Cheap & Green: Free Smart Thermostat from PG&E

I learned about this program from a buddy who got one of these, and now I have one.  In an effort to be able to manage the power grid and avoid brown outs during high energy demand days (like very hot weather), PG&E is trying to get homes to install a device in their home that can be used to reduce your AC usage during emergency energy days.  The way they do it is to install either a switch on your AC (called a Smart AC Switch) which allows PG&E to turn off your AC, or a network connected thermostat (called Smart AC Thermostat) which allows PG&E to change your temperature setting.  PG&E is giving out these devices for free, along with free installation.

Let PG&E control my AC?  Never!  This may sound bad, but the reality is that you'll likely never even notice it.  First off, I would recommend only getting the Smart AC Thermostat and rejecting the Smart AC Switch option.  With the Smart AC Thermostat, what PG&E does during emergencies is increase your temperature setting by a few degrees (the technician told me only 2 degrees, but I'm sure PG&E is keeping your legal options open to raise it more).  They commit not to do this for more than a short period- around an hour at a time, but they say up it could be up to 6 hours.  A copy of their terms for this program are on their website.

I consider the chances of "suffering" from this possibility of not having AC to be minuscule because:

• In the northern California peninsula area where I live, it only gets hot enough to need AC maybe 10 days a year.
• Chances are low that I'll be home during one of those ultra hot days when there's an energy emergency

So what are the reasons to get this Smart AC Thermostat from PG&E?  Here are two to consider if this is for you:

1. You need a new thermostat because your current one is old and does not give you the programmability that you want
2. You're a nerd like me who likes to be able to control his home's thermostat remotely over the web.  Yes, this is basically why I got it.  There is a web portal that you can log into and change your thermostat's setting remotely.  I thought this would be nice to have in case I leave the house for vacation and forget to turn off my thermostat, or maybe I'm about to return from a vacation, and want the house to be heated up or cooled down by the time I arrive.

How do you sign up?  You can enroll over their website, but I found that I never got a call back when I  did this.  So I called PG&E at 866-908-4916 instead to schedule an installation.  Just tell them you want to enroll in the Smart AC program and schedule an installation, and you should get forwarded to the right department.  Just remember to tell them that you are only interested in their Smart AC Thermostat, and do not want their Smart AC Switch.