Update 6/2/20: Also available in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but only $45 in gift cards. Hat tip to reader Mike S
The Offer
- National Grid New York is offering a $30 eGiftcard and a nest mini when you sign up for Rush Hour Rewards. For each summer season you stay enrolled you receive an additional $20 eGiftcard
The Fine Print
- There will be a maximum of 15 rush hour events each summer season, and each event will be no longer than 4 hours. Rush hours will occur on non-holiday weekdays and weekends between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- You’ll only get one rush hour event a day.
- National Grid may remove you from the program if you participate in less than 15% of the event hours during a season because you opted out of events, or your device was offline or not in a cooling mode.
- Through October 31, 2020, if you sign up to participate in and are accepted to the program, and satisfy all other eligibility requirements, you will receive a Nest Mini (one per household), while supplies last. You will receive your Nest Mini in 3-4 weeks of being accepted. Existing applicants or participants in the Program are not eligible to receive the incentive. All Nest Mini devices are provided by EnergyHub.
Our Verdict
Looks like this will change your temperature settings on your thermostat before/during peak events. Think it’s really up to each individual reader to decide if they want to give this sort of information and control over or not (although it does look like you can opt out of an event if you’re home).
I received similar promotion from Eversource last year collaboration with Ecobee for $25 amazon gc. it would take approx 6-8 weeks to get your gift card. this promotion is really good.
National Grid can SMD. Terrible service
Looks like this only applies to Upstate NY residence.
Obviously this applies only where National Grid is the electrical provider. NYC and its northern suburbs have Con Ed, Long Island has PSEG-LI.
“You need to be a National Grid customer in New York with central air conditioning”
That eliminates maybe 60% of new yorkers then…
Most/All Utilities probably have similar promotions: SDG&E has a $50 check for sign-up + $20 for staying signed up till October. https://www.sdge.com/residential/savings-center/energy-saving-programs/reduce-your-use/reduce-your-use-thermostat
Also, many utilities also give you money for buying a smart thermostat or other appliances. Some are more generous than others.
Similar promotion for Massachusetts & Rhode Island but its $45 and a mini.
https://nest.com/energy-partners/national-grid/
https://nest.com/energy-partners/eversource/
Anyone having issues when trying to sign up? It tells me to login through Google and when I sign in, I get the message, “Sorry, but it seems that you do not have a Nest home to enroll at this time.”
Check the Nest App, for me the promotions show up there (different utility though)
Open Nest App
Click on Gear on the top right
Select Rebates and Rewards
I’m getting the same issue as K and Rene’s ideas didn’t work for me, there’s no “Rebates and Rewards” option in the settings page. I’m thinking this just doesn’t show up unless you already have a nest device linked to your account which is obviously a problem.