On Jan 26, 1:09*am, Wes Groleau wrote:
On 01-25-2013 17:06, mike wrote:

Do the math. *If the power isn't off longer than the thermal time-constant
of your house, it does zero good.
There's a very strong
correlation between how much you suffer and the goodness
of decreasing peak load for the utility. *And that happens
at the peak load time when you most want the air conditioning.

Are they just turning it off for a while? *The letter made me think that
they were altering the waveform into the motor

--
Wes Groleau

* *“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * — Socrates

The system here in NJ turns it off. They all have to
do it that way for some key reasons. One is it has to have
significant effect. Even if you operated the AC with your
"altered waveform", you could only reduce the power going
in slightly. Second, it has to be cheap. A relay is cheap,
power control electronics for 50 amps isn't. And finally,
turning it on and off, there is no risk to burning up the
motor. When you try to run all kinds of AC units on
some kind of reduced power, no telling what would
happen.