A Colorado utility company locks thousands of customers out of their smart thermostats

[hpman66]

Yup, we need to mandate total EV use instead of building new power generation facilities!

A utility company locked thousands of customers out of their smart thermostats in Colorado

An epic heatwave is suffocating the western US.

www.theverge.com

Thousands of Colorado residents found themselves locked out of their smart thermostats during sweltering temperatures last week in an effort to prevent power demand from overwhelming the grid.

 

[Jeepnik]

Seems to me it would be easy enough to bypass the thermostat or just buy a dumb one and install that.

Here's a little hint on smart meters. These allow individual meters to be turned off. The meters have a cell signal to connect to the utility. If it looses signal it defaults to a dumb meter.

 

[gnappi]

Florida Power and Light (FP&L) has a similar system named "On Call" where they can completely interrupt your AC, pool pump, and clothes dryer but I don't think a user can opt out when the on call is triggered. I believe at most they can shut you down for 15 minutes then resume power and I don't think that appliances like the kitchen range can be managed by FP&L.

 

[gnappi]

PS. My small 1KW solar system can readily power a window shaker or portable AC as well as my refrigerator while the sun is up. I can live with that in a blackout.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

After trying to blame the whole thing on "unprecedented weather" it would be a good idea to consider the thousands (millions?) of new homes and other buildings present today that weren't there a decade ago. We can clearly see that here. In the last thirty years we have seen dozens, likely hundreds of housing developments go up in our county along, along with all the retail support for them. Have the utilities adjusted to accommodate these along with the attendant requirements for electric vehicles? Have the power generation facilities done so? Very doubtful.

It ain't the weather . . .it's the people . . . and their stuff. JMHO

 

[hittman]

You guys know this story is 2 years old, right?
And, those 22,000 customers had voluntarily signed up for the program?
Just sayin …..

 

[caryc]

Southern California Edison has been sending my emails trying to entice me to install a smart thermostat. There is no way I will let them control my thermostat. I guess I will hold out until they tell me to install it or have my power cut off. It wouldn't surprise me if it came to that.

 

[gnappi]

Southern California Edison has been sending my emails trying to entice me to install a smart thermostat. There is no way I will let them control my thermostat. I guess I will hold out until they tell me to install it or have my power cut off. It wouldn't surprise me if it came to that.

Funny you should say that, my power company threatened to shut me off if I did not let them install a wireless reading electric meter. Hopefully they cannot shut THAT off.

 

[Wvfarrier]

I would avoid that as long as possible. No chance would I give them control

 

[Ale-8(1)]

You guys know this story is 2 years old, right?
And, those 22,000 customers had voluntarily signed up for the program?
Just sayin …..

No, I didn't notice the date. Ooops.

That said, I'll maintain that my observations are correct for my area. They are representative of the tends over the last thirty years, with no letup in sight. "Open land" is rapidly disappearing under housing developments.

And I can't help but wonder if those who volunteered for this situation fully appreciated what they were getting involved in.

 

[hittman]

Sheeple perhaps …..

 

[Mobuck]

It's all Trump's fault!!!!!!!

 

[caryc]

Funny you should say that, my power company threatened to shut me off if I did not let them install a wireless reading electric meter. Hopefully they cannot shut THAT off.

They already installed a wireless reading meter. They didn't ask me, they just did it.

 

[Mobuck]

I have a wireless reading meter (two of them actually) but that has nothing to do with 'adjusting' a thermostat to lower peak use. I wonder if that possibility was known when the high tech thermostats were installed??

 

[gnappi]

They already installed a wireless reading meter. They didn't ask me, they just did it.

They had to ask me, my meter is behind a locked gate with a big dog

 

[arfmel]

 

[Ale-8(1)]

They already installed a wireless reading meter. They didn't ask me, they just did it.

Yeah, us too. The little truck pulls into our long driveway and is gone in about a minute.

 

[caryc]

They had to ask me, my meter is behind a locked gate with a big dog

So, how did they read your old meter, if they ever did?

 

[gnappi]

So, how did they read your old meter, if they ever did?

From the next door neighbors yard with little binoculars. I saw them read the meter once it was funny.

 

[Jeepnik]

Funny you should say that, my power company threatened to shut me off if I did not let them install a wireless reading electric meter. Hopefully they cannot shut THAT off.

They can. I have that type of meter. They snuck those in a few years ago before we found out the could be manipulated. But like you said, it's a cell signal. Pretty darned easy to block those signals.

But what really twists their nickers are folks like me with a whole house generator and an ATS (automatic transfer switch). The switch automatically turns the generator on and off based on power outages.

Mine's natural gas. But I understand it can be converted to propane. Thinking about having a good sized propane tank installed.

Here's a bit more on smart meters. The local gas company also installed smart meters. But no capability to shut off the flow. The water company installed them and now pays the gas company to piggyback on their network.

The goal of all three meters is primarily to do away with meter readers.