BC Hydro Peak rewards - earn up to $105 for utility control of your smart devices (Mysa, Sinope, Chargepoint, Juicebox)

Interesting. So we have to let BC Hydro control our devices for a year to get a rebate? How does it work? Will they turn off the heat or just lower the setpoint slightly?

I have a Sinope thermostat for one of my rooms. I wonder if I still qualify for the rebate

Don't sign up for that nonsense LOL. I just dont trust it for some reason.

Don't install this crap, They just want to control your energy usage and tie rewards for "good behavior" into a social credit digital currency system. Welcome to the utopia you didn't see coming.

I find this a little disturbing.

Yeah......... no ... thanks ?......

This dystopia is so… boring.

krn905 wrote: ↑

Don't sign up for that nonsense LOL. I just dont trust it for some reason.

First of all you used image from some other news article (probably clickbaity) for xcelenergy which isn't BC Hydro. It seems that BC hydro allows one to cancel override during event"You may choose to opt-out of an event at any time. ; You will always have full override control of the device.", while xcelenergy doesn't but then they must be paying lot more.

In PSA - the grids do this to ensure grid reliability and no one is tracking you or injecting you with microchips this time ( for those who believed that too) . Just 4 hours and you get $100+ for doing almost nothing. If you cancel the utility override, you don't get paid, that simple. This ain't utopia.

The trial period is over Winter and generally most homes are well insulated that you can easily ride it out. The heat setting going down for 4 hrs by 2-2.5C max won't be noticeable at all. Who knows, your thermometer of thermostat is already miscalibrated and the temperature is already off by 1C.

This is great and all, until you wake up at 4am on that hot, humid summer night (post trial period) because your house is 25 degrees, eventhough you set the A/C to 19 so you could sleep. The house will cool down again, no worries, just in time for the alarm to go off!

goozy1 wrote: ↑ Interesting. So we have to let BC Hydro control our devices for a year to get a rebate? How does it work? Will they turn off the heat or just lower the setpoint slightly?

I have a Sinope thermostat for one of my rooms. I wonder if I still qualify for the rebate

November to March, so winter trial

I got my notice through Chargepoint, and EV charging is the easiest to work around since I mostly charge in the middle of the night as it is.

You lose the rebate if you override more than 50% of the time. I have trouble finding other people's experiences in the past, but will update this thread at the end of the trial. It seems like people may a notification for upcoming event in previous years, but not sure if that's still the case.

Eventually I see it as introducing time of use rates.

RockyMtns27 wrote: ↑ This is great and all, until you wake up at 4am on that hot, humid summer night (post trial period) because your house is 25 degrees, eventhough you set the A/C to 19 so you could sleep. The house will cool down again, no worries, just in time for the alarm to go off!

A lot is changing now due to the recent years of summer heat we've had in BC, but most people I know in BC actually still don't have A/C in their homes.

3express wrote: ↑ A lot is changing now due to the recent years of summer heat we've had in BC, but most people I know in BC actually still don't have A/C in their homes.

Maybe not the last year and this year but more people are getting it for next year. Myself included. Got AC installed in Spring this year just in time for the heat wave

vimal1 wrote: ↑ First of all you used image from some other news article (probably clickbaity) for xcelenergy which isn't BC Hydro. It seems that BC hydro allows one to cancel override during event"You may choose to opt-out of an event at any time. ; You will always have full override control of the device.", while xcelenergy doesn't but then they must be paying lot more.

In PSA - the grids do this to ensure grid reliability and no one is tracking you or injecting you with microchips this time ( for those who believed that too) . Just 4 hours and you get $100+ for doing almost nothing. If you cancel the utility override, you don't get paid, that simple. This ain't utopia.

The trial period is over Winter and generally most homes are well insulated that you can easily ride it out. The heat setting going down for 4 hrs by 2-2.5C max won't be noticeable at all. Who knows, your thermometer of thermostat is already miscalibrated and the temperature is already off by 1C.

That's not a good point. If it's already off by 1 degree then your heat will be 3-3.5 degrees lower than you want instead of the 2-2.5.

Atleast BC Hydro is being upfront about their intention to reduce your power consumption to help them manage the grid, unlike when ERCOT tried to pull this in Texas.

Texas thermostats adjusted remotely during heat wave residents claim

tew wrote: ↑ That's not a good point. If it's already off by 1 degree then your heat will be 3-3.5 degrees lower than you want instead of the 2-2.5.

If it is off the other way, then what you thought was heated up to 24C was probably 22-22.5C already . Meaning , it is psychological.

Also, thanks to construction codes, the homes are well insulated, they lose max 1 C per hour even with -5C outside unless you keep an open window or door. Even frozen food inside a deep freezer can survive 4-5 hours in top summer with no electricity, thanks to codes.

vimal1 wrote: ↑ If it is off the other way, then what you thought was heated up to 24C was probably 22-22.5C already . Meaning , it is psychological.

Also, thanks to construction codes, the homes are well insulated, they lose max 1 C per hour even with -5C outside unless you keep an open window or door. Even frozen food inside a deep freezer can survive 4-5 hours in top summer with no electricity, thanks to codes.

This type of program works a lot better in BC because of the mild temperatures. Not so good when it's -15 to -30 degrees. For summer, I think most people in BC didn't even have AC until very recently.

RockyMtns27 wrote: ↑ This is great and all, until you wake up at 4am on that hot, humid summer night (post trial period) because your house is 25 degrees, eventhough you set the A/C to 19 so you could sleep. The house will cool down again, no worries, just in time for the alarm to go off!

Will never happen in night. The grid needs helps during day when Industrial consumption and residential consumption coincide. E.g. from 4 - 6 pm or 8AM - 10AM ( Totally depends on how much Solar and wind power is there in grid and how many Natural gas generators are under maintenance ). The night is the easiest for the grid.

tew wrote: ↑ This type of program works a lot better in BC because of the mild temperatures. Not so good when it's -15 to -30 degrees. For summer, I think most people in BC didn't even have AC until very recently.

Exactly, ergo, almost free money in BC.

The reason for alarm is higher gas prices due to war.

They want to be able to eventually have the ability to declare some sort of BS "climate emergency" and lock your ability to heat/cool your home, even travel if you have an electric car. "You will have full override control" is a lie in the long-run, all it will take is for negative event to declare "oh its an emergency because xyz" and say they're disabling that feature....for just two weeks.

Read about the situation in Europe and how their gas shortages are causing huge problems, Spain itself mandated limits to cooling in the summer - it's not a stretch to believe they won't do it or want to do it here in the future. The whole thing is a slippery slope where it starts with "just controlling your temperature slightly" to becoming "you can't heat/cool your home beyond x degrees because some bureaucrat decided its good for the climate or that you aren't 'essential' ".

If you really want to help the grid during peak times, couldn't you yourself just set your own settings on the smart thermostat to adjust the heat/cold by a few degrees at certain times? Why give control over it to someone else for a paltry $105?

I've been a part of a similar program in BC (when it started as a Peak Rewards Trial) for over a year. I got in when it was a trial and they gave me for free 5x Sinope thermostats, a Sinope hot water heater load controller, and their Zigbee hub. It seemed a no brainer to get $100s of free devices They also provided an installer for free. Every period when they've controlled my devices has been from 7am to 10am or 5pm to 8pm. They usually also announce the event 24 hours in advance and allow you to opt out if you desire. In the trial, rather than a one time rebate per device they give a $0-$3 (peak event) or $0-$6 (high peak event) rebate directly on your bill depending on how much you've reduced your energy consumption during the peak event. The app shows I've had $52 rebated so far (I think that's only for 2022 or since Feb 22 and I've had this since Oct of last year).

I'm not a fan of their HydroHome app really, as I don't get very good historical information or integration over the Sinope Zigbee thermostats. I do like the hydro usage breakdown I get from the hot water heater, I just wish it would give the same information the thermostats. I might switch back to the Mysa's I had before, but for now this is in place, mainly due to the free hardware that was provided.

I'm not sure how much different the Peak Rewards Trial using their app is compared to the rebates program indicated in the OP.