When was the last time you felt that Con Ed hit a home run? They did with coolNYC.
With temperatures in the 90s, what am I talking about?
coolNYC is a joint project of ConEd and ThinkEco to help you
Monitor the temperature in your apartment remotely
Turn on and adjust your air conditioner, also remotely
Reduce the strain on the electrical grid to help prevent power outages
Any, yes, it's free. Actually it is better than free because you also save money on your electric bill by being able to turn on the a/c as the day warms up and off in the cool of evening rather than leaving it run all day.
If you have a window air conditioner and a smart phone, you won't have to guess before you leave in the morning if the temperatures will be pet friendly at 2 in the afternoon. And you won't have to leave your unit on when you leave at 8 o'clock in the morning "just in case". With coolNYC you will be able to monitor the temperature in the rooms with air conditioners and turn them on and adjust them in real time if you see it getting a bit warm for pup or kitty or birdie.
Yes, it's free. We promise. It's free.
Go to the coolNYC website. There you can sign up to receive up to two free wi-fi units. The units are free and yours to keep as long as you participate in the program. The shipping is free, too.
You will receive your smart a/c units within a week of your request. You have three weeks to set up the units or else you must return them or be charged. Just mentioning that but I cannot imagine why anyone would do that.
Yes, there are a couple of new a/c units that are already wi-fi enabled and if you own or purchase one of those, you get a bonus.
OK, you order one or two free wi-fi controllers. You plug them in (the fancy word is "install" but if you can plug something into the wall, well, that's "install") when they are delivered you can download an app on your smart phone and remotely monitor the room temp plus turn on/off and adjust your a/c as needed.
The website has a video and a tech support phone number if you need some extra help.
Once your air conditioners are enabled you will be able to leave home in the cool of the morning and not worry if pup or kitty will be comfortable at noon time. You know they will be because you can monitor the temperature of your rooms and adjust cooling to within two degrees on the thermometer.
So, you are doing well - saving money - and doing good - making sure that pup, kitty, bird and anyone left at home is comfortable.
But there is one more positive wrinkle to coolNYC. But you can opt-out of this one if you don't feel comfortable. At any time there is a excess burden on the power grid, all enabled a/c units will automatically be adjusted to cool at 2-4 degrees higher than they were set to. Again, you can opt out, perhaps there is someone in the household who is quite elderly or ill. But with enough of the 6 million window air conditioning units in NYC staying opted-in, there will be a significant reduction in the strain on the power gridavoiding a brown out or black out. "coolNYC Events", as they are called, are expected to happen 3-5 times through the summer and are expected to last no more than 4 hours.
So, stop wasting money by running your window air conditioner more than necessary. Stop worrying if you predicted correctly and if you didn't - or you forgot - your pets are uncomfortably hot. And be a good citizenand help prevent local brown outs or power outages.
Oh, you win redeemable "Cool Points" along the way and you can read about them on the website. But that is minor. Keeping your home at optimal temperature for your pets without wasting energy and money is the really *cool part* of coolNYC.
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