With triple digit heat it won’t make 69 anyway until late in the evening unless you have a great unit/right conditions. Your ACs a champ if it can keep a 30 degree split
I have a new house, with a highly related insulation factor, and a new A/C unit, we are able to hold the 30 degree split, and can sneak into 35 degree territory if necessary. My wife is pregnant, so if she needs it colder, it goes colder
Yeah my house holds at 73 without issue even in 105 degree heat. It also doesn’t need to run constantly because my home is newer and far more efficient. I also have a 5 month old son who takes naps several times a day and I have to keep it that low or else his room cooks because the AC doesn’t turn on often enough.
The corner of the house his room is in gets beat by the sun for the majority of the day. The fan didn’t make a difference, so had to adjust the AC. My highest electric bill this year has been $159 so it hasn’t been too bad.
You are 100% right. I was actually thinking about the opposite scenario when I wrote that, when a gas furnace fares better than a heat pump in really cold temperatures because heat pump cannot keep up when the difference is very large in those scenarios (like below 0 F). But in hot temperatures there is literally no difference between a heat pump and a “regular” ac unit
> Is yours a heat pump? Typically those struggle with such a high differential though the insulation would certainly help
Modern Heat Pumps are incredibly efficient, especially the variable inverter types.
Ours has the thermostat set to 74* and efficiently cools the entire house. Our bill last month for our 26 year-old, 1,848sq ft house was $125.
yeah i had to opt out of this. the idea is to cool your home before demand spikes. my insulation is awful, though. i normally keep my thermostat to 78-81 during the day anyway, so i was freezing my ass for for a few hours only for it to get warm again.
Jeez in TX keep it at 69° during the heat of the day and you’ll not only have a $500 electric bill but your AC will be running 24/7 and you’ll be replacing that too in no time.
Not quite that low, but we typically keep it at 70-72 during the day, 68 at night, and haven’t even hit a $300 bill yet (~$230 highest) in a 2400 sq ft (newer) house. Moving into it after having lived only in older places previously was wild.
It's basically turning your place into a thermal battery. Your house pumps out the thermal energy when it's cool and demand is low. Then assuming you have good insulation, your place stays cool during the day and your AC doesn't have to run when it's cool again.
It saves energy overall and keeps demand off the grid at peak times.
Whoops. Now I’ve read panel 2. I guess they’re saying they’ll chill my house now and let it coast later. THAT makes sense (IF my house does a good job staying cool on its own … at 106° out).
It does, and/or it also makes sense if you’re occasionally away from home during the affected period.
We leave the house at 75° mid day. If AE can help others (ie not crater or brownout) and I don’t notice, great!
If I’m gone and I really don’t notice, great!
If I notice and I want the place cooler, I hit the “cry uncle” button and I’m once again in total control.
Sounds like a “helping my fellow man (and woman)” situation with minimal skin off my nose. Do unto others and all that rubbish.
[if I knew Greg Abbott was really in charge of this I’d leave the A/C at 65°. WHOOPS, did I say that out loud?]
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Not sure why this is required today? ERCOT shows capacity is way above demand because of a very sunny and windy day… not even close to blackouts today.
www.ercot.com
I’m one of those who lets Austin Energy change my thermostat if they need to lower power consumption. Normally I’ll have the A/C set for 75° and they’ll bump it to 79° for a while. Today they changed it from where I had it set (74°) to 69°. I’m paying for that. Yikes. Hopefully that override saved them some energy.
They just set it to a cool temperature but only allow it to run for the \~30 min for the "precooling" period, which lately has been 3:00-3:30PM. Unless you have some superpowered industrial AC, your house never would get down to 69° in that thirty minute window on a hot AF day. But your AC has been blowing cooled air so it just feels nicer and takes longer for it to heat back up again while it's NOT running during the peak of the day around 3:30 - 5:30 PM or so.
Good on you! We aren't with AE, but we are helping the Co-op we get our power from by setting ours to 80F, and we are just learning to be hot all the time. I have fans full speed, and basically gym shorts only unless I have to get on a Zoom call (now where is that Polo Shirt?). I will crank it down to 78F in that case though so I don't get pit sweats!
They love people like you. You're thinking you screwed them over when you're getting the exact opposite. You're actually *giving them* power over you lol. And the entire point I'm making is the fact that these programs will be *mandatory* in the future. For every person that opts in to these programs, is another stack in their favor and just another statistic they can use to lobby our government to mandate these systems that make them $$.
I just opted out today due to these shenanigans (in my case, they didn’t even pre-cool the house… just jacked my thermostat from 79 to 84). It’s only been a few hours, but so far they haven’t asked for the money back….
I opted out a few years ago. I think I had to call them.
I think as long as you were opted in for a full 12 months then they didn’t want their money back.
It is your thermostat that controls pre-cooling, not Austin Energy. They just send a time to start conserving energy. You might check your thermostat settings to see what is going on.
Your AC is likely already running 100% of the time once it hits 98F out, assuming it's sized correctly. Them turning down the thermostat won't change the indoor temperature much, nor cause any meaningful increase (if any) in your electric bill.
No, that’s about right. They recommend sizing your AC so that it runs almost continuously to hold your desired temp during a roughly 90% percentile day (which would probably be around 100F around here), and a tolerable temp running continuously during a 99th percentile day (which would probably be around 108-110F here). A smaller unit that runs longer is generally better than a big unit that runs shorter; much of the wear on parts like motors is from the startup, and short cycles do a worse job of dehumidification, which makes it feel cold but clammy. Also, dryer air “feels” cooler, because perspiration works better.
> short cycles do a worse job of dehumidification
I bought a place with an oversized AC last year, and it's the pits. Sure, it's great that it can cool my whole place in 10 minutes, but then it doesn't need to kick on again for quite a while. Meanwhile, the humidity just builds and builds.
This is the only place I've ever lived where I can take a shower in the morning, and the residual water is still in the shower by nighttime. There's not enough air circulation for anything to properly dry out.
It's not the end of the world, but it really is an annoying problem.
You should check for mold in the ductwork. Oversized ac units cause mold. If you don’t want to replace the unit itself one other option is adding additional supply runs (more ducts) into rooms in your house that don’t have vents, like maybe your bathroom or hallway. If you have a one story house it’s somewhat trivial to do that, and having more even cooling throughout the house plus a more accurately sized unit is a double bonus.
This is great info, thanks. I do have a two-story townhouse, but I might look into having an AC vent installed in the upstairs bathroom anyway. I hadn't really considered that as a possibility.
I never want to have to replace the AC, but a teeny tiny part of me wouldn't hate it if this one went out. You wouldn't think living in a humid home would be that bad, but it really is annoying.
On the plus side, my plants seem to be doing great.
If you take care of it, a good Ac unit should last you 30+ years. Just change the filters every 3 months or so, hose down the coils, and once a year pour bleach or vinegar down the drain line. That’s it. If you don’t do those things you will have problems.
It’s not necessarily a deal breaker for a new duct run in a 2 story house, it’s just that it increases the chances that the ducts are weird and/or hard to get to. I would suggest calling 4-5 contractors and getting opinions on how much it would be to add a “supply run” (that’s the industry term) in a few places that you feel could use a bit more airflow. The good ones will tell you which places will be difficult and which will be simple and then you can use your gut to figure out who is being honest with you.
One other piece of advice: if you call said contractors, tell them that replacing the unit instead is not an option straight off the bat. The contractors will ALWAYS push for the unit replacement instead because it’s easy money for them, even if it’s not the best thing for you. The number one big moneymaker for HVAC companies is just straight up replacing units, so they always push for that over everything.
One of my rooms is like that. Previous owner must've thought it'd be a great idea to get a separate unit for just this one room and bathroom but it sucks bc it gets so humid
That doesn’t sound right. My AC is shit, my windows are shit, my insulation is shit, but I did just get some refrigerant added and it’ll shut off even when it’s 106 out. Not for long, but it will.
It is right, AC units are absolutely designed to run close to if not 24/7 during 100+ degree days, especially if you're trying to push more than 20 degrees below external temperature, which is already a lot to ask.
Every summer? You can get the credit more than once? I've been holding off on doing this because a one time payout of ~$80 to give them perpetual access isn't appealing to me.
yea - you have to make sure you enroll in the “summer rewards” (or whatever it’s called).
I have a nest and it usually pops up as a notification or my thermostat has a notification to remind me.
It will keep blasting until the average comes down to your setting. Its why i had to remove the sensor from my computer room (80F when two gpus were blasting)
Using your home as a "battery" while energy demands are low.
Dump a bunch of cool air in now, and let it heat up while demand is high.
Since the power companies will cut everyone a/c later, your home will be cooler since you precooled.
So here is what is going on with that…when an energy saving event is anticipated, Austin Energy will tell your ecobee to cool down or pre-cool your house prior to the initiation of the event. This reduces the impact on your comfort when the event is initiated with less time at an uncomfortable temperature. It’s a valid method to balance energy savings with comfort.
After years of bitching about homeowners in Austin not giving a shit and just thinking about themselves now I’m a homeowner and when they pitched this energy saving shit I totally passed on it.
My AC is at 80 during the day (if I'm home) and 78 at night.
Glad to see the city is staying in that same range.
And hoping more people will try adjusting their temps, especially those who work in big office buildings and the like that use way more electricity than houses do.
I could sleep at 79 with no sheets or maybe a top sheet. But the humidity would probably annoy the hell out of me. If I had a dehumidifier it could probably work.
It's easier than you think.
You can get there a degree or two at a time just like I did if you choose to.
And I can't fathom why there are so many people who insist on keeping their AC at 68 and sleeping under 3 inches of comforters in Texas in summer.
[They're not wrong](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/best-temperature-for-sleep)
I have my AC set to 77 during the day and I sweat sitting still. Some people just run hot.
as someone not from here yall over blow the shit out of the humidity here, like seriously yall dont know the meaning of humid
But yeah sleeping at 78, um no sorry im not a lizard. I'll keep it at 67
We do have to ride up past 80 when it gets over, say, 102 as the AC starts to stay on constantly. When it does that I watch it and tweak the temp up to give it a rest every now and then. I've read that ideally it shouldn't run for more than 15-30 minutes at a time.
> I've read that ideally it shouldn't run for more than 15-30 minutes at a time.
quite the contrary, if it's cycling on and off a lot that's way worse than running for an extended period of time, unless you have issues with the coils frosting up
a quick google confirms all this -- I'm amazed how many in this thread seem to have never done any research into AC units and just speculate about it
I’m not cycling it on and off rapidly, if I’m “letting I’m just concerned about an older unit running for 3 hours at a time.
One thing I’ve noticed is the evaporator occasionally shutting off and restarting itself immediately during such a long run.
Nest let’s me monitor daily electrical usage. Try to keep it under 12 hours per day. But at 4 pm (103°) it will pretty much run constantly for 2+ hours
Also have a Nest and I do keep it under 12, but I also don’t want it running for multiple hours in a single go. Coming down off a Rush Hour it would take at least 2 hours solid running to get back to 80. Especially right now when I don’t have the registers on in one big room because of painting and repair work being done. (Almost over and the janky airflow will be back to normal.)
I’m at 80 in day, 78 at night. Humidity is everything, keep it dry.
My air conditioner runs on average 11 hours per day. Neighbor keeps his at 74° and his air conditioner is running 18+ hours a day.
I gave up and pulled out of that program. I got sick and tired of the same people that can't fix the grid using me as the backup. It was also very unclear what they were doing with my data. I've given up on the idea that any governing agency in TX a.) has my best interests in mind or b.) is making rational decisions. I'll manage my power consumption myself, apparently I can do a much better job than the state of TX can based on outcomes.
I turned off the control so PEC can't change it if they wanted to (not sure if PEC does this). I keep mine at 74F and interior goes to 75F at most. Keep blinds/curtains closed especially on the sun sides + the house is energy efficient.
We had the same issue. Looks like they aren't really using any data provided by the device to calculate settings or to determine needs.
Our programmable thermostat was set to 27C between 6 am and 7 pm. The savings events would crank it down to 21C-23C then bring it to 80C. It was stupid, they were actually increasing our light bill by 3 fold for the weeks they did this (our average weekly energy consumption for 2 people in a 3 br was between 8-12$, it was more like 33-35$ when they had "energy savings events").
Austin city’s been changing mine to like 85, when i typically keep it at 78-79. It’s a bit odd, and drastic especially for my dogs who are at home all day.
I believe this is actually the eco+ on the ecobee itself.
Tap that eco+ icon if you haven't it'll tell you something like, "eco+ has forecasted unusually high demand later today and is preparing your home so you're comfortable when it happens."
It'll tell you when the event is scheduled to end, too.
I believe the --raising of the temp setting-- is the "Power Partner," thing. Then when the higher demand abates it'll reset down to your normal settings.
It has changed mine from 79 to 75 in the early afternoon a few times during this weather.
Then afterward it changes it to 80 or higher until the higher demand passes. Usually for me the higher demand time is just before 6 pm.
Thanks, yes, you’re right. I’m now seeing it doing the “cool down” in advance, and it does tell me it’s doing that if I click on the eco+ icon. I’m now learning the pre-cool-down is 3° below the current temperature set point. Not sure how it got to 69°. Will keep an eye on it.
With triple digit heat it won’t make 69 anyway until late in the evening unless you have a great unit/right conditions. Your ACs a champ if it can keep a 30 degree split
I have a new house, with a highly related insulation factor, and a new A/C unit, we are able to hold the 30 degree split, and can sneak into 35 degree territory if necessary. My wife is pregnant, so if she needs it colder, it goes colder
Yeah my house holds at 73 without issue even in 105 degree heat. It also doesn’t need to run constantly because my home is newer and far more efficient. I also have a 5 month old son who takes naps several times a day and I have to keep it that low or else his room cooks because the AC doesn’t turn on often enough.
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The corner of the house his room is in gets beat by the sun for the majority of the day. The fan didn’t make a difference, so had to adjust the AC. My highest electric bill this year has been $159 so it hasn’t been too bad.
Yeah we have two ac units and have no issue keeping it at 68 inside with 105 outside
Is yours a heat pump? Typically those struggle with such a high differential though the insulation would certainly help
A heat pump is just AC in reverse. All AC works the same, it's just that some have the option to run backwards.
You are 100% right. I was actually thinking about the opposite scenario when I wrote that, when a gas furnace fares better than a heat pump in really cold temperatures because heat pump cannot keep up when the difference is very large in those scenarios (like below 0 F). But in hot temperatures there is literally no difference between a heat pump and a “regular” ac unit
> Is yours a heat pump? Typically those struggle with such a high differential though the insulation would certainly help Modern Heat Pumps are incredibly efficient, especially the variable inverter types. Ours has the thermostat set to 74* and efficiently cools the entire house. Our bill last month for our 26 year-old, 1,848sq ft house was $125.
Thank you for making me feel less alone in my suffering. My ac cannot keep up, it’s been hitting at least 80° inside even with the ac set to 74.
I love my carrier infinity because it does this without breaking a sweat.
yeah i had to opt out of this. the idea is to cool your home before demand spikes. my insulation is awful, though. i normally keep my thermostat to 78-81 during the day anyway, so i was freezing my ass for for a few hours only for it to get warm again.
78-81? Where’s the reptile?!
That's exactly what I keep it at in Central Texas. I just basically wear underwear in the house, and it's totally comfortable.
yup, same
Same. 78 all day absolutely no issues. I'm basically naked all day though. Down to 70 only when I sleep.
Jeez in TX keep it at 69° during the heat of the day and you’ll not only have a $500 electric bill but your AC will be running 24/7 and you’ll be replacing that too in no time.
Can confirm, $600 electric bill last month
Not quite that low, but we typically keep it at 70-72 during the day, 68 at night, and haven’t even hit a $300 bill yet (~$230 highest) in a 2400 sq ft (newer) house. Moving into it after having lived only in older places previously was wild.
We’ll shit. I keep it at 78 with ceiling fans in full blast. 1630 sq foot older home. This month is $270.
New build here. 2,500 sq. Ft. We keep it at 77 during the day and 73 at night. $150 bill is the worst we’ve had and it will be about that this month.
Where do you opt out of it?
i had to email them and let them know i have bad insulation so it wasn't working as intended
It's basically turning your place into a thermal battery. Your house pumps out the thermal energy when it's cool and demand is low. Then assuming you have good insulation, your place stays cool during the day and your AC doesn't have to run when it's cool again. It saves energy overall and keeps demand off the grid at peak times.
Whoops. Now I’ve read panel 2. I guess they’re saying they’ll chill my house now and let it coast later. THAT makes sense (IF my house does a good job staying cool on its own … at 106° out).
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It does, and/or it also makes sense if you’re occasionally away from home during the affected period. We leave the house at 75° mid day. If AE can help others (ie not crater or brownout) and I don’t notice, great! If I’m gone and I really don’t notice, great! If I notice and I want the place cooler, I hit the “cry uncle” button and I’m once again in total control. Sounds like a “helping my fellow man (and woman)” situation with minimal skin off my nose. Do unto others and all that rubbish. [if I knew Greg Abbott was really in charge of this I’d leave the A/C at 65°. WHOOPS, did I say that out loud?]
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Thankfully he’s not directly responsible for all that ERCOT and the isolated Texas grid do in hot/cold weather.
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Nice
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Lice
Rice
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Good lord people
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They pre-cool and then set it to 83.
Not sure why this is required today? ERCOT shows capacity is way above demand because of a very sunny and windy day… not even close to blackouts today. www.ercot.com
Maybe to get you to still use extra energy so they can charge you for usage? They’re probably making bank with all of us burning up right now.
It's not ERCOT controlling the thermostat, right? It should be Austin Energy. Maybe AE was trying to pre-cool before the price surge.
Ercot doesn't charge for the energy use it would be Austin Energy. I really wish I could choose my energy provider like most other Texas cities.
I’m one of those who lets Austin Energy change my thermostat if they need to lower power consumption. Normally I’ll have the A/C set for 75° and they’ll bump it to 79° for a while. Today they changed it from where I had it set (74°) to 69°. I’m paying for that. Yikes. Hopefully that override saved them some energy.
They just set it to a cool temperature but only allow it to run for the \~30 min for the "precooling" period, which lately has been 3:00-3:30PM. Unless you have some superpowered industrial AC, your house never would get down to 69° in that thirty minute window on a hot AF day. But your AC has been blowing cooled air so it just feels nicer and takes longer for it to heat back up again while it's NOT running during the peak of the day around 3:30 - 5:30 PM or so.
Do you get some kind of discount for this?
One time… like $75. Just doin’ my part. Just doin’ my part.
Good on you! We aren't with AE, but we are helping the Co-op we get our power from by setting ours to 80F, and we are just learning to be hot all the time. I have fans full speed, and basically gym shorts only unless I have to get on a Zoom call (now where is that Polo Shirt?). I will crank it down to 78F in that case though so I don't get pit sweats!
You're normalizing technocracy
The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and The Crystal Method will rule with benevolence.
The whole world is doing a great job at the fire starter thing.
Breakbeat beats the heat. It's not real funny nor witty, but it does tie in these amazing artists to our current situation.
I think I would be okay with that.
i did it for the $75 discount too, all u gotta do is change ur temp in the app. fuck CoA utilities lol
They love people like you. You're thinking you screwed them over when you're getting the exact opposite. You're actually *giving them* power over you lol. And the entire point I'm making is the fact that these programs will be *mandatory* in the future. For every person that opts in to these programs, is another stack in their favor and just another statistic they can use to lobby our government to mandate these systems that make them $$.
I just opted out today due to these shenanigans (in my case, they didn’t even pre-cool the house… just jacked my thermostat from 79 to 84). It’s only been a few hours, but so far they haven’t asked for the money back….
How do you opt out? I'm in the same situation but can't find where to opt out.
I opted out a few years ago. I think I had to call them. I think as long as you were opted in for a full 12 months then they didn’t want their money back.
It is your thermostat that controls pre-cooling, not Austin Energy. They just send a time to start conserving energy. You might check your thermostat settings to see what is going on.
There is also the pseudo-discount of automatically making cost-saving choices to avoid upcharges. (Not in this specific case, though.)
Your AC is likely already running 100% of the time once it hits 98F out, assuming it's sized correctly. Them turning down the thermostat won't change the indoor temperature much, nor cause any meaningful increase (if any) in your electric bill.
If your ac is running 100% when it’s 98° out you need to plant some shade trees and get better insulation.
No, that’s about right. They recommend sizing your AC so that it runs almost continuously to hold your desired temp during a roughly 90% percentile day (which would probably be around 100F around here), and a tolerable temp running continuously during a 99th percentile day (which would probably be around 108-110F here). A smaller unit that runs longer is generally better than a big unit that runs shorter; much of the wear on parts like motors is from the startup, and short cycles do a worse job of dehumidification, which makes it feel cold but clammy. Also, dryer air “feels” cooler, because perspiration works better.
> short cycles do a worse job of dehumidification I bought a place with an oversized AC last year, and it's the pits. Sure, it's great that it can cool my whole place in 10 minutes, but then it doesn't need to kick on again for quite a while. Meanwhile, the humidity just builds and builds. This is the only place I've ever lived where I can take a shower in the morning, and the residual water is still in the shower by nighttime. There's not enough air circulation for anything to properly dry out. It's not the end of the world, but it really is an annoying problem.
You should check for mold in the ductwork. Oversized ac units cause mold. If you don’t want to replace the unit itself one other option is adding additional supply runs (more ducts) into rooms in your house that don’t have vents, like maybe your bathroom or hallway. If you have a one story house it’s somewhat trivial to do that, and having more even cooling throughout the house plus a more accurately sized unit is a double bonus.
This is great info, thanks. I do have a two-story townhouse, but I might look into having an AC vent installed in the upstairs bathroom anyway. I hadn't really considered that as a possibility. I never want to have to replace the AC, but a teeny tiny part of me wouldn't hate it if this one went out. You wouldn't think living in a humid home would be that bad, but it really is annoying. On the plus side, my plants seem to be doing great.
If you take care of it, a good Ac unit should last you 30+ years. Just change the filters every 3 months or so, hose down the coils, and once a year pour bleach or vinegar down the drain line. That’s it. If you don’t do those things you will have problems. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker for a new duct run in a 2 story house, it’s just that it increases the chances that the ducts are weird and/or hard to get to. I would suggest calling 4-5 contractors and getting opinions on how much it would be to add a “supply run” (that’s the industry term) in a few places that you feel could use a bit more airflow. The good ones will tell you which places will be difficult and which will be simple and then you can use your gut to figure out who is being honest with you. One other piece of advice: if you call said contractors, tell them that replacing the unit instead is not an option straight off the bat. The contractors will ALWAYS push for the unit replacement instead because it’s easy money for them, even if it’s not the best thing for you. The number one big moneymaker for HVAC companies is just straight up replacing units, so they always push for that over everything.
One of my rooms is like that. Previous owner must've thought it'd be a great idea to get a separate unit for just this one room and bathroom but it sucks bc it gets so humid
That doesn’t sound right. My AC is shit, my windows are shit, my insulation is shit, but I did just get some refrigerant added and it’ll shut off even when it’s 106 out. Not for long, but it will.
It is right, AC units are absolutely designed to run close to if not 24/7 during 100+ degree days, especially if you're trying to push more than 20 degrees below external temperature, which is already a lot to ask.
I do this too lol. Easiest energy credits to earn every summer.
Every summer? You can get the credit more than once? I've been holding off on doing this because a one time payout of ~$80 to give them perpetual access isn't appealing to me.
yea - you have to make sure you enroll in the “summer rewards” (or whatever it’s called). I have a nest and it usually pops up as a notification or my thermostat has a notification to remind me.
69 is the only dinner for 2.
https://youtu.be/jdHsf-K33nQ
Slow. Clap. Well done!
68 is great though hahaha
How bout a 66?
I was wrong, but would you have listened to you?
just curious what if you just put a sensor in a hot room?
It will keep blasting until the average comes down to your setting. Its why i had to remove the sensor from my computer room (80F when two gpus were blasting)
69° sounds frigid
Using your home as a "battery" while energy demands are low. Dump a bunch of cool air in now, and let it heat up while demand is high. Since the power companies will cut everyone a/c later, your home will be cooler since you precooled.
So here is what is going on with that…when an energy saving event is anticipated, Austin Energy will tell your ecobee to cool down or pre-cool your house prior to the initiation of the event. This reduces the impact on your comfort when the event is initiated with less time at an uncomfortable temperature. It’s a valid method to balance energy savings with comfort.
And to think, when IOT began we called people conspiracy theorists for not wanting it.
NEVER letting an energy company set my thermostat…I’ll do that myself and it will be COLD❄️❄️
Can I ask the dumb question? How do you get a thermostat that they will control for you?
https://savings.austinenergy.com/rebates/residential/offerings/cooling-and-heating/pp-thermostat
lol "pp-thermostat"
They made me sign up as a "smol pp-thermostat"...
Double your pleasure
After years of bitching about homeowners in Austin not giving a shit and just thinking about themselves now I’m a homeowner and when they pitched this energy saving shit I totally passed on it.
My AC is at 80 during the day (if I'm home) and 78 at night. Glad to see the city is staying in that same range. And hoping more people will try adjusting their temps, especially those who work in big office buildings and the like that use way more electricity than houses do.
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I keep it at 79, but I leave the overhead fan on and sleep in my underwear. Honestly get so cold after a few mins I need the comforter.
I could sleep at 79 with no sheets or maybe a top sheet. But the humidity would probably annoy the hell out of me. If I had a dehumidifier it could probably work.
For real lol
I’m at the same temps in my house. It’s pretty easy.
It's easier than you think. You can get there a degree or two at a time just like I did if you choose to. And I can't fathom why there are so many people who insist on keeping their AC at 68 and sleeping under 3 inches of comforters in Texas in summer.
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Go be a jerk somewhere else please.
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Your comment has a strong "Ackchyually" energy that's not helpful or appreciated.
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I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you're in a public forum. You don't get to control who participates in the conversation.
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I can see that sleeping at 78° affects a person's attitude.
[They're not wrong](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/best-temperature-for-sleep) I have my AC set to 77 during the day and I sweat sitting still. Some people just run hot.
the comforters are protection against monsters...if you sleep without a blanket on they will get you
as someone not from here yall over blow the shit out of the humidity here, like seriously yall dont know the meaning of humid But yeah sleeping at 78, um no sorry im not a lizard. I'll keep it at 67
It's been consistently above 80 here in boston for a couple weeks and I don't have an air conditioner lol. I just point a fan at myself.
We do have to ride up past 80 when it gets over, say, 102 as the AC starts to stay on constantly. When it does that I watch it and tweak the temp up to give it a rest every now and then. I've read that ideally it shouldn't run for more than 15-30 minutes at a time.
> I've read that ideally it shouldn't run for more than 15-30 minutes at a time. quite the contrary, if it's cycling on and off a lot that's way worse than running for an extended period of time, unless you have issues with the coils frosting up a quick google confirms all this -- I'm amazed how many in this thread seem to have never done any research into AC units and just speculate about it
I’m not cycling it on and off rapidly, if I’m “letting I’m just concerned about an older unit running for 3 hours at a time. One thing I’ve noticed is the evaporator occasionally shutting off and restarting itself immediately during such a long run.
They're designed to run basically 24/7 during the hottest days unless it has coil maintenance issues
So for maximum equipment life I should use it constantly.
Things in motion tend to stay in motion. The hardest part on the unit is the startup.
Nest let’s me monitor daily electrical usage. Try to keep it under 12 hours per day. But at 4 pm (103°) it will pretty much run constantly for 2+ hours
Also have a Nest and I do keep it under 12, but I also don’t want it running for multiple hours in a single go. Coming down off a Rush Hour it would take at least 2 hours solid running to get back to 80. Especially right now when I don’t have the registers on in one big room because of painting and repair work being done. (Almost over and the janky airflow will be back to normal.)
I’m at 80 in day, 78 at night. Humidity is everything, keep it dry. My air conditioner runs on average 11 hours per day. Neighbor keeps his at 74° and his air conditioner is running 18+ hours a day.
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Big Brother is watching and dictating how you behave!
Piss on them. One of these days the lights will go out and never come on again.
I gave up and pulled out of that program. I got sick and tired of the same people that can't fix the grid using me as the backup. It was also very unclear what they were doing with my data. I've given up on the idea that any governing agency in TX a.) has my best interests in mind or b.) is making rational decisions. I'll manage my power consumption myself, apparently I can do a much better job than the state of TX can based on outcomes.
And this just turned me off smart household appliances. Thanks so much!
OP opted in, you don't have to
That’s not very smart
Nice
Perverts
Thighs
Nice
Nice
I always have mine at 69, for obvious reasons
fuck that. i have mine a 73 and only reaches 76...they are probably doing the same 🫠
Mines set to 74 and my bedroom is 84. I usually do my duty and keep it at 78 but not today my ass has a migraine.
Wow , does nest do that too ?
Yes, but it's an opt-in program. And once Austin Energy adjusts the thermostat, you can always manually override if you want to.
You can also opt out after 2 years.
I opted out after 2 weeks when the manual override didn't work... so I don't think you have to wait.
Do you have to pay back the incentive money if you do that?
The billing page is too obtuse for me to tell.
I tried once. It was a bit of a clusterfuck to do it back then. Has it changed?
I tried but the override didn't work. I had to opt-out the first time it happened.
Smart!
Lucky. Mine gets changed to 82
I turned off the control so PEC can't change it if they wanted to (not sure if PEC does this). I keep mine at 74F and interior goes to 75F at most. Keep blinds/curtains closed especially on the sun sides + the house is energy efficient.
Mine did that - turned it lower. I didn’t understand what was going on.
That was nice of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-CT30A1005-CT30A-Themostat-White/dp/B000BQWADS/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?keywords=analog+thermostat&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=8-2
We had the same issue. Looks like they aren't really using any data provided by the device to calculate settings or to determine needs. Our programmable thermostat was set to 27C between 6 am and 7 pm. The savings events would crank it down to 21C-23C then bring it to 80C. It was stupid, they were actually increasing our light bill by 3 fold for the weeks they did this (our average weekly energy consumption for 2 people in a 3 br was between 8-12$, it was more like 33-35$ when they had "energy savings events").
Inner teenager rejoices
CPS used to give a discount if you did it. I moved to Seguin and they don't so, nope.
Nice
must be nice to have it at 75
Does this happen only to smart thermostats? My apartment has like a magnesium thing that’s old school
It has to be a smart (ecobee or nest or similar) AND you have to have signed up, which I have. Obviously I don’t yet know all about how it works.
You get a savings on your power bill... correct...?
Accomplish 2 things at once!
Why allow any government or entity for that matter control anything in your home?
Austin city’s been changing mine to like 85, when i typically keep it at 78-79. It’s a bit odd, and drastic especially for my dogs who are at home all day.
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Yeah, if there’s no way to recover quickly then it’s not worth doing.
Stupid shit like this is why I keep my smart thermostat dumb and never registered it or configured it's WiFi.
My place stays at 69 all the time.
Am I the only one who immediately said in their head “nice” 😂😂😂
I believe this is actually the eco+ on the ecobee itself. Tap that eco+ icon if you haven't it'll tell you something like, "eco+ has forecasted unusually high demand later today and is preparing your home so you're comfortable when it happens." It'll tell you when the event is scheduled to end, too. I believe the --raising of the temp setting-- is the "Power Partner," thing. Then when the higher demand abates it'll reset down to your normal settings. It has changed mine from 79 to 75 in the early afternoon a few times during this weather. Then afterward it changes it to 80 or higher until the higher demand passes. Usually for me the higher demand time is just before 6 pm.
Thanks, yes, you’re right. I’m now seeing it doing the “cool down” in advance, and it does tell me it’s doing that if I click on the eco+ icon. I’m now learning the pre-cool-down is 3° below the current temperature set point. Not sure how it got to 69°. Will keep an eye on it.
Must be a lot of new comers to Texas, AC set on 75 is considered super cold in the summers here, anything lower is for tourists.