BIT-NETRaptor

BIT-NETRaptor t1_j60hl47 wrote

Reply to comment by TransportationEng in Appliance makers sad that 50% of customers won’t connect smart appliances by HushedShadow

I mean in the sense that your state government has no ability to do so unless you connect your google/Honeywell/whatever account to their service. It’s not the smart appliance company turning your dial down, it’s your state government being essentially added as an authorized user to your smart appliance. Adding such access is an extra step you are under no obligation to take.

I totally understand not trusting your state government :)

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BIT-NETRaptor t1_j5ziuvd wrote

Reply to comment by TransportationEng in Appliance makers sad that 50% of customers won’t connect smart appliances by HushedShadow

To be very clear, in any case that I've heard of you power company can't do that unless you sign an agreement and connect your account. (I don’t mean legally, I mean they don’t have the ability to do so technically)

Stories you see in the news of this happening are quite commonly people who got a free/discounted smart thermostat under an agreement that explicitly calls out that the power company can and will (within some limits) turn your thermostat down during overload events. Usually this comes with explicit limits too, I remember verbiage like "up to 4 events per <year/season>, down to <some min/max temp that wasn't really that extreme> and during X to Y hours." Connecting their account is a condition of getting their rebate, so people click-click-click/tap-tap-tap through the agreement without reading because they want "Free stuff."

My thermostat prompts me a few times a year to sign up for the local utilities load-shedding promotion for some $50 or a Homepod mini, etc. I just refuse, I don't have to. (I do try my best anyway to be a community minded person and follow their news announcements - set my thermostat down manually if their is an imminent grid overload.)

I quite enjoy the simple utility of being able to adjust the thermostat or run the fan from bed, or while out of the house. One of the few actually useful smart appliances.

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