It’s hot, you have set up your Nest, Ecobee or Netatmo to keep the home environment cool, but the smart thermostat changes the temperature by itself. And raises it.
It happens in Texas, where the companies that supply energy people’s choices can remotely vary to save energy or reduce network overload. In the second half of June, the United States was hit by an exceptional heat wave which caused temperatures to skyrocket, even over 50 degrees: it was mainly the south-western part of the country that was affected by this extreme event of torrid climate.
Many states, under the hood of heat, are threatened by Drought and dangers of fires while at the same time the electricity grid infrastructures are severely tested: it happens because the higher the temperatures (day and night), the more the demand for cooling energy increases, with the risk of creating peaks capable of causing failures e blackout.
This is the reason why l’Electric Reliability Council del Texas, which manages the state electricity grid, asked people not to waste energy, taking into account the difficult climatic situation; identical request was made by the electricity companies, which thanks to specific contracts, they can remotely operate smart thermostats of customers’ homes to regulate the temperature with a view to saving energy.
The Roomba vacuum cleaner that cleans itself now costs less
Andrea Nepori
Companies like CenterPoint Energy ed EnergyHub, which works with manufacturers such as Google, Ecobee, Honeywell, and Lux, remotely altered the devices, but took many people by surprise, mostly unaware of what they had accepted and signed. The complaints were numerous (so much so that some local TVs have also dealt with them) and have come up to Reddit and other social networks, but still customers are able at any time to regain control of their thermostat, canceling the changes set remotely by the energy supplier. Assuming they notice it.
.