Malcolm Owen
Texas homeowners have discovered their homes are getting warmer despite the use of air conditioning, with the discovery that energy companies are remotely adjusting the thermostat to higher temperatures with minimal warning.
Residents in Houston and surrounding areas have complained that their thermostats have been increasing in temperature, seemingly on their own. Rather than keeping the house cool, the thermostats have been remotely tampered with to operate at a warmer temperature.
In one example aired by WFAA, the English family of Deer Park discovered such a situation on Wednesday. Brandon English returned home that day to discover his wife and daughters had lowered the temperature at 2:30pm, but it had been changed while they had a nap.
The house had risen in temperature to 78 degrees, English said, and that his wife and kids "woke up sweating." He was concerned about his three-month-old daughter potentially dehydrating from the heat in the unbearably hot home.
Later, his wife received an alert advising their thermostat was changed remotely as part of a three-hour "energy-saving event."
It was determined that the family's thermostat was enrolled into a program called "Smart Savers Texas," operated by EnergyHub. As part of an agreement, EnergyHub could remotely control the thermostat during a period of high energy demand, in exchange for entry into sweepstakes.
The changes occur during a period in the summer where homeowners are putting a strain on the power grid to keep their homes cool with air conditioning. On Wednesday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas urged residents to raise their thermostats to reduce the strain on the power grid.
In a statement received by Gizmodo, EnergyHub said "During a demand response event, Smart Savers Texas increases the temperature on participating thermostats by up to four degrees to reduce energy consumption and relieve stress on the grid. Every participant actively agrees to the terms of the program and can opt-out of a demand response event at any time."
EnergyHub says it works with a number of smart thermostat vendors, including some that offer thermostats with HomeKit support. The list includes Ecobee, Honeywell, and Lux, as well as Google's Nest, which pledged support for the Apple-backed smart home protocol Matter in May, meaning HomeKit support for Nest thermostats is in development.
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47 Comments
Not altering their thermostat, they're simply applying an energy saver process that the customer allowed. Just cancel the program, reset your thermostat (was it actually an ecobee or something else?) and make sure only you have access to it. I don't believe ecobee can alter your thermostat without your consent so this isn't a nefarious attack, it's simply a customer not knowing what they signed up for.
As for it being it Texas, that doesn't matter. I've seen these programs in California as well. Both these states are in a heat wave.
I live in MA and have opted into a similar program on my Ecobee Thermostat. On the rare occasion that the increased (or decreased in the winter) temperature adversely affects me, I turn the feature off. Not really a big deal.
I don't get the big story, it was an opt in program for doing SPECIFICALLY that. Not something they didn't know they signed up for. We have a similar program here in Arizona by APS (Cool Rewards). You have to opt in and in return you get a free smart thermostat, a $50 credit for enrolling for each thermostat, and a $25 a year credit for each unit you have (I have a two unit system). You can opt out anytime (of both the program and on a specific day). They also alert you early in the day, and then again right before it goes in effect (at least I do with my Nest). If you do opt out too many times (days), then you won't get offered into the program next year. It is even available for Solar customers (which I am as I bought the Solar unit outright 4 years ago). So while $50 doesn't seem like much, it basically pays for 1/6 of my total APS bill for the year! On those days I usually just plan on going in the pool :). It is also all relative. Typically I have my units set for 78F or so anyway. So 4 degrees is 82F. When it is 115F out (which we just broke a record by having 5 straight days 115F or over) 82F doesn't feel too bad!
So many unanswered questions.
We’re these participants seduced into entering this program by offering them a sweepstake prize or did they enter a sweepstake and the energy control was part of the fine print?
Are thermostats currently under HomeKit allow for third party alteration or are these merely thermostats that could be HomeKit controlled but currently aren’t?
Why does the Ecobee thermostat show it set to 72 degrees when the example home had theirs adjusted to 78 which would exceed the “by up to 4 degrees” limit?
If I set my thermostat to 62, does that mean it would be reset to 66?
Who in the world other than entitled rich people calls 78 degrees unbearably hot?
Why should we care that entitled rich people are sweating?
This scares me. I didn’t know thermostats could be controlled by third-parties. So does everything HomeKit compatible work this way? Geez.
This was Texas. Have you not lived in the south or an area with extreme heat? If your AC turns off and you’re in a far room away from the thermostat you’ll start sweating pretty quickly before the thermostat in the living room catches up to the heat. This problem needs to be solved.