Arizona Trialing System That Lets Utility System Control Home A/Cs

AzTechGuy writes "Arizona Public Service Co., Arizona's largest power company, is implementing a test program that would put customers' thermostats under their control to help balance power needs during critical peak usage times. APS will be able to remote control the customers' thermostats to control power draw from their A/C when there is a critical power transmission issue on the grid. Customers will be able to override these settings if they desire."

Comments

Maryland already has this

[dunc78]

BGE already does this in Maryland.

Re:Maryland already has this

[techno-vampire]

They also have it in Southern California. We opted out. My mother is 90 and my sister has MS and can't handle hot weather very well. Me, I think it's a stupid idea for consumers.

Re:Maryland already has this

[SydShamino]

Austin Energy has been giving out free 7-day programmable thermostats for years, with the caveat being that they can control them when necessary to balance load.

This is nothing new to see here, move along territory.

Re:Maryland already has this

[D'Sphitz]

Why is it a stupid idea? It beats losing your power altogether, doesn't it? I imagine this would mostly affect people who are at work all day with the central air running full blast, the people who are home would just override it.

Re:Maryland already has this

[fireduck]

Except, at least with the deal we got from So Cal Edison, we give them the right to shut off our air conditioner in exchange for a discount on our summer electric bill. I don't recall exactly how much of a discount on the energy they gave us, but considering that they never once actually killed our air con during the summer, I have no complaints whatsoever.

Re:Maryland already has this

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent is -1 Troll.

Smoothing out peaks in ways that minimally impact people is a great idea economically and environmentally.

Re:Maryland already has this

[blackraven14250]

"Don't allow the power companies to lower your power consumption (and the price you pay) when the system is on the verge of overload! Get higher capacity lines so we can burn more fossil fuels! Don't invest in renewable, just in methods to deliver more conventional power!"

I mean, I don't necessarily agree with the power companies being able to control your power like that; I'm just pointing out what your argument is in real terms.

I think I may, however, agree with a long-term override (aka opt-out) switch with this system, included in the current plan. I also may be inclined to agree with allowing for load-balancing (without them being able to change temperature) to reduce peaks and valleys.

Re:Maryland already has this

[laughingcoyote]

In ./ parlance, this is stupid the same way download caps on your broadband are stupid.

Which ISP is it, again, that lets you override download caps at will? I think that's an excellent idea-they can cap it, you say "override", no longer capped. There's also the fact that except during the highest peak periods, a lot of Net capacity remains unused, which is not true of energy.

This is probably for the morons who can't throttle back the A/C before leaving for work and wait 20 minutes for it to cool down after they get home. If it's just got to be cool when you walk in the door, get a programmable thermostat.

Re:Maryland already has this

[Xeno man]

Yes you can override it. Seams like every moron believes that they are giving up control of their thermostat and that they just shut it off. What they do is raise the temperature by a few degrees so AC units are not working as hard and as much. It's a small reduction of power but multiply it by a few thousand homes and it's enough to shave off the peaks during high usage. And as far as I'm aware in Ontario, they have only send the signal a few times each year so it's not a daily thing.

The credit on your bill is just a incentive to get the thermostat. The real saving is when you program you stat so your ac isn't cooling the house all day when your not around instead of having your old manual stat set to 15 deg C all day long.

Re:Maryland already has this

[plover]

While I can't quite tell if you're trolling or simply greedy, there's a certain logic behind your argument.

Right now, electricity cannot be economically stored, so generation capacity has to equal peak demand, or else someone gets browned out. Utilities go to elaborate lengths to estimate future demand, based on housing construction, industrial zoning, winter temperatures, summer temperatures, etc. They build right to the edge of what their predicted demand will be, and rely on peak plants to supplant their generation capacity during those times when they've guessed wrong. But those peak plants charge 30X or more than the average generating rate, so there's strong incentive to not use them.

What they're doing by all this penny pinching and building right to the edge of demand is they are thinning the tolerances. In the past, many things worked well or lasted long simply because they were massively overbuilt. For example, rather than fully study and understand the material strength of an aluminum engine block with steel cylinder sleeves, they cast the engine block out of iron. Rather than measure and predict the load to within 1% of future demand, they built a plant with double or triple the planned capacity. Those systems lasted a long time as a result, and people got very used to the high availability of their services.

And in case you were serious, the correct economic answer is yes, they should offer you the extra capacity, as long as you're personally willing to pay the price. My electric company offers demand pricing. Normal pricing is $0.11/kWH for household use, regardless of what you're using the power for. But if you willing to let them control your air conditioner, you pay only $0.055/kWH for all the electricity your A/C consumes throughout the year, plus they discount your bill by $10/month for June, July and August. Control consists of a rolling 15-minutes-on/15-minutes-off duty cycle during peak demand. My heat pump was controlled for a total of 90 hours last summer, and the difference was hardly noticeable. When my heat pump was cut in the winter, the gas furnace kicked in as needed. I save several hundred dollars per year on this program.

Re:Maryland already has this

[michaelhood]

If you can override it, essentially all they're doing is informing you of power demand, not monitoring you without your consent or forcing you to do anything. Explain what oppressive totalitarian privacy-violating government regimes (i.e "Big Brother") have to do with any of this.

Perhaps they should just send me an SMS then - "We'd like to turn off your A/C for the next 90 minutes. Our bid is a $5 credit. Accept?"

Re:Maryland already has this

[Opportunist]

It's less funny when you happen to be subject to "some error of unknown source" (yeah, sure) that ensures that you only have COLD water from November to somewhere in February in northern Europe... brrr.

Re:Maryland already has this

[Rhesusmonkey]

You realize that if they wrest control of our thermostat from us we'll just start leaving the freezer door open right?

Re:Maryland already has this

[znu]

This is rather reminiscent of the arguments about healthcare. Opponents of reform have claimed that it would institute 'rationing' (which, actually, the reform that has passed so far hasn't, but meaningful cost controls, which we desperately need, would). What they ignore is that the current system also limits available care; it just do so on a far less efficient basis because, since nobody wants to openly admit that rationing goes on, it can't happen based on an open and transparent cost/benefit analysis.

So, yeah, you can reject remote shutdowns of central AC units on an ideological basis... but 'rationing' is going to occur anyway when demand exceeds capacity. It will just take the form of rolling blackouts/brownouts. Which are, of course, much worse than carefully managed short-duration AC shutdowns because they effect all devices in a house (they can even damage equipment) and there's no way to make sure they don't happen to houses where they could cause really serious harm because people rely on life support equipment, etc.

Re:Maryland already has this

[cyn1c77]

They got this on my hot water....and I can't opt out or over ride. They report only using it for about an hour at a time, and only 2 or 3 days a year for the last few years though. Yes, peak demand during summer afternoons.

Phil

Just out of curiosity, how does that work? You can't override a system that sits in your house?

What do you get out of this deal? Can you just not pay your bill during your peak expense season? Quid pro quo, you know?

Re:Maryland already has this

[captain_dope_pants]

Soviet Arizona trials Anonymous Cowards controlling Utility Systems

Since customers can override the system....

[Zanth_]

It seems like a convenient method of limiting brown-outs. The privacy implications may be enormous for some but for others it will appear to be a good idea particularly since folks can override the system.

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[deep_creek]

wonder what the surcharge charge/penalty fee is for overriding the setting?

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[notommy]

What exactly are your enormous privacy concerns? This already exists here in toronto. This works well. The truth is, when they raise the temperature in your ac for a period of time, you don't notice it because the temperature change in your home is not instantaneous. By the time you notice the small change, if you do at all, it'll be back to your original setting.

The blurb makes it sound sinister IMo with stuff like "under their control". They're just trying to control the peaks so everyone has power.

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[WalksOnDirt]

This isn't about AGW. It's about it being cheaper to make customers uncomfortably hot than to provide adequate power.

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[camperdave]

I'm in Toronto, Ontario. It's about 8C out. Last night I left my AC off and I woke up drenched in sweat. I have no control over the heat in my apartment other than running the AC.

It does get sweltering hot here, but the problem is moreso the humidity than the actual temperature.

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[valdezjuan]

Just thinking about this briefly, I can think of at least one concern (though not directly related to privacy). Power companies (at least in the US) have shown that they are unable to secure their infrastructure. So allowing them to 'control' your settings *might* be allowing an attacker to do the same (or worse).

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[the_one(2)]

Maybe you should open the window?

Re:Since customers can override the system....

[apoc.famine]

The bears would get him then.

Only one problem I can see....

[russotto]

Your "peak periods" will correspond quite well with when it's 110 degrees in the shade... exactly when you want the AC the most.

Re:Only one problem I can see....

[Gertlex]

It'll also be the middle of the day. For quite a large number of residential locations, the home will be empty. Doesn't matter if the house gets a bit warm while you're not there... If you're there, override it!

Re:Only one problem I can see....

[Clover_Kicker]

I'm sure there are all sorts of expensive, technical solutions to this problem

Insulation?

Caulking?

Re:Only one problem I can see....

[AK Marc]

I grew up in a 1950s house in TX with that problem. There were single pane windows in every window. There was no insulation under the floors. There was insufficient insulation in the walls and the attic. There were large cracks in the brick house, and no house wrap (Tyvek or such, invented after the house was built and not used extensively until much more recently).

The cost of getting that house to a 5-star energy rating would probably have been more than bulldozing it and putting up a pre-fab house of the same size with a 5-star rating. Yes, doing the windows and insulating the floors would have paid for itself in about 5 years or less, but a single mom raising a family couldn't afford that, even though it cost more in the long run than having it done. Which is another reason the government is offering grants and such for work like that, so people who wouldn't have gotten it otherwise can afford to pay the up front costs for the savings in energy.

Instead, you tack on a 5 ton A/C for a modest 3-bedroom house and air condition the neighborhood. And no, the 5 ton unit wasn't enough to cool the whole house on the really hot days, so we'd shut rooms off and block the vents to cool just the core.

Re:Only one problem I can see....

[Isaac-1]

I too live in an older house, built over a century ago that has these sorts of insulation problems. I have considered upgrading the insulation, there is just this little matter called MONEY. Upgrading to the point where it would save an estimated average of $50 per month would cost $15,000. Lets do a little math here, that is 300 months, or 25 years to pay back, much more than that if it involves loan payments.

Re:Only one problem I can see....

[HereIAmJH]

I don't relish the thought of spending $60k+ to do the upgrades right now, so there is an inexpensive window-AC installed to ride out the hot days.

These upgrade 'estimates' are completely ridiculous. First of all, it's not an all or nothing deal. I've worked on the houses I've owned, houses that are 40-70 years old. You can add r30 insulation to your attic for about $240 for 1500 sq/ft of attic space. It's not a task that requires a whole lot of skill and it makes a tremendous difference. You can put plastic over drafty windows, and there are many companies that will replace windows for about $200 each, installed.

On a 70 year old house, I tore out all the interior drywall and added insulation and upgraded electrical. That IS a daunting task, but you can probably do it about as cheap as remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. You also have the option of blowing in insulation which only requires small holes to be drilled in the wall.

Any BTW, there is nothing inexpensive about a window AC, except maybe the initial purchase price.

Out of all the efficiency upgrades I have done, the longest payback has been the bay window. But if I had put back in a window unit similar to what was there originally, it would have payed for itself in roughly 5 years. Just the difference in double pane over single pane leaky windows. I will admit though, I save more on heating (gas) costs that cooling(electrical).

Right...

[cephalien]

Because when it's 104 degrees in Arizona, the people trialing this system will be content to let the power company turn their A/C down.

No, what'll happen is that all the people enrolled will just override the suggested settings, meaning that they'll have spent the money and still end up having brownouts.

I don't see this as being a smart move from -any- standpoint, unless you marketed it as a way for the power company to turn down the A/C units of homeowners who might not -be- at home during a peak time, but have left their systems running.

Having said that, anyone with pets will tell you that it can get hot enough that they need to be cooled-off too.

Look....

[Darkness404]

Look, if I'm paying for power, in a government granted monopoly (as most power companies are) I'd better be able to use it how I wish, while paying for it with a reasonable fee based on what I use. If they can't provide what I'm paying for they should either A) Improve the service, B) allow other competitors C) be sued by their "customers". If we had -choice- in power companies, this might not be so bad, but sure, we have an override button in 2010... but in 2020 will we?

It is the most basic of rights to be able to use what you pay for. In many cases, if you don't like what a company wants you to do, you have action, you can A) change to a competitor or B) go without it. If I don't like Sony's policies on firmware updates for the PS3, I can just as easily buy a 360, Wii, or even decide not to buy a game console. But when it comes to electricity, theres no other providers and its just about impossible to go without electricity in 2010 (even most Amish will have electricity in their outbuildings).

Re:Look....

[stabiesoft]

Before you piss all over the idea, consider which you would prefer. You can either A) pay 2X as much for juice during peak time so the utility can afford to have enough peak capacity or B) let the utility come up with some creative ways to reduce peak demand, such as cutting the A/C for about 5 minutes every 30 if they need to. (I think that is austin energy's method) Further, Austin Energy does not require you to install their thermostat, they will give you a free one if you do want theirs.

Clearly, you prefer method A, but I happen to like B. And in case your wondering, Austin Enrgy has nearly the lowest rates in TX, is a monopoly, is run by the city whereas Dallas rates are around 2X higher as a minimum, they have choice, and the choices are not run by the city and are private. I'll stay in austin thanks. You can live in Dallas if you want with your precious choices.

Re:Look....

[evilviper]

It is the most basic of rights to be able to use what you pay for.

You aren't paying for it, though. You're charged a fee, which very likely doesn't cover the costs of delivery. And it certainly doesn't remotely cover what they would have had to pay for right-of-way access without the government monopoly status...

You see, there are plenty of people out there who need electricity, and CAN'T pay the fair-market value of it. Saying you should be able to do whatever you want with it is simply saying you want to price OTHERS out of the market. Sure, poor people just shouldn't have heating and air conditioning... Those medicare leeches should just suck it up when their power gets cut for non-payment, and their kidney dialysis machine stops working. Sucks to be you. Welcome to the free market, suckers!

Somehow I don't believe for a second you'd be singing the praises of the free market if you were forced to pay for a new electric meter which records peak/off-peak usage, and charges accordingly. And when you found yourself paying 100X as much to power your AC in the afternoon, you'd be clamoring for the power company to cut your AC by 2% to get that bill back down.

And it's certainly not just electricity. Just wait until you run into a drought, and you are no longer allowed to water your lawn... Then again, this same system forces those that live around the lake you're draining to give you water, no matter how much they might want to charge you for their water...

But hey, you can go buy bottled water to do the job, right? And car batteries are only $50 a shot, just connect them to a massive inverter and your AC will churn right along until it comes time to swap the batteries. No monopoly there, that's for sure...

Just build nuclear power plants already...

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

It would create jobs... and energy...

Sounds like a GREAT FUCKING IDEA TO ME.

Re:Just build nuclear power plants already...

[RightwingNutjob]

How about we keep the fissionable material in the fission reactor. It might actually generate electricity there.

Re:Just build nuclear power plants already...

[Mspangler]

"Kay, we'll keep the spent fissionable material in your house"

In the back yard is fine provided the waste is hot enough that it produces heat. Then I can pipe the cooling water into the house during the seven months of winter, and shut the valve and let the pond gently steam in the two weeks of summer.

Seriously, I need heat any month with an R in it, and the first half of May. Air conditioning season is about two weeks in late July, for about three hours a day.

Re:Just build nuclear power plants already...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you've reached about 1955 in terms of nuclear powerstation technology.

In the past 55 years, there has been a lot of research into pebble bed reactors, for instance. Now, this research didn't happen in the US, of course, due to your hostility towards such technology.

The rest of the world is moving on to better sources of energy, while you fools are stuck in the Coal Age or the Oil Age.

Re:Just build nuclear power plants already...

[MattskEE]

It's a good idea but it solves a slightly different problem.

Nuclear plants are base load. This air conditioning throttling system, which is in use already in many power markets, helps the power companies minimize the peak load, a large portion of which comes from a bunch of workers across an entire region coming home and turning on the A/C. The power from peaking generators which can turn on and off quickly like gas turbines is necessary to avoid brownouts and blackouts from this variable load condition.

Adding more base load doesn't help you when everybody turns their AC on at once, because you can't turn off the base load plants once power consumption drops back to the average.

Works well in Iowa

[rm_-fr_*]

I've been in this program in central Iowa for 6 years. Has been no real pain and I get about a $40 check each year for the times they throttle me...

Re:Yawn, this technology has been around for 60 ye

[cyp43r]

The next day, nobody goes to work as they haven't got enough battery power in their cars.

Don't cry monopoly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit.

You CAN go off grid. If I lived Arizona, I'd totally slap a couple of solar panels on my roof and hook those up to the AC. Don't give me this whiny "oh, but they have a monooooooooopoly" tripe. It's only a monopoly if you're too lazy or cheap to use the alternative energy sources. Especially not in a prime solar location.

Re:Don't cry monopoly.

[Kral_Blbec]

You got a spare 30k to put down for that? Or are you just talking out of your ass?

Re:Don't cry monopoly.

[QuantumRiff]

Most states, in addition to rebates and grants ( and federal ones) will give you extremely low interest loans.

So that 30k system ends up costing you about $15k over 7-10 years, or $150 - $200 a month. Then, you have basically no more utility bill, ever. (and still have 18 years of warranty on your solar panels...)

Re:Don't cry monopoly.

[raygundan]

After all the tax credits and such, our 7kW system was about $8k in Arizona. It makes about $1300/year in power at present electric rates, and has a 25-year warranty. If you can afford it, it's beats the living crap out of putting your money in a CD, even assuming we could get something more like historical CD rates these days.

North American Grid

[DarkKnightRadick]

Instead of trying to control individual ACs like this, they should be giving out massive credits to those who go to the expense of installing solar. Even where it won't pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time, installing solar panels will make a difference (probably not so much so in places like Seattle). I would imagine that if you could get 10% of the homes in the nation (even if you were just to do that in So Cal and Arizona and other perpetually sunny places) the relief on the grid would be enormous. With advances in solar cells, combining solar and hydrogen fuel storage/use, and other alternative energy technologies (wind, for example) there should be no problem in providing enough power.

The real problem is that the grid is ancient (relatively) and uses old, broken tech. Unfortunately the adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply when you are pushing outdated technology way past its limits.

Re:North American Grid

[psycho12345]

Umm most places already do give gigantic tax rebates, or straight up rebates on solar installations. Still too expensive for the average household. Not to mention I imagine most place would benefit from other upgrades before solar, such as better insulation, better windows, etc.

Re:Yawn, this technology has been around for 60 ye

[toadlife]

The next day, nobody goes to work as they haven't got enough battery power in their cars.

Which would save even MORE energy!

Brilliant!

Idaho has done this for years

[Hirsto]

Idaho power opted for something far simpler several years ago. An exterior radio controlled override that cuts off the compressor motor (most of the load) for a maximum of 15 minutes while leaving your interior blower motor running. You don't notice a thing. If you happen to have two AC units they are alternated. This allows for much simpler peak load control of the power grid and doesn't torch off the customers.

Re:Air Conditioning

[AHuxley]

To expand the power grid is expensive and hard to 'sell' to the shareholders.
They expect dynamic dot com era growth with anything tech they invested in.
Some US cities and areas did it right with community generators.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_cooperative
Any profit is put back into hardware, running cost or users get some form of capital credits.
You also had Enron like profit pressure to milk demand on an old cold war grid.

Ontario has had this program since 2008

[nufrosty]

You get a $25 rebate and a thermostat/switch, and they get to control your AC to adjust your temperature by 2-3 degrees. They cap the number of times the are allowed to do it at 10 times/year.

When can peaksaver be activated? on weekdays (Monday through Friday), most likely between 12:00p.m. to 6:00p.m. from May 1 to September 30. Never on weekends or holidays. for a maximum of ten activations during the summer and only for a total of four hours during any one activation. As an example; in 2008, the peaksaver program was activated only five times.

http://everykilowattcounts.ca/residential/peaksaver/understanding-electricity-demand.php

Power 101

[stox]

Roughly, the first 90% of the load cost is X, the next 9 to 10% cost is 10X. If you need to buy a remaining 1% on the spot market during a squeeze, the remaining 1% will cost 100X.

Being able to shed that top 1% can make a big difference.

Listen to the gray hair on this.

[jeko]

It'll be voluntary today.

It'll be mandatory tomorrow.

If they weren't planning on making it mandatory, they wouldn't do it in the first place.

Seen it a billion times.

At least it's voluntary...

[ToasterOven]

Here in Utah, Rocky Mountain Power offers a similar program (called "Cool Keeper"). They apparently recently tried to introduce legislation that would make the device mandatory for all new customers unless the customer knew of the program and specifically opted out in advance. And to my knowledge, there isn't any limit on RMP's activations like some other utilities have implemented, nor can the customer override the switch. I hope Arizona's system is more forgiving than that. Plus, I'm pretty sure RMP would actually save more money if they didn't spam us with fliers trying to upsell the program every few weeks (seriously, I get at least one or two packets a month year round). Imagine all the power it takes to make those.

Can bigger systems get advance notice?

[Animats]

Residential systems usually don't have heat storage, but larger systems, with chilled water, often do. Some even make ice at night when power is cheap, to be melted during the day. It would be helpful to have a few hours advance notice of a hot period, so that the system could chill down an insulated water tank for use later.

Power companies generally have a load curve planned a day ahead. That info is available; here's PJM's dashboard, which tells you far more than you ever wanted to know about the power grid for the northeastern United States. (Load right now: 55,292 megawatts. 1,896 megawatts of that is wind power. Spinning reserves are 2,274 MW. Current trouble report: "As of 09:30 hours, a Non-Market Post Contingency Local Load Relief Warning of 11 MW in the Rachel Hill area of FE (PN) has been issued for Transmission Contingency Control. Post Contingency Switching: Open Roxbury at Shadegap, Close Threesprings at Shadegap, open Curryville at Claysburg, open Snakespring at Bedford North." Tomorrow's estimated peak is around 71 gigawatts, expected at 17:30 hours.) The estimation system uses historical data and weather reports, plus bid info from really big users. So one can plan a day ahead if your HVAC system has heat storage.

Routine control is exercised by financial means - all the players submit bids, which have a time range, a low output and price, a high output and price, and a ramp value. The control center crunches on these and decides who generates how much power. Large power buyers can bid, too; they have the option of saying how much they'll cut their load as the price rises. A big data center might choose to be a market player. When there are troubles, the control center can take "non-market actions", like the one above, but most of the time, the outstanding bids determine who does what.

California went too far in deregulation, and had electricity auctions every half hour at one point. There were brokers and dealers who were pure speculators, and this affected live power operations in real time. That caused so much churn that there were blackouts. So now, bids are for a day ahead, and the matching of supply and demand is algorithmic. All this data is public, to keep the markets honest. That's why PJM offers such detailed data about their power grid.

Re:Can bigger systems get advance notice?

[Vegeta99]

That's funny. The last emergency message given, that you quoted, is for the area I'm posting from. Considering the general lack of life and/or economic activity in the area, I would like to know where the hell 11 megawatts is ending up.

Re:Can bigger systems get advance notice?

[Animats]

That message just means that, due to some problem, the power grid as currently configured was one failure away from having to drop 11MW of load. This occurs when a line in the transmission system is out of service, and the remaining lines are carrying the load, but there's no redundancy. So orders are issued to close certain switches and open others, or to start up additional generators, so that the system is reconfigured to again allow for any single failure. PJM's control center is announcing, as a warning, who potentially gets dumped if they lose another resource. The area mentioned is not necessarily the cause of the problem. Actual load dumps are very rare; I think the last one in the PJM control areas was in 1997.

For Slashdot readers, it's like bringing a replacement disk on line when a RAID disk system loses a disk. The RAID system is still working, but there's now a single point of failure until a new drive is switched in.

Re:better suited...

[michaelhood]

If this were used for recharging Chevy Volts, or cooling deep freezers.

Don't you know? When you use the grid to charge an electric vehicle, the power company can recognize this and uses jellybean fields and unicorn wheels to generate the power.

People leaving Aircon on even when not at home

[Izeickl]

Jesus I cant believe how many people seem to leave aircon on during the day while at work etc, what exactly is the reason for this?? I am a UK expat living in Thailand...Thailand gets extremely hot and pushes 100% humidity regularly so aircon is wonderful however I only ever cool rooms im actually using and only when people are in the house, as does everyone else I know... If you cant stand being hot for even 30 mins while the rooms cool down can you not at least put things on timers to cool it before you get home from work??

You are from the UK, NOT US

[SmallFurryCreature]

I know that as a UK resident you might believe you are part of the US but you are not... yet.

Anyway, there is a reason US citizens consume more then anyone else on this planet. It is a culture defined by entitlement. I can have the largest car, so I must have it and then I must use it.

I can have an airco, therefor everything must be airco'ed and it must run all the time.

An American really can't even deal with the notion that there might be something wrong with this attitude. Watch Mythbusters and their constant search for fuel efficiency in a 3 ton pickup with 1 person in it and no cargo. How about driving a smaller car? Oh, they do entire segments on how they get smashed between two trucks driving at top speed. No test of course if the results would be any different with a SUV (Answer: no, SUV's only share the fuel efficiency with tanks, not safety).

And the solution is terribly simple, pay more for your elec so that more power facilities can be built. But that is not an option either because all the profits go to shareholder, not into investments for the future.

It is an amusing system, you got Americans claiming they are the most advanced country, when large parts of the country regularly brown-out. California has had it for years, and no riots yet. When your electricity network is as reliable as one in Africa, maybe it is time to take a long hard look at the way you are running thing.

Don't worry, some American with mod points will remove this post to avoid to many Americans having to be upset by the truth.