No, this is not Big Brother. Credit: Jim GunshinanThe answer to the question, Who controls your thermostat?, which I raised in an earlier post, is now clearly answered. You control your thermostat!
The California Energy Commission (CEC) was to require, as part of the 2008 Title 24 building standards, that all new homes be outfitted with programmable communicating thermostats (PCT). The PCTs would allow a utility to remotely control your thermostat during power emergencies, especially during hot summer days when air conditioning use causes electricity demand to peak. By cutting peak electricity demand in this way, California could potentially avoid rolling blackouts and even eliminate the need for building expensive new "peaker" power plants, or firing up old, dirty plants just to meet an afternoon's demand for electricity. But after a chorus of criticism from individuals and groups around the state, CEC has dropped the rule from the standards.
From the CEC Web site:
"There has been considerable discussion concerning programmable communicating thermostats (PCT) and their proposed inclusion in the regulations for the 2008 building standards. On January 15, 2008, the Energy Commission's Efficiency Committee (Commissioner Rosenfeld and Chairman Pfannenstiel) directed that PCTs be removed from the proposed 2008 energy efficiency building standards."
News of Home Energy's and my support in particular for PCTs made it's way into some online discussion boards and we felt the backlash. I've never been called a fascist before! I mistakenly believed that under the new rule, a utility would not be able to fiddle with your thermostat without your permission, even in an emergency. But if I looked carefully at the proposed standard, I would have read, "The PCT shall not allow customer changes to thermostat settings during emergency events." I was wrong.
