This week the Washington Post ran a story about the millions of Americans who do not control the thermostats in their own homes. It's a feature of a deal that many folks make-- in exchange for a cut on their utility costs, they let the electric company take control of the HVAC in their home. It's one more way that the US is finding to cope with a demand for electricity that is, a certain moments, outstripping the ability to generate and deliver the needed power. These deals are pretty commonplace; at my folks house, certain major appliances cannot be run during certain mornings of the week.
I did something like that when we lived in Houston in 1999-2003. I don't recall the details except that it was a pilot program that installed a device in the breaker panel and used a phone line (or maybe it was my early internet connection) to trigger changes. And they paid me to participate in the program and when it was finished they sent someone to remove the device from the panel box. I think they changed the thermostat temperature by a degree or 2 but mostly left it alone because we already used energy saving settings.
I did something like that when we lived in Houston in 1999-2003. I don't recall the details except that it was a pilot program that installed a device in the breaker panel and used a phone line (or maybe it was my early internet connection) to trigger changes. And they paid me to participate in the program and when it was finished they sent someone to remove the device from the panel box. I think they changed the thermostat temperature by a degree or 2 but mostly left it alone because we already used energy saving settings.