California wants to control home thermostats

California wants to control home thermostats

www.iht.com

Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses....

The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers' preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities' suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers' wishes.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What is this? This is ridiculous. Are we going to be told that we can't have heat between 11 PM and 7 AM next? All this is going to do is encourage people to break the law and hot-wire their thermostats. I don't see how this kind of restriction will come close to passing.

Here's an idea: building a freaking power plant!

www.iht.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Some of these things they are doing, are just absurd. I just wonder how much control does the avergae person in america have in there own lifes at the mo.

When you look at other countries and there peoples behaviuors and look at the usa, and europe and those sorts, people are just like the walking dead, or something.

Just buy and consume one.

This is already currently happening in the Midwest. Has been for quite a few years now. I am an electrician, and live in the state of Iowa. The power company (Alliant Energy) gets us to put these devices in alot. Mostly they get hooked in line with electric water heaters and A/C. They call them "load management devices". . There used to be a program that gave you a better rate on your electricity for having these devices installed.
I wouldn't get to excited though. All the connections are done in the main panel, so a good electrician should be able to bypass it without the power company knowing.
You didn't hear that from me though

These arguements, they all amount to selfishness.

Get it through your heads that as we march into the future, we have to accept more communistic values in order to protect our planet and our lives.

We are as cells in an individual human body. We can not operate on a selfish, cellular level, but we must operate with the needs of the higher body in mind.

These measures are to supress "you" as much as they are to propel "us".

"We" go into the future, not "me" or "you"

Nobody gives a crap about what you set your thermostat to. You can supress this as much as you can supress your power meter. Any good electrictrician can do it, but it is still illegal.

This is just another "OMG TEH GOVERNMENT IS AFTER ME" thread.

All this is going to do is encourage people to break the law and hot-wire their thermostats.

No, all this is going to do is encourage the selfish individuals who don't give a crap about their community to break the law and offset those costs onto their neighbors.

reply to post by benign.psychosis



I cannot agree more.

Human selfishness and shortsightedness are the very traits most people abhor when displayed by their Leaders, yet they adopt the same policies themselves and call it their "right".

Arrogance. Sheer arrogance.

reply to post by Togetic


I think that is for the controlling the electric power supply in the California...





[spam link removed]

[edit on 16-5-2009 by 12m8keall2c]

Not only will it make many more people into criminals by encouraging them to mess with their thermostats it will also result in more deaths as the less-bright among Californians use fossil fuels in open fires to heath their homes. There is already an amazing amount of deaths every Winter from people lighting grills and such inside their homes to raise the temperature.

Those damn selfish old folks sitting with their sweaters on and thermostat at 70 in September. Damn them to hell. Let the geriatric suffer. (The bumper sticker slogan of the brave new world.)

This article was from over a year ago!

The article says, ...

California wants to control home thermostats

Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats,

Well, it's OVER a year later, so, does the state now control the thermostats in residential homes now?

I didn't think so.

reply to post by benign.psychosis


MEH...Im gonna suck down all the resources I can until the day I die!
ITS MY RIGHT!

Kids? Grandchildren? HA! Let them find their own way.

I don't care, I deserve the biggest gas guzzling Land-yaught money can buy!
I deserve the biggest and most unefficiant House money can buy!
I deserve the biggest and most electricity sucking TV I can buy!
I deserve the BEST 6000 mile Salad that money can buy!

Screw you and your twinkle toes COMMIE existance.....
I'm an American biotch and I'm the #1 spoiled brat ON THE PLANET!!!!

reply to post by Keyhole


I already went through the brownouts and blackouts Enron foisted on us. Greedy corporations in effect controlled my thermostat then, and then turned around and gouged me for using less!!
Those who poo poo government regulation can ultimately fall under corporate regulation.

Yes, according to Southern California Edison I have one of those control devices already, as they keep sending me notices to ask my permission for them to use it. I throw the notices away, as we already use way less energy than most people. And we live nicely comfortable!
For example, some of my neighbors' air conditioners run 24/7, where we prefer to open the windows and use a ceiling fan and wear lightweight clothing (or go naked around the house!) and keep the blinds drawn over windows that already we have shaded from the sun. We keep the thermostat set at 80deg, and will use it when temps do get unhealthily uncomfortable.
Our energy usage is low and so is our bill.

No more coal power plants that spew mercury that gets into the ocean that gets into the fish that gets into me when I eat a tuna sandwich. And my children may have the effects of mercury because I ate the damn tuna sandwich when I was pregnant with them! No more corporate control of my life!!

Southern California Edison years ago saw the wastefulness and foolishness, from a business perspective, of building another nuclear power plant. They pushed for energy conservation and other ways to come up with energy (wind, solar). Different geographical areas must explore what that area can offer for new and different ways of energy production. The biggest way to cut back (on usage and bill) is to personally monitor usage.

reply to post by GENERAL EYES


I cannot disagree more, seeing as though I live in a house that was built in 1907, and we have a lot of problems keeping our home heated in the winter, and cooled off during the summer. Our house is so old, that the bathroom was an add on. Our windows need to be replaced badly, but we can't afford it. Our doors are even worse.

I just remember two summers ago, when it was really hot for weeks and weeks at a time, and people were suffering pretty badly. It was impossible to get our home to cool off. The AC ran pretty much 24/7 to keep at about 82 degrees. Last summer was okay, and I hope this one is okay, too. I keep the thermostat at about 77 during the summer.

Now, during the winter time, if it gets too cold we have ice in our bath-tub (I have pictures I took of this last winter, it's from the shower dripping), since the bathroom stays pretty cold (once again, old windows, very bad drafts coming through), and our kitchen stays cold unless we hook up an additional heater in there. The bottom line is, we live in a really old home, can't afford to fix it up, and I'd be pretty pissed if the government ever attempted to control our thermostat. We'd be miserable for sure.

Originally posted by desert
Yes, according to Southern California Edison I have one of those control devices already, as they keep sending me notices to ask my permission for them to use it. I throw the notices away, as we already use way less energy than most people. And we live nicely comfortable!

Well, I guess I stand corrected!

I did do a search before I typed that post you responded to and nothing came up saying that the "government controlled" thermostats were actually being used now.

People have different temperature comfort zones, nobody should have to feel uncomfortable in their own home because the government (or electric company) is controlling their thermostat!

reply to post by Keyhole


No, you were correct, in that the gov't doesn't control these devices.

Maybe the confusion lies in the California Public Utilities Commission, a gov't body that utilities must go to to ask permission for rate changes (up or down). If the CPUC approved the use of these devices, it might be misconstrued as gov't control of these devices.

No one is forced to do this, plus there are regulations for never having power turned off, such as for elderly or medical reasons.

I grew up in Los Angeles, without AC, and I remember a few sweltering days in summertime. But we survived. I lived in the desert for a time, where air cooling works just fine (low humidity), and AC, which uses more energy, is not logical to use...but, hey, it sells better than evaporative cooling, more expensive with maybe more profit to go around, without the stupid stigma of being "low class", i.e. not being able to "afford" AC. Could one have a multimillion dollar house without AC....sure.

[edit on 16-5-2009 by desert]

ok - a simple question - what was the commissioning date of the last power gerneration plant built in california ?

next question - how many new homes have been built in california in the last 20 years

final question - do the answer to Q 1 & Q2 explain califoroas ` energy crisis ` ???



[edit on 16-5-2009 by ignorant_ape]

I wrote a poem about this GOVERNMENT CONTROL, we have to speak out and spread the message!

First, they came for the water polluters, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a water polluter.

Then, they came for the emmissions, but I didn't speak up because I drove an eco-friendly vehicle.

Next, they came for the thermostats, but I didn't speak up because my home was well insulated.

Finally, they came for ME!!!! ARRRRGGGHGHHHH!!!!!!!!! NO NO NO DON'T PUT ME IN THE FEMA CAMP!!!

HEY!!! WHAT IS THAT? IS THAT A COFFIN! NO DON'T PUT ME IN THE FEMA COFFIN!!! (LID CLOSING) ARRRGGGHH!!! HELP!! HELP!!! I CAN'T BREATH!!!
HELPPPPPPPPPP!!! (BREATHING HARD) GASP!!!! UHHHHHGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.... (SILENCE)

[edit on 5/16/2009 by semperfortis]

reply to post by ignorant_ape


A couple weeks ago, I just talked to a guy working on another new wind farm. Solar plants are planned for the desert.

Southern California Edison has been big in promoting energy conservation, residential as well as business, so they won't have to build a costly power plant.

California building codes make sure conventionally built homes are energy efficient. After the late 1970's oil crisis prompted looking at alternative energy and energy conservation, California has been trying to use energy more wisely and efficiently.

The blackouts and brownouts of 2000-2001 were manipulation anomalies.

By encouraging energy users to distribute their energy usage (non-essential activity during off-peak hours), brownouts and blackouts can be avoided. The devices mentioned are there as another layer to avoid, for example, my computer suddenly being shut down to a surprise brown/black out.

We're far from the ideal, but California has to do what California feels is best for us. We need to do more to become even more energy efficient/independent.

[edit on 16-5-2009 by desert]

reply to post by Keyhole


Currently you can sign up to have a smart meter in your house so that PG&E can control your air conditioner. So yes it has been installed in CA with homeowner permission.

reply to post by benign.psychosis


So in your opinion we need to give up our ability to think for ourselves, take care of ourselves, make our own decisions, all because we have to be concerned about the other few billion people on the planet.

So for them we should let someone else tell us what temp our house should be at; what we can or cant drink or eat; where, what and when we can smoke... crap where will it stop.

We shouldn't get to enjoy the fruit of our labor by having a cool house in the summer cause some poor schmuck on welfare can't afford an air conditioner.

You need to realize that you will not like the world you are will to create. Communism doesn't work - can't you read history?