'Big Brother' is here

A while back I blogged about the proposal from First Energy to give homes a programmable thermostat which could be remotely controlled by them to address such concerns as peak power demands.

Today's paper has an article about the consumers who've actually taken advantage of this. Apparently, more than 1,500 homes in Northwest Ohio had their air conditioning turned down eight times last year - by First Energy. And another 10,000 or so homes with the thermostats are subject to the control.

The article says the agreement with the energy company allows for them to remotely activate the thermostats up to 20 times per year.

While there has been no effort this year to expand the program, FirstEnergy is studying other technologies that would allow thermostats to be similarly controlled via the Internet.

As electricity demand increases and outpaces additional supply, using centrally controlled technologies on high-demand days could help alleviate the need to build additional generation plants.

Right now, this is a voluntary program between supplier and customer. But in light of what the House did last night with the global warming bill, do you think government will mandate such control in the future?

Would you let someone else control the temperature in your home?

That's what Toledo Edison wants to do...

At least it's a voluntary program and it's not government making the decision. But I don't need someone else to make such decisions for me, as I'm perfectly capable of doing so on my own.