Reminder: #OhmHour Occurrences and Notifications
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Those of you who are diligent in reading your weekly Energy Statement will have seen this, but wanted to cross-post for extra visibility and as a general reminder!
Wherefore art thou, #OhmHour?
While many of our community members received an #OhmHour earlier this week, others have gone some time without being called on to save energy. We’d like to take a moment and remind everyone why #OhmHours are random and why you sometimes only receive a notification just before the #OhmHour starts.
#OhmHours occur when the grid doesn’t have enough energy for everyone. It just so happens that the grid has been particularly stable this past month. When the grid does get stressed, the people who operate the grid will occasionally know they need more energy the day before. Other times, they don’t know until a few minutes beforehand.
As soon as we’re notified, we pass this information onto you in the form of an #OhmHour notification. We give you as much heads-up as possible, but this will vary depending upon when the grid operators let us know they need help.
This is the reason you will sometimes only receive a notification just before an #OhmHour starts.
Note This is an explanation only. If you have specific questions about your #OhmHours, please search for the forum for relevant advice. Moderators will remove or re-direct questions that do not relate to this reminder.
Comments
We received our email notice only 8 minutes in advance of the OhmHour today, 5:00 pm Saturday. That's nuts! We lost points and dollars and were definitely no help for the environment. I was in a closed meeting, no cell phones on, from 4 pm to 6 pm, missed the notice, and was unable to call home and alert the family the change plans for cooking dinner. Crazy making expectation by Ohmconnect folks. Surely you can do better.
@[email protected] and @Ifung Makatita
Take a look at Kate's reminder at the beginning of this discussion. It explains the reason for the last minute notifications. Hopefully, this helps with your understanding of how/when OhmHours are called. Remember - even though you may only be notified minutes before an OhmHour, you have up to 15 minutes into the OhmHour to opt-out.
Thank you for your questions! Please feel free to post follow up questions. OC and it's moderators really want you and everyone else in this community to save energy and earn as many points as possible because it not only puts money in everyone's pockets, but it also helps preserve our precious environment!
I just ask that if you have a question or request that maybe account specific that you direct them to OC support using their chat and email features.
@Kate from OhmConnect because some users cannot respond to a notification in time to opt-out, they add email addies and phone #s of other people in the household. Will the link in the text and email alerts allow these other people to opt-out for the account holder and the entire household?
If you have multiple phone numbers on your account, all members will be sent the text!
@That Son Of A Bitz - yes!
And in case you weren't aware, if you participate and save in a certain number of consecutive OH's (what OC calls a streak), your points will start to double after a certain # of OHs, which I believe is at 100% once you get to 21 OhmHours in a row
Starting with your 2nd OH, you get a 5% bonus for points you get only during that specific OH, which increases by 5% for each additional OH you save in row).
If that's not good enough reason a reason or incentive to create a household plan and/or get Smart Thermostats and Plugs, I don't know what is!
I thought you had to opt in & lost almost 400 points the other day, somewhere I missed it that you were auto opted into this!
I agree. The wording "Confirm your participation Status" is confusing
It implies, to me at least, that if I don't confirm it, I'm not participating and it actually means something else. Click the link then you see a message "You are participating", don't click the link and you're still participating. There's no difference. I think there should be. I'd prefer to follow the link and then have to take some action. I guess the default of auto opting in is more advantageous for OC, from a financial perspective of course....because that's really what we're talking about..
Yep, I'm fine with it too. I'm confident I'm going to have some BIG savings future OhmHours. I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel!
I just had one on Saturday that gave me 2 minutes notice. I don't know if I went over or not, but I didn't see the text until 3 hours AFTER the hours finished (I don't live on my phone like some people). I will not be happy if I lose points because I don't live on my phone.
ok so it just posted and I lost 83 points and my streak (today would be 7) all because I had no notice and that I never opted in for. I know if I opted out I would lost me streak, but that is better than losing points. This has been a problem for at least 8 months, I think something should have been fixed by now. Very not happy at the moment.
Hi @Mara - sometimes we get #OhmHour events at the last minute too. These #OhmHours are particularly important to grid stability, since no one was able to anticipate the energy shortage. When this occurs, we share the event with our community as quickly as we can.
The good news is that on May 25th, we're moving to a new status level system in which your cumulative savings will have a bigger impact on your ability to earn points. When you save on average 20% over the previous 20 #OhmHours, you'll get a 2x #OhmHour point multiplier. 40% for 4x.
Since this is averaged over 20 #OhmHours, missing one event won't have as big an impact on your points. You'll still be earning at a higher rate, as long as you're saving more than 20% on average. Hope this helps!
I still think that we should have to confirm that we want to participate instead of just assuming that we do. Losing points when it is not in our control is not good business. The new change might help with that, but it is not going to help people who don't live on their phones and the app not giving any notice. The best thing for everyone is to have to opt IN not out.
So in my case, the word sometimes, as in "This is the reason you will sometimes only receive a notification just before an #OhmHour starts" does not apply. It is EVERY TIME. And without any Smart plugs (yet) I have still achieved platinum status with 10 Ohm hours in a row. If I had more notice, sometimes, I would sign up for more than 2 per week. But it is too stressful with only 5 minites notice EVERY TIME.
Therefore, it's only by chance if you only get notice minutes before (or at the beginning of every one of YOUR OHs or day ahead notice for every one of YOUR OHs. Statistically, everyone will eventually receive both types of notices (assuming you remain in the program long enough).
While you may have the same OHs as other people whether near or far, you will also have different ones or even the same ones with differences types of notices (day ahead and/or minutes before).
If you're not getting any notices, be sure you have the correct notifications set up and check that your email addy & phone # are entered correctly. Also, check your spam folders for your email.
But here's something that should NEVER happen (at least when the program 1st started 2-3 years ago): only getting notice after 25 minutes into the OH. But since you only get 15 minutes into the OH to opt-out, I would think that you couldn't get notice for an OH more than 15 minutes into it. Afterall, I believe you should still have an opportunity - even if it's only a minute or 2 - to opt-out.
@curtistongue can you please confirm that this is still how late notices and the need to participate (so you don't lose your streak or points) works?
I concur with Mara on the subject of confirming our participation. Never saw Saturdays notification until well after it was finished, was working on the yard.
So with that said not only did I lose points but status level as well, which I think is BS.
Day-of #OhmHours still have the 15 minute opt-out window, so you'll be able to bow out and prevent yourself from getting negative points.
@Vicki What did you click that got you into Nancy's account? Was it the email about this community thread?
I agree that it is wrong to lose status if you go over on OH. Losing point is one thing but losing status negates all the prior effort we put into the "streaks". I can see penalizing 2x or 3x point earning maybe but resetting to zero is no good. The common complaint here is that short or no notice isn't fair and I agree. We are all trying to make a difference and I'm positive the power companies are profiting from our efforts. It shouldn't be our problem that the power companies can't predict sooner their needs for power....yet it is in this case. Perhaps during those occasions when they cannot notify us in a timely manner they should not be able to do anything but take away points. Even that isn't fair but it would be better....