Just got this email from my power provider… Pacific Power.

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  Looking for a smart way to give your holiday an extra spark? Celebrate summer comfort with a smart thermostat that gives you convenience and savings. Now through July 16, upgrade and save. Get a smart thermostat for as low as $49.99.smart thermostats Remember, smart thermostats do it all:Cut down on energy usage and cost.Adapt to your preferences by automatically adjusting the temperature.Control the comfort of your home from your laptop or with the mobile app. Fourth of July promotions are available for a limited time. Start saving today! ORDER NOW  
 Have questions? Contact Us | 1-888-221-7070 | Español 1-888-225-2611  Unsubscribe This email was sent by Pacific Power, 825 NE Multnomah St., Portland, OR 97232 © 2023 Pacific Power 
If they can’t control you from a smart meter, now they want to control you with your thermostat and make you pay for it… if you can control it from your phone app or your computer, someone else can hack it beside the power company. I’ll pass. I can control the old analog thermostat as easy as I am not lazy.

Any of you readers have this abomination in your house?

31 thoughts on “Just got this email from my power provider… Pacific Power.”

  1. I do have a programmable thermostat in the house, but set it to hold the temp I want. It just seems more reliable than the old mercury switches. I turn on a fan when it gets hot, throw on a sweater and a blanket when it gets cold. I try to keep the “Smart” accessories to a minimum.
    Okrathief

  2. Not just no, hell no.

    I used a meme from Zendo Deb at 357 Magnum back in ’20. It’s about the difference between IT pros, programmers and engineers versus the tech lovers and early adopters. <a href="https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/11/lets-be-clear-about-that-michigan.html"<jpeg at the bottom.

    Engineers/programmers: the most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun next to it to shoot it if it makes an unexpected noise.

    My 2004 printed cacked off at the end of last year and I got a newer one, but the gun is still handy.

  3. Aug. 2022 Thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes. A message on the thermostat’s stated the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”

  4. yeah, they send me shit like this all the time. doesn’t matter as I heat the house with a wood stove. stays at 74 or so all thru the winter here. if it drops below 20 degrees I fire up the upstairs stove as well. but most of the time the down stairs stove will keep the house warm. now the basement might get to 80 or so sometimes in winter. I have been looking at ads to find old washers and dryers
    made before 1980. a friend of mine has a old fridge that he is keeping. made
    back in 1969 by GE that just keeps working. he turned down a lot of offers for it
    too. anything made in the last 10 years or so is like a damn Bic lighter.
    smart anything is not. as they say, old school rules.

    • When our old fridge died (it was only mostly dead, not all dead), the service tech found the dead relay in about two minutes; he had one in the truck, and it was running again. He spent about fifteen minutes cleaning it all up underneath and said: “Don’t ever let this one get away. I make a living repairing or scrapping fridges that are five to eight years old.” I’ve no idea how old mine is, I got it used in 1984.

  5. I have one of those t’stats, but said “HELL no!” when Edison wanted to take control of it. The power companies CANNOT just take control of your smartstat… At least right now… Give Newsom and his merry band of thieves/control freaks a month or two though… Worst case scenario, I just turn off the ‘stat’s WiFi connection. It’s as easy as that. That downside though; I can’t play “battle of the thermostat” with my wife remote if I shut off WiFi…

  6. I’m with SiG. Hell no.
    I wasn’t given a choice about my Pacific Power meter–they changed it to a “smart” meter without consulting me. It does mean they don’t have to come into my patio to read it anymore, so there is that small plus. And this week, the town is shutting off the water to my street because they’re changing all the water meters to “smart” meters. Grrrrr. They don’t even try to read the old meters in the winter, they just bill an average and balance it all out when the reading starts in the spring.
    I don’t want anything else in my house connected to the “IoT” except the computer, and it does not have a camera or microphone ability. I do deal with a smartass phone, always aware that it can hoover up every word around it, whether it’s turned off or not (the only sure way to disable that is to remove the battery, AND drop it in a Faraday bag).

  7. Like Sig said – Not only no, but HELL NO.
    I refuse to have anything in my house that actively monitors my every action.
    No cell phone.
    No voice activated “assistant” .
    No “smart TV”.

    I already have an automatic, settable thermostat.
    It is a Sears programmable that runs off of two AA batteries.
    It has a high and low setting.
    Regardless of the battery condition, it still works.
    Dual bi-metallic mercury switches function, no matter what.

    Leigh
    Whitehall, NY

    • I have a 50″ smart tv…that i use as a dumb but still 4k computer monitor. When 65″ tvs get under $400 i’ll replace it. I have this one for 3 years and it still tells me to connect it to the network and accept the ToC every time i turn it on.

      I would like to have remote controlled thermostats, but I refuse to buy one that requires the internet or any 3rd party server to use.

  8. If there are the curious amongst you out there, connect one of these smart things in parallel to an old analog one and see if it develops a mind of its own. Having an analog thermostat in parallel means that you can override the smart SOB anytime you want.
    I have been in telco and IT for 52 years and I know first hand, don’t trust any electronic or electrical device that can connect or send or receive on its own. That includes your landline phone, monitored security system, WiFi security cameras, baby monitors, or smart refrigerators or washing machines.
    Remember that we know what the first telephone conversation that Alexander Bell had was because someone was listening in on an extension.

  9. I live in FL and do have a web-connected thermostat. It is very nice to be able to go away on an extended trip and set the indoor temp to 86 while away yet having the house already back to 76 and comfortable when I return. I just use my phone to reset it 4-5 hours prior to my return without having to know in advance when I planned on returning. I still have my old one if this one gets hacked by anyone (including the power company).

  10. I was an early user of a smart meter in Illinois (Co Ed). They offered a program that instead of paying a flat rate, we would pay based on peak usage. In the summer, 3pm-6pm would be very expensive, but 12am-8am was almost free. So willing to do something simple to save myself money, I volunteered for the program. I am a light user of electricity anyway, for same homes in my area, I am always in the bottom 30% of use.
    The first couple of months it actually cost me more !!! Then I changed all my bulbs to LED and started saving. It WAS a really good program for me but because Illinois politicians are crooked and stupid, they are mandating X amount of power by 2030 be “green/renewable” meaning in the past 6-7 years we have taken nukes and coal plants offline and replaced them with fairy dust and unicorn farts. I’m still saving, but not as much.
    Also have been on a program in which each summer Com Ed has the ability to cycle my air conditioner if needed. For that, I get a $40 credit for the summer. Since I rarely use my air, it’s a steal for me.
    I love technology, but I don’t want or need to be able to control my thermostat, toaster, toothbrush etc remotely.

  11. No Never. And in fact I pay an extra $5.50 “fine” each month on my electric bill for NOT having a digital meter outside. They say its the cost of the reader having to get out of his car and actually read the meter whihc is crap casue they can still read what I have from the street.

  12. There is absolutely no reason to allow the government to control anything. Period.
    They are there to do what we tell them, not the other way around.

  13. The way things are going you must have at least a certain level of ‘social credit’ to get permission to heat or cool your home.
    No Thank You!

  15. SiG and I have the same attitude about IoT – NO to the HELL!

    I started programming back in the inter of ’67 on mainframes, and one of the first things I learned was computer crime, and how it was easy to do if you had Management that was clueless. Today, we have Computer-based crime galore, and voting seems to be particularly rife with fraud. (Re-read your article AND your comments again, SiG – with what you know now can you have ANY doubts about the voting being rigged?? Computer glitch my ass.)

    I have a programmable thermostat and several other systems around my house that could be considered “smart” (programmable), but I will be in Hell before I will connect them to anything external – I also have some systems TEMPESTed – I learned after I got out of the Military in ’76… A little knowledge and a lot of paranoia goes a loooooooong way.

    So, no IoT for me. Gee, why don’t I just have SCADA (unpatched) running everything household and connected to the Interwebbies so I can conveniently run everything remotely! (For all of y’all not “In The Know”, SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, a program that runs refineries, power generating systems, etc. etc. and is known for having a security lack that a truck can be driven through. It’s a favorite for kiddie hackers, and even the Israelis hacked into the centrifuges running the Uranium enrichment program and caused them to fail. Spectacularly. Yes, they were running SCADA.)

    No Internet connections for me!

  16. My programmable t-stat (circa 1987) is obviously not ‘smart’.

    I don’t even have a smart TV. My laptop has tape over the camera and the mic and camera drivers are disabled.

    • I have two work computers. My company work computer has the camera disabled in the BIOS and the black ‘remove me first’ label still over the lens. My client work computer, for which the BIOS is password protected, has a plastic slide over the camera that I’ve never untaped, and never will.

  17. There are plenty of instances reported where people with “smart” thermostats that are connected to the internet had their home environmental settings overridden remotely by the utility company. If this would be a problem for you don’t get one.
    Once a company or the Government find they have a power over people they tend to use it then abuse it.

  18. I have programmable t-stat that I’ve owned for 40 years. It’s a Hunter Set and Save II. I took it with me when I sold the house where it was originally installed. It’s battery operated and only connects to the HVAC system in the current residence. I change the batteries, two AA’s, in the Spring and Fall.

    As to smart t-stats and things like Alexa, not only NO, Hell No. Bad enough I had to finally break down and buy a smart phone, which I rarely carry when I’m out and about. When I do bring it, it’s off.

  19. There are Vids out there of Hackers attacking “Internet of Things” by WiFi and causing stuff like the Dishwasher opening the Door and turning on the Water, Washing Machines ignoring the Water Level Shutoff, Water Heaters staying On until the (mechanical) Overpressure Valve Blows Open, and the best one, an HVAC System running the Gas Heat against the Air Conditioner, with the Blower turned Off. Your House can be Flooded and Burned Down, remotely.

    Like “Cell Phones”, anyone who has “Connected” Devices is a Fool. That includes Vehicles with any form of Computers and GPS systems.

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