How does peaksaver communicate

Brant County Power isn't rolling out smart meters until May So here's my take: The UtilityPRO thermostat has a modular communications system, and the communications system they're using in Ontario is based on the pager network. A lot of people I've talked to are very leery of, or dead against, having this thermostat installed, because they don't want the government controlling their air conditioning. This just doesn't bother me.

Yes, it's true the power company could ask the thermostat to raise the temperature in my house by 2 degrees on very hot days.

They're not going to do this until they're on the verge of rolling blackouts, because it costs them money to reduce power consumption. And even if they do it, two degrees is not that big a deal.

In exchange for what you're giving up, you get not just the cool thermostat, but a service that I'm sure in any other circumstance you'd be paying for: Internet access to programming the thermostat. You can bring up a web browser, log in to the site the power company gives you, and set up your thermostat. The settings get sent to the thermostat through the pager network. And you can do this from anywhere. In Ottawa, people who had Peaksaver PLUS devices installed on their water heaters will need to call their utility to get it removed, free of charge.

Those who used the thermostats to adjust their air conditioners will be able to keep the units, but they'll no longer be able to adjust their home's temperature remotely through their utility's website.

The GreenON Installations program, paid in part from proceeds of Ontario's cap-and-trade auctions, will be offering eligible households a chance to have a smart thermostat — capable of communicating through a mobile phone, unlike the Peaksaver thermostats — installed at no cost. The province said , smart thermostats will be available for installation, beginning in the fall. Social Sharing. The reported success of the program far exceeded actual success.

As our first step in creating this particular campaign, we conducted a review of market factors and trends related to the rise of home automation and monitoring products, such as the Nest thermostat. We shared these insights with our client and used the research and subsequent feedback to inform our overall strategic direction and design concepts.

We were also able to utilize insights from earlier research commissioned from Environics , which segments residential customers by demographic and psychographic characteristics as well as preferred media channels. Our client was involved in the earliest research phase, commissioning and providing data to Environics.

Hydro One's marketing manager then created a brief describing the new offer, the sub-set of customers we needed to reach and the details of the peaksaver program. With this we were able to propose a path for design development, a budget for creative, production and fulfilment and a schedule. This subset consisted of rural Ontario families with the following characteristics:. As energy conservation tends to be a low priority for many, we focused on boosting the perceived value, desirability and lifestyle appeal rather than focus on the energy data display benefits.

Evocative photography enhanced the visual appeal by showcasing the colourful glow of the device. We gave the energy display a personable name to create a sense of character. The story unfolds in an engaging multi-fold brochure, with Joule offering helpful advice to make saving energy an easy and approachable part of everyday life. We also developed two videos to better engage our customers and demonstrate the benefits of Joule.

The first video provided high-level information about the offer while the second video delved into practical information about the device itself.

Print materials encouraged customers to visit the website and watch the videos. IESO responsibilities. LDCs will be responsible for maintaining participant devices until the program is terminated, as well as for passive or active notification to customers based on LDC preference during the May 1 to September 30, activation period.