---
title: Power Manager
slug: power-manager
description: Today I learned that Duke Energy can just cut the power off of my AC condensors with Power Manager.
tags: [energy, house, solar]
image: https://davidawindham.com/til/img/power-manager.jpg
hide_table_of_contents: true
---
Today I learned that Duke Energy can just cut the power off of my AC condensors with Power Manager. And up until yesterday, I had no idea what Power Manager[^1] even was or that we had it. Just when it was getting nice and warm yesterday afternoon we noticed it was a tad toasty upstairs.
I always suspect our old unit because it's 28 years old according to the last HVAC tech guy here for service. Everytime a new service dude shows up, they're always like 'that old unit is still running' as if it shouldn't be. Perhaps made back in the day when you couldn't stop a Trane[^2].
👈🏻 Old trusty & the sneaky power manager box 👉🏻
Thinking I might be spending the evening under fans, I did the spot check and noticed that not only was the upstairs unit not running, the other compressor wasn't running either. Checked the breakers went back outside and remembered that about a year ago during our renovations, these little boxes showed up outside and I remember thinking to myself, I suppose they're gonna want me to enroll in some new fangled thing but didn't pay any attention otherwise.
It actually didn't occur to use that Duke Energy would cut our A/C mid afternoon on the hottest day of the year until after I had called our normal HVAC guys and a backup crew. Both being off was the giveaway alongside of the red lights coming from both boxes. When I called the scheduling gal back at the HVAC places, she said 'yeah, I was going to call you back and have you check because that's been several other customers in the last hour'.
Meanwhile Ginny has already dialed the Duke Energy number on the box and started the what would become an hour and a half on the phone trying to cancel the 'Power Manager' program we had never knowingly signed up for. Found out we had saved exactly $8 whole dollars so far from the progam, which we likely ate back up trying to cool our house back down ten degrees from the 85 it had reached in the time both units were disabled. She got us unenrolled - click of setting somewhere but I asked her to follow up and have the boxes removed.
I'm all for being conservative with energy. We set our thermostats on 75. And I'm all for pitching in to have a reliable provider for everyone. I'm quite certain it's not us straining the grid and it makes me wonder what other customers thought. I glad to not have third world power outages, but I'm also not too keen on some dude coming on the property to install devices that control what I do with the electricity once it hits my house. We know our local Duke Energy rep and we thought about giving him an earful, but I'm quite certain he's heard it before. The second HVAC guy just laughed when I called back to cancel that service. He said 'pretty sneaky aren't they' and that's mostly my takeaway.
I think about the growth in our area, the failed nuclear plant down the road, and the power hungred needs of AI. It also makes me think about energy indepedence and relative it's grip on the world. The term Energy Crisis hasn't really popped up enough recently even though I suppose you could say the Hourmoz are really just that. My dad mentioned late 70s gas lines[^3] not too long ago in conversation and It reminds me a speech by Jimmy Carter[^4] mostly from how it was reference in the film _20th Century Women_[^5].
20th Century Woman - Mike Mills
---
[^1]: Duke Energy Power Manager -
[^2]: Trane XE 1200 - https://elibrary.tranetechnologies.com/public/trane-history-b/Literature/Sales/72-1143-01_04011999.pdf
[^3]: 1970s energy crisis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_energy_crisis
[^4]: Jimmy Carter - Crisis of Confidence - https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carter-crisis/
[^5]: _20th Century Women_ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Women