Talk of The Villages Florida - SECO Energy Throttling Yesterday: Remote Device(s) Management??

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- - SECO Energy Throttling Yesterday: Remote Device(s) Management?? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/seco-energy-throttling-yesterday-remote-device-s-management-359301/)

They messaged me as well. And around 2:00 the settings on my Ecobee thermostat changed. The setting changed to eco+. The temp was raised. Then around 6:00 oil was to the settings I had it set at.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guinness835 (Post 2437889)

I got the same email yesterday too. I am new to this, but knew I had signed up for it. The funny thing is since we are gone right now, I have the A/C set to 79. I noticed when SECO took control, they changed the A/C to 75. I emailed them and they said they cool for an hour and then set the temperature higher for 3 hours. They then set the thermostat to 80 for those 3 hours. I’m not sure how this saves energy by cooling my house 4 degrees for an hour and then changing it to only 1 degree above where I had set it for those 3 hours.

It saves them energy for the time period of the brownout but may not save you energy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Fr (Post 2438168)

It saves them energy for the time period of the brownout but may not save you energy.

It's about reducing peak demand which saves everyone money in the long term.

Quote:

Originally Posted by idlewild (Post 2438154)

You do know you are opted into making monthly donations to the SECO Foundation right?

You do know you can opt out of the program....right? By the way, there are already a few threads on this topic....

Thread #1- https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ECO+foundation

Thread #2- https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ECO+foundation

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2437897)

I don't have a smart thermostat but I wonder if there is a way to configure it to deny/block the utility access feature.

I would never get a remote thermostat. My house is set on 73 day and night.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bodrum (Post 2438210)

I would never get a remote thermostat. My house is set on 73 day and night.

Same here. I have a dog with a double coat. That would be cruel to turn up thermostat. We keep ours at 72 during the day and 69 at night.

Way too "Big Brother" for me. I like saving money, but not at the cost of losing control of my thermostat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by La lamy (Post 2438243)

Way too "Big Brother" for me. I like saving money, but not at the cost of losing control of my thermostat.

But what about your remote?

I got this message, I think SECO thinks I watch too much tv too.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly, and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to . . . the outer limits :popcorn:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bodrum (Post 2438210)

I would never get a remote thermostat. My house is set on 73 day and night.

72-73 for us too, except at night it’s even lower. We opted out of SECO controlling our thermostat, so have never received that email.

Quote:

Originally Posted by idlewild (Post 2437861)

Yesterday, just after 1:00 PM I received the following email from SECO with the subject “An Event is Happening Soon”

“Hi idlewild,

On June 9, SECO Energy will manage one or more of your enrolled devices beginning at 2:00 pm to help lower energy use during peak demand. The event will last 4 hours.

You are always in control and can opt out of this event by manually adjusting your device during the event window.

If you have any questions email us at smartconnect@virtual-peaker.com.

Thanks,

The team at SECO Energy“

Then, at 7:00 PM I received a follow up email thanking me for participating.

QUESTIONS:

1. I’m fairly certain but did anyone else receive this message?

2. I appreciate that they were throttling the load during peak temperature extremes (95+) but isn’t this Florida? How often does SECO do this? How

3. (a) I don’t know what “device” I had “enrolled” and/or how I could see that. Does anyone? (b) I’ll assume this is our HVAC but I didn’t see any thermostat temperature changes or other “management” of said “device” from SECO during this 4-hour block. Does anyone? And do finally (c) I also didn’t understand what they meant but overriding my participation by manually adjusting it. How do I opt out of otherwise “unenroll” my device(s) that are apparently opted in automatically?

4. Anything else I should be aware of as a new resident of Florida and SECO customer here?

I’m all for doing my part to help reduce the load (eg turning off lights,, increasing temperatures slightly, etc) but this email hit me as a surprise especially as we weren’t home and have dogs for whom we needed the house to stay cool. (Coming from a major Yankee city, typically we get such notices from our previous energy suppliers the day prior asking customers broadly to lower consumption during a specific period of time - not less than an hour prior to and certainly not in the same “we’re going to adjust your devices for you” vain).

Thanks in advance for any insight here and please forgive me if this is duplicative as it seems it should be relatively comment (I searched the forums prior to posting and couldn’t find any similar posts).

No that has never happened to me. Something seems off. I wouldnt trust it

Quote:

Originally Posted by La lamy (Post 2438243)

Way too "Big Brother" for me. I like saving money, but not at the cost of losing control of my thermostat.

I agree - especially not fully understanding how they're actually controlling it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimkerr (Post 2438224)

Same here. I have a dog with a double coat. That would be cruel to turn up thermostat. We keep ours at 72 during the day and 69 at night.

A man after my own heart!

We keep ours at the exact same temperatures and sometimes lower to 68 at night. Studies have shown the ideal sleep temperature to sleep at is actually 60-65 degrees - yikes!