‘Alexa, what’s the buzz about?’

Ecobee smart ther­mostats offer new tech­nol­o­gy to increase mem­ber com­fort, improve the effi­cien­cy of your home and low­er elec­tric bills. Depend­ing on the mod­el that is right for you, you can stay in con­trol of your ener­gy use even when you are away from home through your phone, a web­site or even through Alexa.

Man­ag­ing the tem­per­a­ture in your home is the largest por­tion of your month­ly elec­tric bill, and York Elec­tric is here to help keep your costs low. That’s why we have imple­ment­ed the new Smart Ther­mo­stat Pro­gram, bring­ing a qual­i­ty prod­uct to you at a dis­count­ed rate while allow­ing you to con­trol ener­gy sav­ings when you are away.

Speak­ing of sav­ings, sign­ing up and pur­chas­ing an ecobee will also help your co-op keep pow­er costs low for all mem­bers. When we pre­dict peak events or when most peo­ple are con­sum­ing a lot of ener­gy at the same time, YEC can work to pre­cool or pre­warm your house to off­set the demand for elec­tric­i­ty. You will receive a noti­fi­ca­tion on the device of your choice and have the option to opt-out if it isn’t the best time for you. To say thank you for doing your part, par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­bers can receive a $100 bill cred­it after their first year.

We are excit­ed about offer­ing this new tech­nol­o­gy at a dis­count­ed rate to our mem­bers and look for­ward to see­ing what we can do togeth­er to help hold down the cost of elec­tric­i­ty. We’re locals look­ing out for you, and with the help of tech­nol­o­gy, we’re always track­ing the lat­est buzz on ener­gy trends.

Brent Clinton, YEC Energy Services Representative

 

Brent Clin­ton
Ener­gy Ser­vices Rep­re­sen­ta­tive

 

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Smart Thermostat FAQ

Any YEC res­i­den­tial mem­bers who have a reli­able WiFi inter­net con­nec­tion in their home.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

Whomev­er you choose. After the ther­mo­stat is installed and we ver­i­fy the sig­nal, YEC will reim­burse you $75 towards your instal­la­tion cost. You will also be required to pro­vide your receipt.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

When the coop­er­a­tive pur­chas­es pow­er, ener­gy at those peak hours is more expen­sive. The more we can cut down on how much ener­gy is used dur­ing those peri­ods, the low­er our pow­er bill will be. We will use that sav­ings to hold down costs for our mem­bers.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ
  1. You must be a mem­ber of York Elec­tric;
  2. You must sign the par­tic­i­pa­tion agree­ment;
  3. You must have an inter­net-con­nec­t­ed, Wi-Fi enabled home.
Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

A smart ther­mo­stat is a pro­gram­ma­ble ther­mo­stat that con­nects to your home­’s WiFi and gives you the abil­i­ty to adjust your ther­mo­stat set­ting to fit your sched­ule and save ener­gy.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

About 5–6 times per month, the ther­mo­stat will be adjust­ed remote­ly based on sys­tem-wide peak peri­ods.

The events will be 4 hours total, which includes a one-hour pre-cool/pre-heat peri­od and three hours of peak-sav­ing adjust­ment. The con­trol will fol­low this pat­tern:

Pre-cool­ing/pre-heat­ing: +/- 2 degrees
First hour: +/- 2 degrees
Sec­ond hour: +/- 3 degrees
Third hour: +/- 4 degrees

SUMMER EXAMPLE

If you nor­mal­ly have your ther­mo­stat set to 75, a typ­i­cal con­trol event begin­ning at 3 p.m. would look like this:

3:00–4:00 p.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 73
4:00–5:00 p.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 77
5:00–6:00 p.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 78
6:00–7:00 p.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 79
After 7 p.m.: Ther­mo­stat returns to 75, con­trol relin­quished

WINTER EXAMPLE

If you nor­mal­ly have your ther­mo­stat set to 67, a typ­i­cal con­trol event begin­ning at 6 a.m. would look like this:

6:00–7:00 a.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 69
7:00–8:00 a.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 65
8:00–9:00 a.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 64
9:00–10:00 a.m.: Ther­mo­stat adjust­ed to 63
After 10 a.m.: Ther­mo­stat returns to 67, con­trol relin­quished

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

Mem­bers who pur­chase a smart ther­mo­stat will need to par­tic­i­pate in at least 60 per­cent of peak events through­out the year to receive $100 after one year. If you con­tin­ue to par­tic­i­pate in 60 per­cent of peak events, you will also receive $50 year­ly.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

You’ll be noti­fied of con­trol dur­ing peak times on the device’s dis­play with an option to over­ride. You can over­ride con­trol up to 40 per­cent of the time. If you were to exceed 40 per­cent, a mem­ber is not eli­gi­ble for par­tic­i­pa­tion cred­it per year.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

If you already have a smart ther­mo­stat, please enroll it here.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

York Electric’s smart ther­mo­stat pro­gram gives mem­bers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­chase an ecobee smart ther­mo­stat at a dis­count­ed rate. Mem­bers can also bring their own eli­gi­ble smart ther­mostats. By par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pro­gram, mem­bers will agree to allow the coop­er­a­tive to con­trol the ther­mo­stat dur­ing peak peri­ods.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

Please con­tact Brent Clin­ton at Brent.Clinton@yorkelectric.net or Shane Bak­er at Shane.Baker@yorkelectric.net if you wish to opt out of con­trolled ther­mo­stat use dur­ing peak peri­ods.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

An ecobee Smart Ther­mo­stat Advanced will be dis­count­ed to $90 for YEC mem­bers, and an ecobee Smart Ther­mo­stat Pre­mi­um will be dis­count­ed to $145 for YEC mem­bers.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

York Elec­tric mem­bers can pur­chase the ecobee Smart Ther­mo­stat Advanced or ecobee Smart Ther­mo­stat Pre­mi­um. Both have dig­i­tal touch­screen dis­plays and both can be con­trolled and sched­uled using a com­put­er or device (phone or tablet).

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

Both accom­plish the same tasks, but the ecobee Smart Ther­mo­stat Pre­mi­um has Ama­zon Alexa built-in. It is voice-acti­­vat­ed and has many of the fea­tures that come with Ama­zon Echo devices. The ecobee also comes with an added room sen­sor to pro­vide more effec­tive cool­ing and heat­ing.

Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

It’s easy to get start­ed.

  1. Com­plete and sign the par­tic­i­pa­tion agree­ment (PDF down­load below) and bring it into our York head­quar­ters or Fort Mill office to pur­chase the ther­mo­stat of your choice; see options below.
  2. Or apply online here
Cat­e­go­ry: Smart Ther­mo­stat FAQ

ecobee Smart Thermostats