It’s for the “greater good”.
Denver 7 News- Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during ‘energy emergency’
22,000 people lost control of temperatures in their homes for hours Tuesday
Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner’s Arvada home.
“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico said. “It was hot.”
That’s when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”
Heh.
Few years ago Mrs. Jones convinced me, as wives sometimes can, that we should go along with our city’s new program that hooked us up to similar thing for our AC.
We had some trouble with the AC unit, eventually had to get it replaced (never sure if the city effed it up, but I have my thoughts…), and when I came home after the HVAC dude was there, he had removed the city crap.
“You don’t need it, trust me”, he said.
Needless to say, he got all my business after than
Cars too?
In the name of an ‘Emergency’ you’ve no access to controls too?
Say it ain’t so Jo…say it ain’t so…
The greater good by being computerized hasn’t been working out too well.
Add on to it being more parts and sustainable to electric surge breakage.
Jojo
Am glad my truck is non internet capable…only an EMP will shut this DMax (2006), down..
At this point there’s advantages to sticking with or returning to older systems. Circumventing government control and surveillance becoming a bigger incentive.
Due to safety problems encountered by the sask. government crown corporation, Saskpower, there wasn’t a massive installation of smart meters in the province. “The Saskatchewan government has ordered its power utility SaskPower to remove 105,000 so-called smart meters installed at homes and businesses across the province, following concerns about eight unexplained fires associated with the units.” CBC, July 2014
Late last year they have attempted to restart smart meter installations with a voluntary program but new problems have arise …”Installation will start in January 2022. The schedule for installation across the province is dependent on supply of smart meters from our manufacturer, which has been affected by the global shortage of microchips.” Saskpower website
Personally, I have zero interest in a smart meters, smart thermostats, etc given what governments and their corporate partners have been up to for the past few years. A government willing to freeze your bank account and remove human/charter rights will have no qualms freezing your home to enforce compliance
If you’re having a problem with it not working for you and yet you’re power is still on in the area.
You can unscrew the ring holder and yank the meter straight out.
Carefully bypass this meter positive to positive and negative to negative to bypass the meter itself.
In an emergency situation…
Just be careful that your not grounded or hitting a grounding source.
You can hold onto live wires individually…just don’t cross over or touch anything that could electrocute you.
Thanks for the advice. Being married to an electrian who also enjoys building and fixing houses, cars, appliances himself has saved us many thousands of dollars over the years.
You’re absolutely right about safety. In the company I previously worked for, even experienced journeyman electricians, instrument tech’s, welders and mechanics have had serious accidents.
jokejoke
AC does not have positive and negative!
I was going to comment on “smart” meters but LC says it all. I will continue to pay the extortion the CCP Communist Cesspool Party NDP/LIB have applied.
I don’t have any interest in smart appliances either, but the reality of the matter is that there isn’t enough power. When there isn’t enough power they can either restrict usage with smart appliances or they can restrict usage with rolling blackouts. Either way they control the power.
Yes, but when all the peasants have “smart” appliances, the government can make sure that it’s only the little people that have to suffer for the benefit of the “greater good”. I prefer the equality offered by low-tech blackouts.
This is EXACLY why I ignore all those ads for a “free”, “Intelligent” thermostat.
Imagine the power outages that will occur when the leftest loons try and force everyone to drive EV’s.
The basic idea is you’ll have to take public transit.
EVs will be too expensive to buy, or the recharge cost will be too high.
The electric system won’t be able to handle the load of the few who have EVs, so electricity will be rationed.
And the gang greens are sure to oppose all the new mines required to provide material for EVs, windmills, etc.
As someone once said, “if you give government emergency powers there will always be an emergency”
But, but, but … Xcel Energy has invested $Billions$ in renewable energy!
Windmills galore! Huge Solar Gardens! They are shutting down all their evil coal-fired power plants!
They tried to force me to change my five year old meter with a smart meter, not happening. Those that got the new smart meter power bills have gone through the roof, yea smart meter my hindend. I have zero social media presence, no cell phone and my laptop is old enough that it never gets updates. If the radical left want a piece of me they’re going to need old fashioned methods like a black van and men in cheap suits.
Love it. Good for you.
Our house was built in 2019. But I don’t think we have a smart meter. I should look into it to find out. Certainly no smart thermostat or appliances. I hate them.
Kind of a heads up for me to replace my NEST which I received as a gift. The inconveniences far outweigh the advantages in my opinion and I don’t like being told what a good little energy gnome I was over the last week.
And I certainly don’t like – “Noticed you wanted 21C yesterday at 4:00PM so I took it upon myself to do it for you today”. Kind of like having HAL in your living room. “I’m sorry Burton…I’m afraid I can’t do that” isn’t too far off.
And as someone has already pointed out – Corporations are getting a little too cozy with the green agenda these days.
HAL 9000: “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
From “Little Britain” – The Computer says “No!”
Something a lot of consumers don’t know is that many of these appliances, in addition to trying to connect to your WiFi, will have LTE capability to phone home with data even if you don’t add them to your home network. LTE chipsets are dirt cheap, and they’re being added to the strangest things – refrigerators, hot tubs, even sex toys. What the manufacturers imagine they’ll learn from the data they harvest, I don’t know.
Home convenience appliances like the NEST family of products are straight-up surveillance platforms for advertising companies. Your NEST thermostat tells Google how important climate issues are to you, how compliant you are as a consumer, and can even give clues as to your political and ideological alignment – simply based on how you respond to cues, where you keep it set, and how often you fiddle with it. The data it collects is certainly meaningless in isolation, and probably not accurate in aggregate either, but Google has access to other information. For example, if you subscribe to Netflix or Prime TV, your viewing habits are part of a data sharing agreement between those companies.
You can try this for yourself if you have a smart TV or set-top box. Try watching a few episodes of a show you haven’t watched before on your favourite streaming service, and then look at the top 20 videos that are recommended to you on YouTube, (this works best if you don’t sign in to YouTube on your set-top box or smart TV).
Google is an advertising company masquerading as a technology company. I personally believe that “data-driven” surveillance marketing is worthless and ineffective, but Google has convinced most of the world’s largest companies that it works.
Gotta call BS on your LTE connectivity claims, unless you are saying there are many thousands of secret IMEI accounts that belong to and are paid by the HVAC hardware company, because they don’t like money, and can hide the expenditures from both the customers and shareholders?
Do not buy “intelligent” anything; it will be used for control. Throw away your cell phone, use a land line.
No I am not a Luddite.
A few years ago, my local NG provider offered a “fully programmable thermostat”–one of the “selling features” was that you could set the temp from your cell phone “anywhere in the world.” I didn’t like the idea of being able to program my thermostat remotely, because if I could do it, what’s stopping a hacker or the NG company from doing it? The incentive was a few hundred dollars rebate…I didn’t take the offer. It now looks like a prescient move.
Heh. What if you took the offer, and then declined to install them?
Remember, kiddies, the IoT (internet of things) includes your bank account.
And, of course, everybody needs the new smart doorbells. It is ALL about control.
Toronto hydro gives them out on a regular basis… the trick is to make sure you have a manual backup
I replaced my 40 year old mercury thermostat, with a NEST thermostat about 3 years ago.
I kept the 40 year old furnace, as there was nothing wrong with it, and it isn’t “smart chip” enabled; therefore can’t be “de-programmed”. The resulting setup keeps the home at around 19.5 celsius in the cold months. The furnace is typically off when the temperature hits 32-36 C in the summer months. The NEST thermostat is behind a high end commercial style router so can’t be “futzed” around with by the ubiquitous hackers or busy body government twits.
If it is too hot, I turn on the fans or retreat to the basement, which is typically 10 C cooler…no need yet for AC chip enabled de-programming.
In the event, of an earthquake or the utility shutting off the gas; I took the liberty of borrowing my good neighbour’s chain saw and cut down the dead 80 foot alder tree on my property. I did this without the nitwit government requirement of an arborist report or hiring a pro tree faller in an urban area. Full disclosure: I’ve worked in a few sawmills, and have felled 100′ douglas firs for friends on their property. eg. it helps when you know how not to get killed or injured around heavy timber. Now I have about a couple of cords of alder firewood to burn in the natural fireplace, in case the dim bulbs shut down the gas supply in the midst of winter, like Germany is about to experience…
In the meantime, the home insurance nags have said they won’t insure for flooding due to the gas hot water heater’s age; which tops out at 60 gallons. The 60 gallon capacity is great, as it provided hot water, even though we had no electrical power for 5 days during a wind storm several years ago. The hot water heater I keep at the 50% setting as I don’t need boiling tea water from the faucet. It’s now about 20 years old and has lasted, because the lower heat setting doesn’t induce metal fatigue. It also is not “chip enabled”. Regardless, the insurance company won’t insure for flooding, due to the hot water heater’s age. I told them I have a floor drain in the laundry room and I’m not replacing the hot water heater anytime soon, with some “smart enabled” hot water heater that will give me a cold shower in the winter when you lose power or gas. 🙂
Cheers,
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
The “smart” thermostat is the best argument for going off the grid. Energy, above most everything else (except currency control) is far too important to allow in the hands of the state, the elected sociopaths, and the unconstrained zealots of the bureaucracy.
Not everybody on the XCel grid got shut down, just the nitwits that signed up for the load-shedding program and received a few bucks a year. Losing control for a few hours a year is the COST of receiving the rebate. I have no sympathy, there are too many people expecting freebies.
It is notable that Denver has been infested with many Californians fleeing their devastated state, I would guess these are some of the grifters advocating more government, happy that they got more government good-and-hard.
Everything that happens in your home will be known to Amazon…if you allow it.
Ring, Nest, Roomba and the controller, what’s her name? None of this shit will ever get in my house.
https://marketrealist.com/tech-comm-services/why-is-amazon-buying-roomba/
Too bad about Roomba. I guess that if I ever want another one, it’ll be some Chinese brand.
People’s trust in corporations and government-approved technology is quite amusing to watch.
“We must do ALL we can for the poor helpless Ukrainians as they struggle against the evil diabolical Putin! A little sweat never hurt anyone. More money! More weapons! More photo ops! More
virtue signalingsweating!CNN and BBC tell me that the victorious forces of Ukraine are killing evil Russian soldiers daily by the thousands and they have nearly pushed them back to the outskirts of Moscow!
What? I see no incongruity here. Gell Mann amnesia? What’s that?
I’m telling mommy on you!”
You’re as tiresome as Trudeau is feminine.
You’re as intelligent as a fart. Especially Trudeau’s farts. Which you seem to know intimately by scent. Do you sniff them from behind or from the front?
“We penetrate ze thermostats”
I foresee a business opportunity.
Just as we tradesmen have installed dummy thermostats in government offices for decades,the new “Smart Age” will require ever more blatant lying.
Hook up your manual thermostat and set it where you desire.
Leave the “Smart device” connected and either control its environment to the “desired by your masters” settings or program it to lie.
For the best revenge is to take the rebate and convince the monitor you are compliant..
Exactly how you deal with the highway bandits with that yellow stripe on their pants..
“Yes Sir .No Sir”.Smile and wave them away..
Then fight them in court.
And of course..Lying to Dear Leader types is always a win.
They believe they have your compliance.And leave you alone.
You get what you need and can send the Dear Leader into endless loops..
A perfect example is Emperor Justine the Petulant..Totally oblivious to reality,it obsesses over punishing the disobedient.
Never realizing the sycophants are all laughing at it.
While appearing to obey.
LOLs.. My wife is the Queen of the thermostat.. Either way I have no control over it.. Who knows? maybe Justin could save me some money..