in certain states.
Also, there is the potential to hook this up to the smart grid, allowing utilities to remotely adjust thermostat settings based on the supply/demand balance on the grid. (Utilities would pay for this capability, further offsetting the costs of the device).
What I don't get about signing up to allow your thermostat to be remotely controlled for a discount, is that isn't really easy to circumvent the system? Either the cloud thermostat isn't even connected, or a second thermostat in parallel, or only sign up a thermostat that controls half your load (making the other half work harder), or even just a candle under the thermostat to make it think it's warmer than it is.
Making it do what it's advertised to do would either require fully trusting the hardware (and hardware in this case means the whole hvac system), or monitoring a home's electricity usage and having some after the facto punishment (which will only catch the unsophisticated ways of working around it).
A seemingly common safety is to wire the custom thermostat in parallel with a simple commercial one so that the commercial one kicks in if the temperature gets too low.
My friend has this wonderful home automation set up. When it's in the high 60s and low 70s, his HVAC will shut off. Then actuators on his windows will push them open to let in the cool air. Then when the temperature drops too low, the windows close and the HVAC comes back on.
That was, partially, explained part way through the article:
These sensors make the whole system more accurate and keep things comfortable. That might come at the cost of overheating another area of your home that you’re not in, though. Unless you’ve got smart vents, heating systems are nowhere near precise enough to set different climates for each room.
Automatically turning HVAC systems on and off depending if the place is empty, turning it back on remotely, cycling the fan on and off to circulate air more often, removing excess humidity, using data about sunlight to adjust temps.
There must be energy savings for the utility companies to give them out for free or almost free. Although I prefer the HomeKit thermostats since I presume Apple has better privacy controls.
Nice I've been contemplating doing some home automation for heating, I have a dual fuel forced air furnaces, with only 1 thermostat and a fairly large house. There's a large temperature gradient between the floors, so I was thinking automate booster fans on the lower floor to pull more heat, and or cycle the recirculate fan when the temp gradient is above X.
I read about a program where owners of some Honeywell smart thermostats will be able to authorize their utilities to turn their AC a few degrees warmer during times of unusually high demand, in exchange for some sort of compensation. But this would be voluntary.
If they were pervasive, they could allow institutional users to lower the temperature in their buildings a few degrees. One degree on the thermostat for a large building in New England could equate to a lot of savings in fuel.
Did anyone read the last two paragraphs? Seems the article wasn't quite done being edited:
> Before entering the hot aisle, a technician uses a supply trigger, typically a switch located outside the hot aisle, to activate the SmartAire T units. Cool air then enters the hot aisle until a comfortable temperature is established. SmartAire T units maintain this temperature until the technician completes the assigned work and deactivates the units, eliminating any need for rest periods and increasing productivity.
> Before entering the hot aisle, a technician can use a supply trigger – typically a switch located outside the hot aisle – to activate the SmartAire T units. Cool air then enters the hot aisle until the temperature reaches a comfortable level.
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