Energy Saver Switch?

[kcrossley]

What is the consensus on Energy Saver Switches?

These are Electric Utility Company installed devices that are attached to heat pumps and enables them to cycle on/off your system during periods of peak summer use. They claim this helps them manage usage, saves energy, is completely transparent, and will not damage your equipment. If you allow them to attach this device to your heat pump they'll credit you $10 per month (x 4) during the summer months. Is this good, bad, doesn't matter?

[Edited by kcrossley on 01-29-2005 at 12:22 AM]

[Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]

There were so many complaints about them in Raleigh, NC that they discontinued their use.

[sarge]

You probably won't even notice the switch or load shedding device is on your system, but if you notice it is not cooling one day and you call the hvac company out and they find that the switch was off when you called and on when they got there, how much should they charge you for a service call?

Other than that, the controller is probabaly a pretty good idea.

[jt47]

The "radio controlled" switch is used to turn power off in
times of high or peak demands...when its real hot outside!
They get control of your cooling & maybe electric water heater. Like Sarge said , they won't pay for that service
call....nor will warranty cover it.
The answer= more power plants & upgraded power delivery.
"The switch" is like turning the engine off in your car & coasting awhile.. when your GOING UPHILL. It's when you need it the most.
We can't build more power plants lest we mess up a spotted owl or something!!

[billva]

i had spotted owl for dinner last night.

tastes like chicken.

[tlcartman]

Originally posted by billva
i had spotted owl for dinner last night.

tastes like chicken.

they are very good roasted with an orange glaze.

[billygoat22]

My tstat has two manual energy saver switches- "^" and "off".

I've heard that insulation is one of the cheapest home upgrades and has the shortest payback. The power co switches don't really "save" energy, they just postphone consumption to a later time of day.

[golan37]

Haven't had any trouble with those switches in my area, only one utility here installs them. To my knowledge they haven't used them since they started the program. We had a summer a few years back where they almost had to start shutting off power to sections of town in a revolving sequence to meet demand, these switches were their fix for that, rather than just shut-off all power to sections of the city they could just kill everyones A/C.

Like previously mentioned the real fix is to build more power plants and update the distribution system. Unfortunately, too many tree huggers have convinced the government that we can do the same thing with conservation and higher SEER equipment alone. So now the power companies need to be able to kill our comfort whenever they feel the need to do so.