If you live in Ottawa or Toronto (other areas are covered as well) then I suggest you check out the peaksaver program. The idea is to help the utilities control the load on the electricity system during peak periods. By signing up for the program you allow your utility to bump your thermostat setting a few degrees when necessary (think 30+ days in the summer).
For giving up a little control they pass along some nice incentives. You get a one time rebate for signing up. They also come to your home to install a new programmable thermostat which has a pretty cool feature, allowing control from a website. This feature is great if you set the thermostat to hold while you are away on vacation, just login a few hours before you get home and you return to a nice comfortable house. Not bad for something that costs you nothing but a degree or two!
Well I have had the peaksaver thermostat installed for 6 months now, time for a little review. Just to note this has been during the winter months so no external utility control yet. I will report back when the summer heat waves arrive.
I have had only one issue with it so far, it seems to loose what day of the week it is on. I am going to keep an eye on this to try determine why it happens, I will follow up if I come up with anything.
The programming of the thermostat through the main interface is pretty standard. The only thing missing is a fan mode other then auto and on. My brother had a peaksaver install a month ago and it comes with a circulation setting which cycles the fan on for 15 minutes every hour. If you are in an older house this can really help even out the temperature.
The web interface is a little clunky. You can set your week and weekend schedules through the web interface, but I find doing it directly on the thermostat easier. One warning on controlling from the web interface is that you can change the mode (off, heating, cooling) seems like a dangerous thing to get wrong remotely if you live in cold climate. At the moment the only reason I have used the web interface is to bump the heat back up before returning from a weekend away, very nice to come home to a warm house. This single feature is well worth signing up for this program.
Just in case you didn’t listen to the tech when you had the thermostat installed. To login go to your utilities website. Find the link to login to peaksaver. Use the code found on the sticker of the thermostat as your user name. The password is likely the last name of the person listed on your bill.
One feature I would like to see added would be able to read from the device the current temperature and settings. I know some people will cringe at the loss of privacy but being able to check that your house has not frozen while you were away would be worth giving up a little information.
Another update. Twice now the website that allows you to control the peaksaver thermostat has been down. This has been pretty frustrating. I have sent a request into the peaksaver support asking for an explanation, I will post the response when it arrives.
I have not signed up yet and looking for reviews.
How the did summer months go with the A/C?
Thanks,
Victor
Hi Victor,
We aren’t heavy users of A/C in the summer. I have not noticed any adjustments by Hydro Ottawa.
Jamas
Just to clarify, in the description, “you allow your utility to bump your thermostat setting a few degrees”, this is not the case for Hydro Ottawa. Hydro Ottawa sends a signal to your thermostat to cycle your air conditioning in 15 minute intervals (on for 15 minutes and hold for 15 minutes) for up to 4 hours when a peaksaver event is called. The fan continues to run so there may be no noticeable change in your home’s temperature. Hydro Ottawa does not take “control” of your thermostat, or know what temperature it had been set at.
Thanks for the clarification, this 15 cycle minute approach seems to be much less intrusive. A follow up question, during the 15 minute hold cycle what would be displayed on the thermostat?