I saw a tiktok that said when ConEd sends them a message to lower energy usage they turn DOWN the thermostat because how is ConEd asking them to conserve energy when Time Square is lit up and jesus fucking christ we need to explain to people how the grid works.
I saw this last year on Twitter too and I'm sorry this isn't how this works. It WOULD BE NICE but you're just FUCKING YOURSELF OVER by potentially over overpowering your node. OR you're forcing the city to turn on really polluting peaker plants. Do not be a dick.
Like all New Yorkers (except for the people in Brooklyn who live in National Grid territory) hating Con Ed is my birthright. But this isn't fucking them over - you're just gonna pay more in electrical and that's best case. Worse case you help blow your grid and you have no power.
Trust me I've lived it it was my entire childhood and it sucked. The New York grid is held together by dreams and spite and the most pro social thing you can do is use your energy wisely during a heat wave. If you're using your ac limit other energy usage, don't cool rooms you're not in etc etc
A counterintuitive tip is set your ac to the upper to middle range of your comfort and then run a separate fan. Fans use tiny amounts of energy so setting the thermostat higher + fan is less energy than setting the thermostat lower and since AC's don't just cool they dehumidify you'll be more comfy
notice I didn't say "just use a fan" and that's because even though I love fans so much I currently own three and my livingroom has a ceiling fan above a certain threshold fans (too tired to get into the research debate of exactly which) can harm more than they help.
I've started experimenting with AC + evaporative fan/cooler (using distilled water to avoid filling my flat with micro-particles) and so far it's indeed a good strategy.
Especially for those of us who don't deal well with dry air.
They are not pro social. They want to cool their house before the electricity blows & they don't care that they are increasing the likelihood of it doing so
I was going to make a joke about how the problem with death threats is they never target the people with actual decision making power but honestly that was probably genuinely scary.
But wait. Half of the population says “turn down” and means raise the temperature threshold so that it turns down the work the AC has to do. Or something like that. It doesn’t make sense to me but I married such a person. He also doesn’t fold towels correctly.
