Hot AND Bothered

For the last few months, my thermostat has gotten me all hot and bothered (hence the title of this post). It's been A/C roulette. Some days, I come home and the temperature inside is what it should be - per my programmable thermostat. Some days, it's hella hot in herrre (and I definitely was getting so hot I wanted to take my clothes off).

A little background: when I bought my house a little more than a year ago, the cheap previous owners had been among the first to enroll in CPS Energy's Peak Saver Program. They install a programmable thermostat and at times of peak usage can override your program to ease the strain on their sources. Part of me thinks that's cool (you can adjust the thermostat yourself online), the other part of me doesn't like big brother messing with my A/C.

Twice in the last eight months, they've come out to replace the thermostat. They admit the ones they use are cheap. That's why they're replacing them with touchscreen ones at the end of summer. However, after I returned home last Thursday, I had had it. It was 82 degrees in my house and I couldn't get the thermostat to change temperature. I called the hotline. Then climbed into bed with my ceiling fan and a floor fan my only shot at a good night's sleep. The A/C started cooling, and all was well, until I returned home Sunday and it was crazy hot. I was able to get it to work again, after turning on the heater for a while (still cooler air than what I had).

The CPS guy told me I could buy a thermostat and they'd install it. So that's what I did. I bought one for $67 and the guy came and installed it this morning. He monkeyed around with it, making sure the setting were right. Now I just have to program it. Take a look:
This thing is smarter than I am. I'm going to give it a name. I won't write it here because kids could read it. But trust me when I say it has four letters and our fair Governor has said it before.