Heating and cooling costs make up half of your average home's utility bills. A smarter
thermostat, then, could save you big bucks, and so we're glad to see Texas utility company Oncor rolling out EcoFactor
software and compatible thermostats to subscribers. These units look straightforward enough, but connect to the interwebs to download weather reports, meaning they can anticipate heatwaves and cool spells and plan accordingly. They can also figure out just how long it takes to get your home to a certain temperature, so if you want it 74 degrees at your pad by the time you arrive from work at 5:30 this thing can figure out the last possible minute it needs to spin up the AC. That's great, and a $19.95 installation fee is similarly encouraging, but we're not so keen on the $8.99
"monitoring" fee Oncor will be charging monthly. For that kind of cash this thing should track us on
Latitude figure out our schedule by itself.
Update: We got a note from EcoFactor who wanted to clarify a few things, primarily that they don't actually do the thermostats, just software. Its their software that tells the otherwise absent-minded thermostats what to do, which is where the subscription fee comes from (erroneously called a "monitoring" fee by our initial source). The first six months are free, but after that you're on the hook for nine bucks every lunar cycle or so. We still think that's a bit steep, but we've certainly spent more on less worthwhile things.
posted July 9th 2010 10:16AM
At $100 a year, I'm better off buying one at Home Depot.
"Monitoring" fee? Go eff yourself.
@rock99rock REDUX
yea what the heck is a monitoring fee???
I was excited until i saw the "monitoring fee". Way to f- it up oncor, just lke you did with the "smart" meters.
@Xtole The smart meters are a good thing. The old meters were not reading the electricity correctly so the utility companies were/are loosing money. Many bills are higher, but it's only fair.
@nelagster Well, somebody has to record the conversations picked up by the internal mic!
Either Larry Hagman had GIANT hands or that's a quickie Photoshop job. ;p
@Why should I have all the fun
Oops Larry is still with us.
Sorry about the whole past-tense thing Larry. Live long and prosper.
@Why should I have all the fun
*All photochops not completed to scale.
@Why should I have all the fun
*Everything's bigger in Texas
is this JR?? oh my god , bring back good memories
This type of thermo is great for utilities as well (imagine the useful data they can collect). But really, the $108 annual fee for customers is crazy.
As someone who's from TX, I'll tell you that power bills for a 2500sqft early-1990s-built home can easily top $400/month in the Houston summer. Assuming this thermostat saves even 5% of that ($20), you'll break even despite the monthly fee.
That said, it follows that the thermostat is only worth it if the savings resulting from it are $8.99/month or greater.
@LANjackal
...yeah but that means having a smarter thermostat, not a lame overpriced monitoring service. Although you could probably save much more money by only cooling the house when you really need to. A lot of random events can impact this. So any set schedule is kind of problematic.
Besides... a lot of us have to consider the problem of cooking all of our electronics (including those HTPCs). So letting the house boil in the day may not be the best option.
Per room temperature control probably makes a lot more sense.
Controlling the temp of each room individually would probably be the most effective approach by far.
@jedi I think the advantage with this unit is that it can automatically adjust to current forecasted conditions, but I agree that you can get most of the savings via a programmable thermostat from the store anyway.
As for "cooking your electronics", most programmable thermostats force you to set a max temperature for their energy saving time periods. Mine allows the temp at my place to hit a max of 85F before it turns on the A/C. That prevents daytime temps from reaching the 100s while you're at work.
74f? I keep my place at 69f I'd die at 74.
wow dudes got a big hand
Oncor isn't charging people this money though, it is a company from California. Also, Oncor gets none of the data parsed through the EcoFactor's web servers because this device isn't authorized to use Oncor's information, at least not yet. All this device does is connect to the internet for weather related information, not usage information directly recorded by the utility. There are many other devices that will be able to utilize the power usage data once they are confirmed by Oncor and allowed by each individual customer.
This is great until "Big Brother" uses it to control the temperature of your house at will! No thanks, I'll just keep on using my programmable.
@barnyard
Unless they've already reprogrammed your programmable thermostat! :-O lulz paranoia FTL
"By signing up for this service, you are agreeing to be part of Oncor’s energy conservation program. This means you will be participating in a few high-demand energy events through the summer of 2011. EcoFactor automatically pre-cools your home so you won’t feel the heat."
What the hell does that mean? You are signing up for rolling black-outs?
Fuck Osama Bin Laden WHo shot JR??? Who Shot JR dammnit!! ....
that giant hand will be in my nightmares
I have two AC units so for me that's $215.76 / year.
My 14 year old smart thermostats are doing the pre-cooling trick already.
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