Free Money for Duke Energy Customers

Posted on Apr 6 2010 by Daniel

by @heylovedc

I received a letter yesterday from my friendly local Duke-Energy office, letting me know that they’re re-branding a load shedding program they’ve had around for ages. The “Air Conditioning Load Control” program (major snore) is now “Power Manager” (merely a yawn).

Here’s how it works: Duke Energy installs a remote control device on your air conditioning compressor and you allow them to turn off the AC during the day when you’re out of the house and they’re struggling to keep up with demand on the grid. They then give you a credit on your bill for all your trouble.

I participated last year, and got a respectable $8 credit each month of the cooling season.

North Carolina residents have to pay an installation fee if they don’t already have the device, but it should pay for itself in one cooling season. The terms vary by state, and you can find more info on the website for Duke Energy North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio customers.

To sign up for Power Manager in North Carolina, you must:

Be a Duke Energy residential customer.
Own your single-family home.
Have a functional central air conditioning unit with an outside compressor.

You can sign up by calling 1-800-777-9898.

You’ll be tempted to put this off, wondering whether the investment is worth it. And by next summer, you’ll be kicking yourself for missing a whole year of savings! Do it now!

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Tags: Duke Energy, efficiency, electricity, HVAC, money Category: Energy, Residential

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Pat Cochran

I have a load control device at my house. My question is; how can I tell if my air cond. unit has a problem when the compressor does not start, or if it is the load control unit shutting off the power. The wires are all sealed and I don’t see anywhere to test to see if the power is shut off.
Thanks, Pat Cochran
http://www.fireflyeco.com Daniel

Good question. I’m not usually home during the day to notice if the AC goes out, but there is a box above my heatpump that belongs to Duke. It has a couple of lights that may indicate the status – I’ll have to take a look and get back to you.

Do you have a relay near your air conditioner as well?
rob

Don’t be fooled by this program. This is just a profit making opportunity for Duke Energy. The amount of energy they save is nothing compared to the amount of energy used to get your houses back to normal temperature. They cycle your ac on and off while your at work so when you come home the temp is 20 degrees hotter than normal. This causes your ac to run for 12 to 20 hours just to catch up. Do the math for your self and see who is profiting here.
Anonymous

Rob,
This is a fairly controversial topic in the efficiency community. Check out this post where I borrow the analogy that keeping your house cool all day is like keeping a beach ball with a small hole inflated. http://fireflyeco.com/2010/10/beach-ball/

There is a case where you would use more energy by allowing them to shut off your AC, but I’d have to do some weather analysis to see how often it happens.

In my case, I have a programmable thermostat so the AC doesn’t run much during the day anyway.

Free Money for Duke Energy Customers

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