January 9, 2008

The air conditioning czar

Is the government planning to shut off your air conditioner on the hottest days of the year?

Ironically, these proposed regulations designed, in part, to make customers more sensitive to market conditions and the price of electricity, also include a provision that appears to subject everyone to the whims of an air conditioning czar.

New air conditioners sold in California under these rules would have to include themostats that send price signals to customers, allowing them to set their units to shut down when the price of power climbs to a certain point. So far, so good.

But Section 112 (c)) 2B on page 64 also has a paragraph about "emergency events." It says every new AC unit must also be programmable by radio signal from the utility so that it can be set at any temperature point, and that setting will not be adjustable by the consumer during an "emergency event." While the utility would do the setting, the government would no doubt do the emergency declarations.

California's energy efficiency rules have saved a huge amount of energy and money and helped clean the environment. While any particular rule can appear to be nitpicky in isolation, taken together they have been a good thing.

But allowing an outside agency, either a utility or a government agency, to shut down your appliances by remote control against your will is taking things too far, don't you think?

Posted by dweintraub on January 9, 2008 5:52 AM