Pros and Cons of BGE's Air Conditioning Shutoff

Baltimore Gas and Electric offers a Peak Rewards program for customers who are willing to shut off their home air conditioning on the hottest, highest demand days. This rewards program is certainly one way for you to save money on your home cooling but does it actually make sense to use it? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

Benefits of BGE’s Air Conditioning Shutoff

The main reason that customers are interested in BGE’s new program is because it is designed to save them money. BGE saves money if they don’t have to invest in energy megawatts during the most expensive peak times of use. They are passing this savings on to customers in the form of annual credits for people who choose to participate in the program. Getting a little money back at the end of the year while doing your part to reduce energy waste is surely a positive thing.

Drawbacks of BGE’s Air Conditioning Shutoff

The biggest drawback of this program is that it causes you to lose control of how cool you keep your home. BGE installs a device in your thermostat and then shuts off your central air at peak use times. Many customers find it uncomfortable for the electric company to decide when to turn off their home’s cooling system. An alternative would be to use a programmable thermostat to shut off the system on the hottest days while still retaining the control over that system in your own home.

Additionally, some people can’t help but point out that the hottest days of the summer are the times when you need your air conditioning most. Yes, you should do all that you can in order to reduce central air use during expensive peak times. However, if you’re going to be at home and need to cool off, you probably want to be able to do that on the days with the worst heat. Cutting back on energy use in other ways might make more sense in many homes.

In Summary

There are benefits to the new program in terms of cost savings. Additionally, the program does help raise awareness of peak use times and the higher cost of running home cooling systems during those times. Nevertheless, the solution might not be to save money by giving control of your central air to your electric company. Investing in a lower cost energy company, a programmable thermostat and good efficiency practices in the home might all be better ways to save during these hot days and lower your MD electric bill.