Let’s Be Honest, No One Is Setting Their Thermostat to 78 Degrees in Texas
It's basically summer time in Texas. Sure, I guess we're technically still in spring, but it really hasn't felt like it lately. This past weekend, Texans may have seen a preview of what's to come this summer season. Hot temperatures across the state of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) called for Texans to save energy this past weekend.
Thankfully, everyone and everything was fine. The grid was fine and there were no blackouts across the state.
The announcement this past Friday that Texans needed to conserve energy came after six power generation plants went offline. Most, if not all, were back online by Saturday. Still, ERCOT sent out a warning, and in the warning they asked for Texans to do some things that made sense and are easy to do, like not run a washing machine or turn on the oven between 3-8 p.m. No problem.
Then, there was this suggestion: "Turn thermostats to 78 degrees."
Yeah, that's where you lost me and just about everyone else, ERCOT. Unless you live with someone who's always, always, always cold, you're not putting the thermostat at 78 degrees. I don't even think I turn things up that warm when we go on vacation and leave the house. In fact, the most I can probably give you is 74 degrees, and even that's pushing it.
This is Texas. It's going to be hot roughly 3 or 4 months out of year. Two more months are pretty much coin flips on weather or not we will see some heat. In other words, just fix the grid to where it can handle the real world and you don't have to ask us to set our thermostats to 78.