Last summer, when peak temperatures -- and peak electricity load -- hit New York City, there was a call from Mayor Bloomberg for people to turn down their air conditioners to no lower than 79 degrees. One of the many problems with his plea was that he announced it on his weekly radio broadcast, which is slotted to be aired around 11 a.m. when most people are far away from their home air conditioners (not to mention that New Yorkers don’t tune in in droves for the Mayor’s radio program). For at least a fraction of New York City residents, 2012 will be different. To combat peak demand, Consolidated Edison has an expanded pilot this summer to tackle a small portion of the city’s unique energy hogs: window and wall air conditioning units. ConEd will equip 10,000 window AC units in several large apartment buildings with ThinkEco’s modlet smart plug and a smartAC thermostat, which will essentially turn the room AC unit into something that can be controlled via the internet or smart phone.

The utility will take applicants from across the city’s five boroughs, but will primarily focus on load pockets that are most strained during summer months. New York City is unique in its penetration of window AC units. In many other areas of the country, the prevalence of these units is related to income. About a third of households below the poverty line have room AC, rather than central, compared to about 15 percent of those that have an income above $100,000, according to EIA. In New York City, however, there are about six million room AC units. The voluntary residential demand response program, which will shed 5 megawatts during peak, is not the first for New York. The city already has 34 megawatts of DR from 25,000 central AC customers, about 80 percent of which are residential. ConEd has about 500 megawatts total enrolled in all of its demand response programs. Residential DR is still in its infancy for most utilities. Many have pilots or old-school programs that cycle off hot water heaters or AC units with little to no control on the homeowner’s end.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric, however, is moving into 150,000 homes in the coming years to cut peak demand to offset new generation. For utilities that need to offset upgrades, the cost of a little technology in select homes is far cheaper than new power plants or other significant grid investment. For the pilot in New York, applicants will be taken both from individuals who pay their bill directly and people who live in buildings where the electricity bill is rolled into their mortgage or maintenance charges, according to Adrienne Ortizo, program manager for the program, CoolNYC. The cost of the modlets and smartAC thermostats is about $200 per installation. In last year’s pilot, there was an average 26 percent savings across the 500 units during peak events. For the program, customers will get the modlet and thermostat for free, along with a $25 gift card in exchange for allowing the utility to cycle down their AC during peak events, which there will probably be just a few of during the summer.

ConEd was not specific about how high it would set the AC units, but last year’s pilot found that the AC could go to about 72 before people noticed a change in temperature. Each event will be based around the number of participants and average room temperature. The modlet is a tool used not only to reach a large swath of residential units in older cities, such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston, also to help utilities access peak reduction in some lower-income neighborhoods that have a larger number of window AC units. how to fix a house ac unitThe problem, however, is that for demand response programs, households must also have internet, which has a lower penetration in lower-income neighborhoods. central ac units pricesOrtizo acknowledged that having a computer and internet requirement was somewhat limiting for enrollment in CoolNYC as it expands.should i buy a used ac unit

The program has had about 1,300 applicants so far, according to Ortizo, and the utility is reaching out to building tenants and managers in the target buildings to fill out the program by mid-June. The technology is key to the DR program, but the website will also provide tips and suggestions for people to get the most out of their AC settings. The pilot is significantly larger than last year, but Ortizo said it was unclear how much it would scale in following years, although it will continue. Ideally, she said, it would be streamlined with the other central AC demand response program. For now, the utility is still squarely in the pilot phase when it comes to residents and DR, although a successful run this year could earn ConEd a green light from the New York Public Service Commission down the road.Can I save money by getting a window air conditioner and using my central air less? August 8, 2012   Subscribe Will turning up the thermostat on my central air and buying a window AC unit for the one room I use the most make a significant difference in my electric bill?

This is hopefully a simple question, but I'm not confident that my assumptions are correct. I recently bought a house, it's a 2-story that's about 1750 square feet, located in Michigan USA. The house has a central air unit that looks very very old, but still functions well. The thermostat in the house is on the ground floor, and I've kept it set to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit when I'm home, since the upper floor tends to be at least 7-8 degrees warmer than the ground floor, and I spend more of my time upstairs. I am currently the only person living here. The outside temperatures during July were generally in the 90s, occasionally in the 100s. I knew that cooling a 1750 square foot house was going to cost more than cooling my old 1-bedroom apartment. But I was surprised by just how much more. My electric bill last month was $260, twice the highest amount I ever paid while living in an apartment! I'm guessing that the AC is the main difference between the bills at these two places, since everything else I own is more or less the same, and is getting the same amount of use (same computers and TVs, comparable refrigerator, etc).

I'm trying to figure out how to save money on my electric bill while at the same time cooling my upstairs bedroom/office more effectively. I'm thinking I could put a window air conditioner in my bedroom upstairs, and then turn the downstairs thermostat up to 78 or so. My question is though: Would this actually save me any money? I'd still be using the central air to cool the rest of the house, just not as much. Would the difference be enough to justify the cost of the window unit? In particular, I was looking at purchasing the Frigidaire FRA086AT7, which costs $200. To justify that expense in the short-term, I'd hope to save at least $40/month on my electric bill by using this strategy. I really don't have a good feel for that the impact on my energy usage would be. Especially since I don't intend to turn the central air off altogether. If this wouldn't be an effective money-saver, do you have any other suggestions? If you have any hard data, or you've done something like this and can tell me about your experience, I'd love to hear it!