Any CA residents here try Ohmconnect.com?

[msnln7]

Few days ago, while browsing Facebook, I came across an ad for Ohmconnect.com.  This company notifies when local utility energy use spikes up and has to resort to using dirty energy. When you decide to participate in reducing energy usage during these periods, the company gets paid for reduced usage and pay out 80% of their pay out to the users.  From web searches, this seems to be legitimate company but this is only available in California at this time.  The company requires utility login information so they can track member's usage during these spikes, which seems to be the only downside I have seen so far (giving out personal info).  Also, the company pays $20 for signing up and $20 for each referral.  I was considering signing up for the SmartRate from PGE, which gives discounts in exchange for agreeing to 15 days of surcharge on high use days.  But for 15 days, electric rates would have been something like 60 cents/kWh. Anyway, my referral link, if anyone is interested, is

http://ohm.co/5847f9

There is also option to create community and I thought it might be a good idea to have MMM community so we can see how we do collectively. I created MMM Mustachians team and I would love for everyone here to join!

[renata ricotta]

Whoa! I signed up awhile ago, and only got 500 points (cash out value $5) for it. When I saw the topic heading, I was going to respond that I don't think it's really worth it, unless you have a large house where you can really reduce. I have a 400 sqft apartment, so it's baseline energy consumption is already pretty low; when I do a good job of reducing, my OhmConnect Energy Snapshot says I reduced by 0.05 kw. This translates to about 18 cents in my account. By the end of a 12 month period, I expect to maaaaybe be able to cash out for $10.

[msnln7]

Our household uses very little electricity too so I don't know how much I will be able to save.  I am still waiting for the first Ohmhour, period where the company notifies to cut electric usage.  Even if I do not end up saving much money, I guess there is feeling that I was able to help reduce pollutants generated by dirty sources. Please consider joining "MMM Mustachians" team as I would really like to see how we will do collectively as a team in reducing carbon emissions.

[renata ricotta]

Our household uses very little electricity too so I don't know how much I will be able to save.  I am still waiting for the first Ohmhour, period where the company notifies to cut electric usage.  Even if I do not end up saving much money, I guess there is feeling that I was able to help reduce pollutants generated by dirty sources. Please consider joining "MMM Mustachians" team as I would really like to see how we will do collectively as a team in reducing carbon emissions.

Yeah, and all of the reducing suggestions OhmConnect gives are clearly for people in different situations than I am. A thermostat I can adjust remotely won't help, because I have no thermostat at all; I'm beachside, so I have no A/C and I've turned the (gas) heater on maybe twice. The lights are all LED, I don't have an electric car, and I don't leave lights on or devices plugged in all day to needlessly charge. Really, other than unplugging my fridge, there's not much more room for improvement.

Joined! Good grief is that website difficult to navigate.

[msnln7]

Yep, I know what you mean.  We use between 6-9 kWh of electricity typically a day and monthly electric bill is under $50 so I don't think there will be much savings to be had. But still, I suppose I can unplug my laptop and not charge phone during peak hours. Every little bit helps.

[tonysemail]

hi,

are you still using this service?
how did it turn out after 12 months?

[DTaggart]

I've been using OhmConnect for a while now and its ok. Our usage is pretty low even under the worst scenarios, so our ability to lower it is minimal. Looking through our history of Ohm Hours, our "expected" usage ranges from .386 kWh - .655 kWh (depending on day/time), and our actual usage when we cut back goes down to .195 kWh - .38 kWh. We typically earn 40 - 60 points per Ohm Hour, which is the equivalent of $.40 - $.60, so we're hardly going to get rich off this. But the initial sign up bonus we got was $20, which we could cash out right away, so I think its worth it just to sign up just for that. Right now I'm up to about 1700 points so we'll be able to cash out another $20 soon (I think we got another bonus in there somewhere). You can disconnect from the service easily so there's not really any downside to doing it.

But I do like it from an environmental standpoint, knowing we're able to do a little something to help lower demand at peak times and hopefully minimize the need for less clean means of energy production. What we do to save during Ohm Hours is just turn off the tv and computers and any extra lights, and either go out for an hour (hubby usually hits the gym) or just read or do yardwork or something. I find it good to unplug for an hour every now and then anyway.

One thing to note is that if you go over your expected usage for an Ohm Hour you will lose points, but you have the option to Opt Out ahead of time and just get 0 points regardless of your usage, so if you know you can't unplug for that time you want to make sure you click the opt out button.

Here's my referral link if anyone is interested in trying it out: https://ohm.co/987e840