My power company sent me a flier in the mail about a new energy saving program. If I sign up, they send a technician to install a free programmable thermostat in my home. This thermostat is linked to their computer system, and during peak demand times it will go into "conservation mode." The rest of the time, however, it is mine to control! Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Sounds like another good idea for a science fiction story. What if Nevada Energy wants to take control of the Las Vegas Valley by threatening to shut off all our air conditioning units and cook us in the summer heat? Some clever main-character will have to foil their dastardly plan by figuring out how to disconnect the thermostats and hot-wire the air-conditioning units.
I don't think the literary agents will be lining up for that one.
4 comments:
Literary agents might not be lining up for it, but I bet come summer time disgruntled customers will line up to complain. I just can't give away that kind of control, I can save the money myself by turning the thermostat down. I got one of those letters too, but there is too much truth in your horror story, i'll keep the control. Thankfully, i'm smarter than they think I am.
Okay, so what it sounds like they are REALLY saying is: "When the weather is nice & you aren't even paying attention to your thermostat, we will let you have control of it (aren't we nice?), but when the weather turns bad & you really want to control your thermostat - then WE WILL TAKE OVER!" Man, how do they go about making THAT sound like a good idea? They must be pretty tricky -- hire themselves some real clever linguists to twist those words around for them...
I really do think this is going to be my next science fiction book. It's called "The Grid." A near-future dystopian sci-fi in which all energy usage is regulated by the Central Power Company.
Hehehe such a DASTARDLY, EVIL scheme to take over the world! Oh, who will save us from the unbearable heat?
*puts back of hand to forehead melodramatically*
In all seriousness, if you can pull this off, that's great!
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