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DISABLE Rush Hour!!

sheshenanigans
Community Member

Recently my thermometer has displayed a yellow gear/leaf icon indicating it's in Rush Hour, and my house gets up 80 degrees before I notice how hot it is. Where I live, temps are usually 90°+ degrees (with feel-likes over 100°) in the summer.

 

I never heard of "Rush Hour" before until i Googled it. I rent, and my utilities are billed through the property mgmt company - I don't have any acct # or anything w/the actual energy supplier (Duke Energy). Property mgmt must have signed up for Rush Hour, because I did not.

 Since I don't have a Duke acct I have no authority to call them to unenroll from this "feature", even though I sure as hell am not getting the Rush Hour discount on utilities from property mgmt!

 

They're billing me regular utilities and pocketing whatever Rush Hour rebates MY energy use awards them!

 

As far as I can see, the Nest hardware and the Nest app only have the option to turn off "notifications in advance" regarding Rush Hour. I don't want it to kick in at all.

 

Ppl should be able to disable it from the thermostat or the app!

9 REPLIES 9

David_K
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert
You can’t use the Nest app to start or stop participating in this program unfortunately. That’s because the reward from your energy partner is based on your agreement (or the property manager's agreement in this case) to help out whenever there’s an energy rush hour. Therefore, to un-enrol this can only be done through the energy provider. In your case, you need to speak to the property management company and express your wishes to opt out.

"In your case, you need to speak to the property management company and express your wishes to opt out."

My request is exactly that: a wish. This program is poorly thought out as it forces ppl to participate with no legal authority to opt out.

Plenty of ppl in this country don't have utilities in their name (by choice or otherwise) - but do have Nest thermostats personally belonging to us (as mine is) and do pay the utilities (as I do) and live at affected properties.

Property Management didn't ask me if I wanted to opt in. They didn't even give me any notice this program existed, or that they had taken it upon themselves to enroll my address. They are a rental property company that has thousands of homes across the country; getting rebates for interfering with their tenants' energy usage is just another income stream for them.

I can ask them as nicely as possible, but they aren't under any requirement to do so. This one way opt-in/opt-out is shortsighted and excludes potentially millions of renters from taking advantage of and/or getting the property we pay to live at out of a program that directly affects us.

txediter
Community Member

I deauthorized access/control of my Nest thermostat with PG&E this morning. Tonight, a Rush Hour (idiotic name) still took control of our Nest. How the heck do I stop this?

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi txediter,

 

Thanks for reaching out. I'm sorry to hear that you're having an issue with the Rush Hour feature of your Nest Thermostat. Just to clarify, do you want to un-enroll from Rush Hour or just opt out of the event? To opt out of a Rush Hour  event, you could adjust your thermostat or the Google Home or Nest app to a lower temperature (summer events) or a higher temperature (winter events). A confirmation message will appear if you want to opt out of the event. Then select Change Temp on the thermostat or the Google Home or Nest app.

 

Thanks,

Edward

Jake
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

 

I wanted to check in and see if you managed to see Edward's post. Please let me know if you have any questions from here. I would be happy to assist, and make sure you are good to go.

Best regards,
Jake

I did see his post. It's not helpful. I cannot opt out of Rush hour.

My options, both of which suck, both of which defeat the purpose of the automated 'learning' thermostat, are to either:

A. Schedule my AC colder than I want (and use more electricity) around 4pm so that when rush hour starts (and it's pre-cooling drops the temp even more), the Rush hour idle temperature will be at the temperature I'm comfortable with. No.

B.) <My chosen option>Set a daily alarm for 4:01pm to remind myself to change the temperature set by Rush hour, thereby getting out of Rush hour before my house heats up to 80 degrees. 

I cannot opt out of Rush hour until it has actually changed the set temp on my thermostat. 

I get an alert that "Rush hour is starting at 4pm", but there's no option to opt-out of it. If I change the temp before 4pm, Rush hour still kicks in and allows the house to heat up from that point.

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi sheshenanigans,

 

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

 

Thanks,

Edward

 

 

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello sheshenanigans,

 

I'm just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

 

Thanks,

Edward

Jake
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

 

Sorry to hear you are still having trouble with the Rush Hour program. In some cases, you may need to contact your energy provider to opt out of the program. Have you tried contacting them yet? I did find an article with more details on the program that may be of help. Please let me know if your energy provider is able to help you opt out of that.

 

Best regards,

Jake