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.
It occurs to me if all air conditioning was turned off throughout the South, the Yankees would immediately head back north. Maybe this idea has merit.
I would never agree to this as one poster noted, they will make it mandatory. Thanks for the information about the safety of process. Those California brownouts cause all kinds of problems my friend in California tells me.
My old electric Co-Op had a plan like this for the A/C and for the Hot Water Heaters. I had one on the HW heater, but decided that when I wanted to cool off, I really wanted to cool off NOW, not when they would allow me to.
But they didn’t offer me any money for it, it was just one of those nice things people do for each other (Co-Ops are of course “owned” by the consumers who use them, so because we all signed up for this we all had lower utility bills).
I don’t think $20 would be enough to make me do this now either.
I never did HVAC but worked Maint & Engineering in a large facility back in the 80's before going in the service. Working with the HVAC guys I was told that in order to be cost efficient, cooling or heating (Both of which they referred to as Air Conditioning - or conditioning of the air) should never be completely shut down.
Not only does the room need to be cooled or heated, but everything in that room or space has to be cooled or heated to the core. In a home this would be the couch, the carpet, etc. In order to get the room back to consistent temps, it takes much longer.
It made sense to me back then....Maybe some one with HVAC knowledge can chime in.
You are spot on. It is called thermal mass.
I don’t care if they cut mine off for a while during the time I’m at work. I usually turn it up a few degrees before I leave. But I wouldn’t want it off all day, then it really would have to work a lot harder to cool it back off, and be uncomfortable while I’m waiting for it. When I come in on a hot summer day, I want to get cool and dry, asap.
I don’t care if they cut mine off for a while during the time I’m at work. I usually turn it up a few degrees before I leave. But I wouldn’t want it off all day, then it really would have to work a lot harder to cool it back off, and be uncomfortable while I’m waiting for it. When I come in on a hot summer day, I want to get cool and dry, asap.
Yeah, it gets a little chilly in the winter where I live. But on the flip side we rarely use our central air in the summer (last summer it never came on).
Funny - that's what I call my better half :)
Seriously, thanks...I knew there was something there.
Wire cutters are your friend :)
The switches are usually wired with twist on Scotchlok wire splices. No cutting is required. ;0)
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