A Letter From Miss Sas: The Thermostat Incident

Dear Friend,

Well... Alabama Power and I had a little disagreement yesterday.

They sent me an email the day before explaining they were having one of their "Smart Peak Events." They were gonna pre-cool the house before four o'clock, then let the thermostat do its thing from four to five while everybody was using electricity.

According to the email, I wasn't supposed to notice much of a difference.

Bless their hearts.

A little after four yesterday, Bubs came walking in and said, "Mama... I think something's wrong with the air conditioner."

Now that's not something you ignore around here in the middle of July.

So I grabbed my phone and opened the Ecobee app.

Seventy-five.

I just stared at it for a second.

Now I know some of y'all keep your house on 75 all summer long, and if that's what makes you happy, I'm glad for you.

But we probably can't be thermostat friends.

Our thermostat has two settings in life. In the winter, the heat stays on 68. In the summer, the air conditioner lives somewhere between 69 and 71. That's just how we operate around here.

And before anybody says, "Well, it's only four degrees..."

Honey...

Come spend a July afternoon in southeast Alabama when the "feels like" temperature is 115, and then we'll have this conversation.

See, that's what gets me. If we were sitting outside on the porch in October and somebody said it was 75 degrees with a little breeze, I'd think we'd died and gone to heaven.

But 75 inside the house in July?

Absolutely not.

The email said to resist the urge to adjust the thermostat.

I did.

For... maybe five minutes.

I kept waiting for myself to get used to it.

I did not.

Now, I understand why Alabama Power does these events. I really do. Everybody pitching in a little helps keep the power grid from getting overloaded on days like we've been having.

I'm not arguing with the reason.

I'm just questioning whether the person who decided 75 degrees was "comfortable" has ever cooked supper in an Alabama kitchen in July.

Anyway... I changed it back.

No guilt.

No regrets.

Now I need to know...

Did any of y'all get that email too?

If you did, did you leave it alone like they asked...

...or did you reclaim your thermostat the minute you realized what they'd done?