PSE&G "Cool Customer" program (temperature)

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

oh, well i hope a lot of people sign up then. i wont but it would be nice if others do.

i feel like you have been absent for a little while. you have an obligation to provide us with information; you cant just take the money and run off!

lol, I've been busy at work. I've somewhat kept up my posting in history and automotive, but had been neglecting this board do to time restraints. I don't post at night or the weekends, so when work has me busy, there is only so much I can do.

[snowgurl]

My understanding is not a 15 minute or whatever cycle from what I first posted. Are you sure?

[alphamale]

Originally Posted by ansky

Does anyone here participate in PSE&G's "cool customer" program. I receive mailings about it almost every week. From what I've read it sounds like they can cycle off your A/C during times of peak power demand. However, it seems the only advantage to us, the customer, is a new thermostat and a one-time $50 bill credit. This hardly seems worth it to me. Am I missing something? Does anyone have experiences with this program?

Let them control the thermostats of the recipient class.

Leave us rate payers alone!

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by alphamale

Let them control the thermostats of the recipient class.

Leave us rate payers alone!

that should be mandatory. if you dont pay for it, you shouldnt control it.

[cab4656]

Originally Posted by bradykp

You get the thermostat, which is a pretty nice programmable thermostat that costs around $100 (plus installation). here are the incentives, depending which option you choose:

PSE&G's Cool Customer Program

Incentives for residential customers

Residential customers who choose the prgrammable thermostat option will receive:
a FREE state-of –the-art digital display programmable thermostat with large touch screen, installed at no extra charge (a $250 value) that can be programmed to fit personal schedules and comfort level to save energy and money; plus
a one-time $50 credit on their electric bill.
-or-
Residential customers who choose the cycling switch option will receive:
a $4.00 credit on their electric bill for each of the summer months they participate, June-September (a total of $16), plus
$1.00 per cycling event.

FYI:

The "$250 value" is laughable. You can get a programmable digital thermostat from Home Depot or anywhere for like $50, possibly even less. I recently got a Wifi-enabled one (amazing feature iyam, don't know how I lived without it) on sale for $80. Installation is a breeze - I'm not at all handy and did it in less than an hour.

No way would I give up control of my thermostat for this.

[Informed Info]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

I looked into my electric companies version of it, but decided to pass as I have Xfinity security and would lose remote thermostat control. I'd also lose the energy package that takes inputs from the security system and our temp settings and system run times to develop the most efficient profile. They claim they will never cycle you off for more than 15 minutes and even then it's only the compressor while the house fan continues to run. It's not like the house is going to get all that unbearable in 15 minutes even on a 100 degree day. If you need a new thermostat, the credit seems like a decent bonus and if no one is home during the day, you will probably never even notice it happening.

We signed up for this program back in 1999. One sweltering hot day in either June or July PSE&G cycled us off and on over the entire day. My house at the time (2 bed/2 story townhouse with 3 windows in the front, a slider and 2 windows in the back of the house - not a lot of exposure) went up to 90+ degrees on the first floor. They never cycled us on long enough to catch up and cool down. It was a Saturday or a Sunday b/c my husband was home from work and we had a newborn.

My husband called PSE&G up and cancelled the contract while this was going on and thankfully our HVAC guy who did all the refrigeration at our business was on his way home, stopped by and disconnected whatever PSE&G had installed on our unit.

It was miserable and not worth whatever savings they offered at the time.

[bradykp]

Originally Posted by cab4656

FYI:

The "$250 value" is laughable. You can get a programmable digital thermostat from Home Depot or anywhere for like $50, possibly even less. I recently got a Wifi-enabled one (amazing feature iyam, don't know how I lived without it) on sale for $80. Installation is a breeze - I'm not at all handy and did it in less than an hour.

No way would I give up control of my thermostat for this.

well, the thermostat they are offering is around $100, and if you're hiring an electrician, it'd easily be $150 installation. while i agree that installation is easy, I know countless capable people who won't mess around with electric (and i know what person who did and nearly blew his finger off cause he wouldn't buy a $10 tool to test if the current was legitimately off).

so, you can call the value laughable, but it's accurate.

[bradykp]

i dont think this program existed in 1999.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by Sawdustmaker

We signed up for this program back in 1999. One sweltering hot day in either June or July PSE&G cycled us off and on over the entire day. My house at the time (2 bed/2 story townhouse with 3 windows in the front, a slider and 2 windows in the back of the house - not a lot of exposure) went up to 90+ degrees on the first floor. They never cycled us on long enough to catch up and cool down. It was a Saturday or a Sunday b/c my husband was home from work and we had a newborn.

My husband called PSE&G up and cancelled the contract while this was going on and thankfully our HVAC guy who did all the refrigeration at our business was on his way home, stopped by and disconnected whatever PSE&G had installed on our unit.

It was miserable and not worth whatever savings they offered at the time.

1999? According to PSE&G they've only had the program in some markets as early as 2005. They also claim that since 2005 they've only used it 13 or so times, with most years only having one period where it was used. They are also pretty clear that they don't cycle on holidays, weekends or weekdays after 10pm.

I'm not signing up for it, because I would lose other features that I have, but this seems like it would be reasonable, especially if everyone had it. The alternative is that you end up with an outage or rolling blackouts.

[rlindabury]

I'm a member of the PSE&G "Cool Customer" program. I figured I'd be helping by saving energy and the 15 minutes of compressor off/fan running wouldn't be too much of an imposition. That and the fact that I'd get the Honeywell Programmable Thermostat installed and setup and a $50 credit towards my bill.

It was installed months ago when it was cold. Right off the bat there were issues as the first installer didn't bother to check the wire runs and the system wouldn't work correctly. It seems that down by the furnace someone has previously swapped colored wires so what was up at the thermostat wasn't correct. They did, however, send a second tech out to fix it and he found the issue.

Now it's July and we're having a heat-wave. Here's what the cool customer FAQ says from the page at:

[url=http://www.pseg.com/home/save/manage_costs/cool_customer/faq.jsp]PSE&G's Cool Customer Program[/url]

"The overall length of a cycling event can be up to six hours. This does not mean your central air conditioner will be off for six hours. During any given hour of a cycling event, your air conditioner will only be cycled for a total 30 minutes. This is typically done in three 10-minute, or two 15-minute, intervals during the hour. That means your air conditioner will operate 50% of the time during a cycling event. During cycling, your indoor fan will continue to circulate air throughout your home."

The cycling started July 16th at 1pm and went until 7pm. Then they did it again yesterday from 1pm to 7:30pm. They specifically state that since 2005 they have only had 11 cycling events. We're already at two this year!

This normally wouldn't be an issue if the cycling worked as they say. Compressor off for 15 minute intervals while the fan keeps running to circulate air. That's not what's happening. When it goes into "SAVING" mode (it actually says it right on the thermostat and blinks) it shuts everything down. No fan running in Circulation mode. Nothing. 15 minutes of that on a 90+ degree day and your temperatures are going up in the house FAST!

I had to listen for the air going off every 15 minutes and then go to the thermostat and turn the fan on to keep air circulating manually. Even though I did this it still got to over 80 degrees in my house by 7:30pm last night and then it took several hours to get the temperature back down to the mid-70's.

After 7:30 it didn't turn the compressor back on. By 8pm I turned it back on myself.

So, there is either an issue on their end with the commands they are sending to the thermostats or there's an issue with my thermostat. As far as I can tell, my thermostat works fine. It responds to my commands just fine. I think the issue is on their end.

I called them and the person on the phone didn't know anything about how this program works. They set up an appointment for someone to come out and look at my thermostat.

So, in conclusion, I think the program would be great if it worked as is stated in all their online literature. Because it's not following those rules, I can't recommend this program to anyone considering it.

All I kept hearing was my girlfriend bitching to me about how hot it was in the house and how she wants that damn thermostat removed because she doesn't want PSE&G controlling the temperature in our house.