Some residents of the Lone Star State are reporting that their "smart" thermostats are now being remotely controlled by the government to help minimize energy use during the current heat wave "crisis."
As Texas struggles through yet another season where residents are having to use basic utilities in order to maintain livable temperatures within their homes, officials are scrambling to come up with some kind of solution that will avoid crashing the entire grid.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which boondoggled the Texas energy crisis back in February, is urging Texans to turn up their thermostats to keep the state's energy grid from failing. In some cases, however, this is happening automatically and without consent.
"[My wife] had it cranked down at 2:30," complained Deer Park resident Brandon English to local Houston news affiliate KHOU. "It takes a long time for this house to get cool when it gets that hot. They'd been asleep long enough that the house had already gotten to 78 degrees. So they woke up sweating."
English's wife reportedly received an alert on her phone not long after that indicating that her and her husband's thermostat had been changed remotely, without their permission, due to an "energy saving event."
"Was my daughter at the point of overheating? She's three months old. They dehydrate quickly," English further lamented.
Read the terms of your "smart" thermostat closely
The English's "smart" thermostat is run by a company called EnergyHub that was installed a few years ago as part of a "new home security package." The family apparently enrolled in a program called "Smart Savers Texas" that allows the government to control their thermostat remotely.
In exchange for entry into sweepstakes, electric customers in Texas can opt to hand over control of their home's energy usage to bureaucrats who are free to crank it up or down depending on the season.
"I wouldn't want anybody else controlling things for me," English lamented, apparently unaware of the fact that he opted into the problem, probably by failing to read the terms associated with his "smart" thermostat.
"If somebody else can manipulate this, I'm not for it."
Many other Texans are experiencing similar issues with their "smart" thermostats, which has prompted many of them to start a support group on Reddit to air their gripes.
This is what happens when people inadvertently and unnecessarily agree to connect their homes to the energy "cloud," all under the guise of making life "smarter" and more convenient. Perhaps it is time to rip these devices out of your home if you have them and tell the government to buzz off when it comes to controlling energy usage.
Better yet, how about holding politicians and corporations accountable for failing to improve energy infrastructure so, you know, we can all not freeze or melt to death every time the seasons change. Just a thought.
"Every one of these people not only hooked up their thermostat to the 'cloud,' but also gave permission for unknown people to adjust it remotely when they signed up to 'save,'" wrote one commenter at Zero Hedge.
"I inspect homes for a living now and see them everywhere, even in dilapidated dumps. How are so many people so dumb as to put a microphone in their home that is connected to the cloud that records everything?"
Others agree, noting that all of these "smart" thermostats, Amazon Alexa nodes, Ring doorbells and other spy devices are the government's entry point into controlling people's lives without many of them even having the slightest clue as to what is actually going on.
More related news about America's failing infrastructure can be found at Collapse.news.
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