Nest Rush Hour Rewards

When I purchased my Nest learning thermostats there was a link on the Nest website about saving some money by signing up for the Nest Rush Hours Rewards Program.  If your utility participates you can save some money by signing up.  My utility, National Grid, is a participant in the program and offers $40 for the first year and $25 for subsequent years.

They way the program works is on days during the summer when it is really hot and there is higher than normal energy demand.  Your utility will take control of your thermostat and pre-cool your house so that you are not using your AC during peak energy hours.  If it seems a little big brother it is.  Days when this happens are called energy rush hours and they usually notify you a few hours before they are going to happen.  They say there are usually between 6 and 12 a season and they only occur on weekdays.  The past few rush hours have occurred between 2pm and 6pm.  You can also override the rush hour at any time so if it is getting too hot you can just turn your AC down..  I got a bit of a creepy feeling about the program but with two thermostats that was $80 in savings for my first year so I figured I would give it a shot.

I am now in my 2nd year of the program and here are my thoughts....

• The big brother aspect is kind of creepy and I think a lot of people will take issue with it and not sign up.  
• There is not a whole lot of information on the program if you search the net.  My utility has a page and Nest has a page but that is about it.
• Don't expect anyone at your utility to know anything about the program, When November rolled around and I still had not gotten paid I called National Grid Customer Service.  The rep know nothing about the program and suggested I contact Nest.  I directed her to the utility website but she still recommended I contact Nest.  I contacted Nest for due diligence and of course they told me to call my utility.   Kind of a run around, so I reached out to National Grid on Facebook and they told me that gift cards would be going out soon.  I did eventually get the gift card but I am not sure it was because I reached out or if they just send them out in December.
• The gift cards that they send out are eCredit Cards and I had a hard time getting brick and mortar stores to accept them.  I eventually added it into my amazon account as a gift card but it was not as easy to use as it should have been.
• I think there is a potential that the program could cost you more money in certain scenarios.  For example if I am away on vacation and my thermostats are in eco mode the AC may not go on during the day.  If a rush hour happens they may pre-cool an unoccupied house.  Not 100% sure if this scenario could actually happen but if it does it would cut down on potential savings.  It is something that I am going to look out for and confirm this season.

Kind of an interesting program, that I am hesitantly staying on.  I figured I would take it on a year to year basis and cancel if there is no benefit.

Update:
As I suspected the Rush Hour Reward program can cost you more money as there appears to be a bug in the system.  I was out of the country for a few days and both thermostats were in away mode.  I was notified of an energy rush hour and confirmed that it did not pre-cool my home since I was away.  Good!  I logged on later on after the energy rush hour was over and my AC was on.  So it looks like somehow the end of the energy rush hour causes the AC to kick on even if the thermostat is in away mode.  I may call Nest Support to report this and will update with any response I get.

Update 2:
I contacted Nest via chat the other night to report the above bug and the support guy thanked me for the info and suggested that I call National Grid.  He told me that what happens during Rush Hour is controlled by the utility so there was nothing Nest could do.  I don't really buy that and I don't expect to get anywhere with National Grid based on my past experiences so I will probably leave it at that and just monitor closely whenever there is an energy rush hour.