Various Utility Companies are offering current
Account Holders in
Select States:
Google Nest Thermostat or Nest Learning Thermostat on sale for prices listed below. Shipping may vary by location and provider.
Thanks to Staff Member
DLS4U for sharing this deal.
Offer Notes:
- Rebate amounts and requirements vary depending on the utility provider; requirements may include enrollment in rewards/savings programs. Other limitations & eligibility requirements may apply, e.g., connection to central AC.
Example Participating Locations/Services (prices below after all rebates & discounts, which may require enrollment in a savings/rewards program):
- Arizona:
- Arizona Public Service Electric (APS):
- Salt River Project (SRP):
- California:
- Glendale Water & Power (GWP):
- Los Angeles Department of Water & Power:
- PG&E
- Connecticut:
- Illinois:
- Indiana:
- Michigan:
- Consumers Energy Residential:
- New Jersey:
- AtlanticCity Electric
- JCP&L
- Elizabethtown Gas
- New Jersey Natural Gas
- Orange & Rockland New Jersey
- PSEG
- South Jersey Gas
- New Mexico
- New York
- PSE&G Long Island
- ConEdison
- National Grid Long Island
- National Grid Metro
- National Grid Upstate
- National Grid Upstate Small Business
- NYSEG
- Orange & Rockland
- PSE&G Long Island
- RG&E
- North Carolina
- Duke Energy residential
- Duke Energy small business
- NCEMC
- Ohio
- Columbia Gas of Ohio
- AES Ohio (DP&L)
- Oregon
- Portland General Electric
- Pennsylvania
- DLC
- PPL
- PECO
- UGI (Smart Save)
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Dominion Energy
- Duke Energy residential
- Duke Energy small business
- Texas
- El Paso Electric
- Xcel Energy Texas
- Virginia
- Washington
- Puget Sound Energy
- Snohomish PUD
- Wisconsin
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Top Comments
First - no, the utilities are generally not "controlling" your thermostat. The situation these commenters are referring to is called demand response (DR). Where the utilities will pay their consumers to shift or reduce their demand during times of grid strain to reduce the likelihood of brown or blackouts. For this to happen you need to enroll in the DR program itself, you'll know if you're doing this. Utilities can't just enroll you without your notice.
Second - even if you are in one of these DR programs, you absolutely always have final control over your thermostat and temperature setting. You ALWAYS have the option to opt-out of DR events and keep your thermostat or AC humming along at whatever temperature you want. Yes, if you're enrolled in one of these DR programs and you opt-out, your electric bill may be higher. But that's the whole point. If the utility is offering free stuff (like a thermostat) and ongoing revenue to participate in a DR program, but you opt-out of actually participating? It hurts the utility (and the rest of the grid for that matter), who was expecting you to provide relief so there is some financial incentives there.
I'm just tried of people sensationalizing this stuff. Geeze.
My experience here is as someone who helps implement some of these types of programs for a few utilities around the country. I predominately work with commercial and industrial customers but interact with the residential side of things as well.
It's not about data mining for the utility. They don't get that visibility with any demand response programs. Does google for their nest product? Sure, but that's different than what other folks have being talking about here as google isn't offering the rebate. It's about the utility having an incentive to encourage you to use less energy, that's why they offer rebates and discounts on these things.
143 Comments
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No smart stuff in my personal place but have had or tried a few things in others....i got !@!@t to do not f'k around with this stuff. bad experiences with nest, irrigation, few other things...usually comes down to some loopy app and them building everything into the app to save on hardware.
Nest was especially bad as once it doesn't get on wifi the app has you fall back to re-adding it from scratch, which means removing it from the wall each time, going through the "i'm a clueless twit" setup process. There's no easy way to debug that stuff except tons of time trial and error, i'm busy. 25 dollar plain jane thermostat fixed that crap in 15 minutes. One lasted 7 months before it wouldn't cut on the cooling circuit and it wasted an hour of my time circle jerking that above to get it back on wifi just so i could inspect it.
Now that's the thing right, could be bad thermostat, maybe goofy router issue was original cause, maybe app just sucks, whatever cooling wasn't getting cut on .... 20 dollars fixed it and i was out the door in 15 minutes.
At the end of the day these things are built with tons of 3rd party programming libraries, their bugs are your bugs, plug and play and most outsourced to BFE and you get what you get. Few phone updates, forgotten password because you didn't specify not to unload, updates later and they're circle jerking you for upgrades on a thermostat of all things. I will say ecobee has turned spammy, it's all pretty crappy in this device, tool space.
Sell me on some reasons why I should get a nest or ecobee. My schedule on my non smart Honeywell thermostat runs fine. I just find myself always wanting one of these but not sure if there's a point
We have a single zone system and our bedroom is on the coldest corner of the house. Having the Best and the remote temperature sensor allows my system to adjust my bedroom to the right temperature before I go upstairs at night.
The ability to check on the temperature in the house remotely saved me problems a few times.
And yeah, there have been a few times I've rolled over and said "Hey Google, turn the temperature up two degrees," because it was cold.
I will admit Google's scheduling is less than ideal, but it's close enough for me.
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But some utilities will turn your AC up to levels you may find uncomfortable during the high demand periods.
PS stop selling ivory
But some utilities will turn your AC up to levels you may find uncomfortable during the high demand periods.
5 years ago or so, I got 1000 off my insulation, (3k into 2k) I got 18inches of cellulose air sealing and did garage, they gave me a free nest learning latest generation whatever thermostat and several other things like air testing etc. (which has saved me thousands over the years) it dropped my bills by half entirely.
now all the rebates are basically non existent. crazy
Consider yourself lucky your state isnt tricking you into controlled surveillance.
It's not about data mining for the utility. They don't get that visibility with any demand response programs. Does google for their nest product? Sure, but that's different than what other folks have being talking about here as google isn't offering the rebate. It's about the utility having an incentive to encourage you to use less energy, that's why they offer rebates and discounts on these things.
I never said every utility requires enrollment in such a program. But there are some utilities that do require participation in such a program to get the best prices on the thermostats.
For example, with Iowa's Alliant Energy, to get the best price on the Learning Thermostat, $39.50, you must enroll in their "Smart Hours" program. You can pay more, $89.50, and are not required to enroll in the program.
There are others that do not require participation in the connected solutions program, but will offer additional incentives to those who do. For example, Connecticut's Eversource will give you a $25 gift card for enrolling and an additional $20 gift card for each year you remain enrolled.
And, as you noted, there are some utilities who have no requirements to get the deals.
I could have said "misleading" instead of "sensationalizing." I wanted to add some real context to the situation as nothing is ever so black and white and writing a comment implying that it is (by omitting the nuance) is misleading to anyone who isn't already familiar with the details.
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