DENVER — During the dog days of summer, it’s important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.
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.”
“Normally, when we see a message like that, we’re able to override it,” Talarico said. “In this case, we weren’t. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79.”
On social media, dozens of Xcel customers complained of similar experiences — some reporting home temperatures as high as 88 degrees.
Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday.
“It’s a voluntary program. Let’s remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives,” said Emmett Romine, vice president of customer solutions and innovation at Xcel.
Customers receive a $100 credit for enrolling in the program and $25 annually, but Romine said customers also agree to give up some control to save energy and money and make the system more reliable.
“So, it helps everybody for people to participate in these programs. It is a bit uncomfortable for a short period of time, but it’s very, very helpful,” said Romine.
This is the first time in the program’s six year span that customers could not override their smart thermostats, Romine said. He said the “energy emergency” was due to an unexpected outage in Pueblo combined with hot weather and heavy air conditioner usage.
But Talarico said he had no idea that he could be locked out of the thermostat. While he has solar panels and a smart thermostat to save energy, he says he did not sign up to have this much control taken away.
“To me, an emergency means there is, you know, life, limb, or, you know, some other danger out there — some, you know, massive wildfires,” Talarico said. “Even if it’s a once-in-a-blue-moon situation, it just doesn’t sit right with us to not be able to control our own thermostat in our house.”
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I wonder how long until these programs aren’t voluntary.
they’re so ubiquitous, it doesn’t matter if you consent or not.
a lady was telling me the other day she’d be sitting with her husband in the car talking about this or that, and their cell phones will start showing advertisements for what they were talking about.
Definitely true. Has happened to me many times.
The car is listening too. The only place you can speak freely is somewhere you can’t get cell reception.
After the attack on the pentagon on 911 by that missl…er I mean bunch of muslims flying a jet airliner after taking some classes at that flight school in Florida, was able to buy one of these at a yard sell they had to help all the brave wounded warriors.
“The car is listening too”
Why I have 3 paid off vehicles 2006, 2001, 2012. All with no data connections. And anyone who installs a ring camera, nest camera, smart anything, and/or Alexa is a dumphuk.
Any one wonder why video only is giving you $500 for ANY old TV trade in for a smart TV?
“when it’s free, YOU are the product.”
(that includes boards like this, by the way ….)
Ring microphone can hear across the street so if your neighbor has one and you’re chatting with someone outside your home it’s listening. They’re everywhere. Street lights are listening too. They are quietly fitting them with microphones.
the pick-up and clarity can NOT be good.
Unless its near a grocery store shooting……..
I thought onstar was ubiquitous by 2012.
Only after a certain year.
a “smart meter, which we ALL have, is already designed to cut all your power. the newer AC unit installations usually have a control box to cut off power to it, in return some providers would give you a rate cut.
FPL offers something similar….
Lowering your electric bill is easy with On Call
Receive a credit on your monthly bill when you participate in On Call. This program gives FPL the option to temporarily switch off your air conditioning and/or heating along with the optional appliances you choose, such as your water heater or pool pump. You could save more than $90 a year even if we never need to turn off your appliances.
https://www.fpl.com/save/programs/on-call.html
Yea! Free shit! a mentality that isn’t so different than your dog jonesin for a treat.
Amazing bad for the company, but shame on the customers for not bypassing the themostat – takes less than 5 minutes, is VERY simple, and there are tons of how-to articles on the internet.
Never let anything or anyone control YOU.
Do Not Comply with everyone and everything that is a lie or is lying.
When a leader or corporation tells you not to do something then find a way to do it.
IKR, or at the least put an electric heater under the thermostat. BUT we can’t believe TPTB don’t have Felony Energy Fraud legislation already to go for a nobody-read-that-rider vote.
Then bill taxpayers for tamper-proof, thermostat IR surveillance cameras (constitution be damned), mandate federally remote-controlled thermostats or NO electricity (N/A in Texas*), and jack-booted (or Jane-booted if you are a blue stater) Dept of Energy subcontractor mercs to thump heads against the January woodstove insurrection. Criminalize comfort… no matter your income or health needs.
It is coming because it is already here. WEF inspired Feds borrow ideas from China, test in U.S., sell to EUstan via Big Tech. Follow me for more easy tyranny recipes.
The dumbass signed up for the program and didn’t read the fine print — fuck him and his “partner”
It’s not about these fags. It’s about how far they will push this. They want to be able to limit, shutdown, hijack everything in your life.
When I moved into my house a few years ago, I was told by the power company I would have to upgrade my power meter to a “smart meter”. I said I didn’t want that, so they said I would have to manually read the meter every month and call it into the comapny. I think by state law they had to offer that option, so they cannot force the “smart” meter on people (how long will that last, ya think?). Anyway, that’s what I do because I don’t trust those fuckers to turn over control for “my” convenience — plus I read about how those smart meters put out a lot of bad RF radiation.
we received no notice, they just installed the spy meters.
left my toilet running, got an automated call from the water company the next morning. “we noticed your water usage is high” ….
No one ever asked or told me.
In some southeastern states, they had to offer the option to opt out but you have to pay $10 per month for a guy to come out and read the meter.
Worth it.
“They want to be able to limit, shutdown, hijack everything in your life”
(nod) because in their religion, everything in the universe, including your life, is their property, and any usage you make of it that doesn’t benefit them is theft from them. they’ll seize all your property and put you on a treadmill and be perfectly fine with it.
The weak and the wretched shall inherit the Earth, until the wolves devour them.
Sucks to be them haahahahaha. Fools for a few bucks. Is it worth it when you have to pry your sweaty stinking underwear of your ass and balls.
“Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during ‘energy emergency’”
test run.
next up – “millions of (fill in the blank) customers locked out of (fill in the blank) during (fill in the blank)”.
Serial killers like to torment their victims before they dispense with them. And when they do dispose of them they feel nothing about it, no remorse at all, because they think their victim deserves it for being “weak” and less intelligent (evil) then them. Pretty much sums up elite thinking.
Psychopaths never were that hard to figure out.
They’re also notoriously easy to deal with and to manipulate. The trick is to play stupid and never telegraph your intentions.
“never telegraph your intentions”
‘specially on the net ….
Strange game, Dr. Falken. The only winning move is not to play!!!
Literally, slow boiling the frog in its own habitat.
Just another reason to trust those high-tech folks and their newfangled devices.
Unhook from the programme as much as possible, dearies. And remember: you are the carbon they want to eliminate.
Auntie
“Rewards”
Appearing on the horizon:
WEF AI to Decide what Industries to Liquidate to “Stop Economic Growth”
4.23: Some economists think the solution is to reengineer our economies completely. They make the case that what we should really be doing is weaning ourselves from the addiction to growth and shifting to a post-growth economy (later defined as liquidation of various industries — I.C)…
How would we decide what is unnecessary, asks the voice prompter. How would we resolve our disagreements? How to make these decisions?
The answer is, says WEF, is that we need to enlist help from AI systems, in order to answer the questions such as which industries to do away with.
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/wef-ai-to-decide-what-industries
Anyone shocked by this needs a brain transplant. What did these dummies think a “smart” thermostat was for? How lazy do you have to be to not get up and change the temp yourself?
“think a ‘smart’ thermostat was for?”
they thought it was for them.
If you buy stuff that’s “smart”, it’s because you’re not.
now now, thoughtless trust plays a role too.
Tuff shit, talarico.
If it was up to your WEPH masters use- meters (water, energy, food) and housing thermostats would be installed INTO the Lumpen.
Talk about convenience and mobility!
their convenience and our immobility.
Years ago when they first came out with satellite TV my mother got a dish. Not trusting electricity she would unplug it every night. Every Sunday night she would lose her signal. In those days people were getting those illegal chips and steal the signals. SO the dish people would change some code every weekend to overcome the problem. Her dish not being plugged in would not get the automatic reprogramming. I would have to call in to the company and give them the serial number of her box. Immediately the signal would come back. I thought back then, they can turn on her box from 23,000 miles in space with the push of a button; not the neighbor’s box, her box. Spooky. Fast forward to today (think Sirrus radio in your car or truck) if they can turn your radio on and off they must be able to shut down your vehicle too. We’ve been had!!!
“they must be able to shut down your (fill in the blank) too.”
not everything. not yet anyway ….
(remember those heart plugs in dune? “don’t worry, we all have them here.”)
Not Dick Cheney. He doesn’t have a heart.
Or a soul.
heart plugs in dune? no I really don’t. they had suits that recycled the water from their ‘waste’ but what is this?
It was a control device used by the Harkonnens. A simple pull-tab that ripped a big hole in your heart so you would immediately bleed out.
The “emergency” is that the elites allow the peasants to have climate control at all.
The only smart things in our home are me and my wife. That will never change…unless we get a visitor.
As a proffesional my advice to customers is if your saving money,you’ll be uncomfortable.
Folks would sign up for the stat and program and would be unhappy when summer came along.It reduces the the POWER companies peak load,not YOURS!