A Program of Dubious Value
If you followed my blog “Journey into Sunland”, you already
know I’m not a big fan of NVEnergy. To be fair, in the past, NVEnergy had some
worthwhile programs. The solar energy program offered by NVEnergy is fraught
with problems and leads to finger-pointing between the company and the Public
Utility Commission of Nevada. But that’s a discussion for another time.
This time around I’d like to tell you about the company’s
newest offering which is already starting to short-circuit. The new energy
saver of questionable value is called mPower. This latest offering provides you
with a free programmable thermostat and free installation if you have a wireless router
and a high-speed Internet connection. The promise from the company is it will
save you money, however, after investigating how this operates I seriously
question the value of the promise.
Oh, before you stop reading this thinking because you are in
another state this does not apply to you, think again. Pacific Gas and Electric
in California is working on a similar program with Honeywell, maker of digital programmable
thermostats. At least two electric companies in the state of Texas are working
with the EcoFactor and Nast Labs on Big Brother type ideas to track your
electric usage.
About a week ago I had a flyer attached to my backdoor the
described this new NVEnergy offering. If memory serves me right the thermostat
is valued at $299 and the installation is $99 all for free. That word free
makes my mouth water. That salivation stopped after I did some homework.
Before we get to the results of my research, let’s talk
about the word value and the word free for a few seconds. As
mentioned earlier, the declared value of the NVEnergy thermostat is
$299. That number is based on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price and not
necessarily what you would pay for an Internet programmable thermostat. I found
several Internet capable programmable thermostats online for about one half the
price of the NVEnergy thermostat. Then there is the installation value
of $99. If you have basic skills and can read a schematic you can install the
thermostat in about 15 minutes. The question then becomes, “is that worth $99?”
My answer is I doubt it.
Now let’s examine the word free. Of course, the power
company is promoting this as a free option. But keep in mind although the
company wants you to believe it is free, it is actually being paid for
by all of the NVEnergy customers that pay their bill every month. In the event
this program falls flat NVEnergy will just go to the Public Utility Commission
of Nevada and request a rate increase to cover the cost of the failed program.
The literature for the mPower program touts 10 to 15%
savings on your summer cooling. I believe you’ll find like most sales
literature, these numbers are slightly inflated and perhaps highly inflated
when you consider some other factors.
If you have a regular thermostat and are not on any special
money-saving programs offered by NVEnergy (such as the Time Of Use program),
and you are willing to let the electric utility adjust your thermostat on
occasion from their location, then at least 10% savings may not be out of the
question. However, I do believe 15% savings would be a stretch. If you already
own a programmable thermostat and use it wisely, along with being on the Time
Of Use program you might have trouble realizing any savings.
Here are the basics of the program. The electric utility company
installs a digital programmable thermostat in your home, which then feeds your
program information over the internet to the utility company. The thermostat
has four program settings, plus a setting for when you go away for a weekend or
on vacation. You can also access this digital thermostat from utility company’s
website and make changes to the program virtually anywhere you have Internet
access. Admittedly, there are some pretty cool features with this (cool pun
intended). Let’s say you forget to shut off the thermostat before you leave for
a vacation and realize it while you are at the airport. If the airport has
Wi-Fi access and you have your computer, you can connect to the website and
shut off your thermostat. Kind of neat, huh? Now let’s say you come home from
vacation and your thermostat is off. Before
you leave the airport to go home you can, once again, connect to the website
and set your heater or air conditioner so that when you get to your house the
heating or cooling process has already started.
Part of the money-saving factor is the utility company will
ask you if they can, on occasion, adjust your thermostat a few degrees. Their
literature says the few degrees won’t be noticed. Likewise, that is where some
of the money savings is realized.
In the long run, the utility company is getting the lion’s share of the benefits. Here’s how. The utility
company is able to monitor your settings on the thermostat and the outside
weather conditions. They can then gauge how much electricity you will use over
a given period of time with your automatic thermostat. Now let’s say 100,000
people sign up for this program. They will be able to gauge the electric usage
of all of those customers during a certain period of time. This means the
energy company will be able to plan energy usage and buy or sell electricity
accordingly and perhaps getting the best rate possible. This is definitely a
plus for them.
A couple of things really bother me about this program. In
order to get on the program at the NVEnergy website, you are asked to enter
your account information and it will check to see if you have a digital smart
meter. When I did that I got a message saying I was ineligible because I had an
old meter. Their system was not intelligent enough to know that I have had a
smart meter on my home for more than four years.
Then there’s the strange coincidence of the electric bill I
just got this month. Normally I get an electric bill for 28, 29, 30, or 31
days. This month I got an electric bill for 64 days, which happen to be some of
the hottest days of the summer. Around this time of year my electric bill is
about $220 per month. Of course, with a 64 day electric bill the total was
$445. That is still about $95 less than the average home my size pays for electricity. But, I guarantee a lot of people failed to calculate that they
have not had an electric bill for two months and have already spent that cash.
That means they’re going to come up short of cash, probably a little cranky, and it won’t
be because of the heat. If NVEnergy’s system is not smart enough to mail me a
monthly electric bill, how can I trust them to get this program correct?
The question really comes down to how much do you want your
utility company to know about your electric usage habits? I know it really
doesn’t seem like much, however, with all of the other ‘I Spy’ things going on
these days, do you really want the utility company to be part of it? This is
especially true when you can achieve nearly the same results by buying the thermostat
yourself and not connecting it to the utility’s website. I don’t know about
you, but I am particularly tired of Big Brother spying on everything I do.
Think about it. The satellite company or cable company can
tell when you tune into porn. Of course, they can’t tell what you are doing
while you are watching it. That is, at least for now.
© Krystalco LLC 2013 Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or
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