How OhmConnect Saves Energy and Makes You Money

With OhmConnect, it’s easy to get rewarded for saving energy.
Here’s how it works: It all starts with something we call an OhmHour.

How Do OhmHours Work?

What’s an OhmHour, you might be wondering?

In short: The OhmHour is where the magic happens.

It’s a brief window of time (usually on weeknight evenings) when demand on the energy grid is so high that utility companies would rather pay their customers to reduce our collective usage than the alternative - firing up a dirty, expensive “peaker” plant.

HOW IT WORKS

Who can participate and earn rewards

A family in the kitchen baking cookies, portraying participation at OhmConnect

OhmConnect is a free service available in California (PG&E, SCE, or SDG&E customers), New York (Con Edison customers) and Texas (folks with an active OhmConnect retail energy account). We are expanding into states where smart meter data is readily accessible and we can calculate how much electricity your household reduced during an energy-saving event.

Don’t live in California, New York, or Texas but want to get in on the action? You can still be part of our lucrative referral program! If you refer an eligible California, New York, or Texas resident to OhmConnect and they connect their utility and save energy, you will get paid and so will your friend!

Participating utilities include:

  • 1
    Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
  • 2
    Southern California Edison (SCE)
  • 3
    San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)
  • 4
    Con Edison
A family in the kitchen baking cookies, portraying participation at OhmConnect

How much can I earn with OhmConnect?

A hand putting money into the piggy bank illustrating how much you can earn with OhmConnect

This depends on the size of your home and how well you save energy. The key to earning consistent rewards is to use connected devices, such as smart thermostats and smart plugs. We’ve found that members who use a smart thermostat or two smart plugs are the ones who earn the most each month.

Your earning potential also depends on how many friends and family you are able to refer. If you know a lot of people who are in states served by OhmConnect (California, New York, and Texas) then the sky is the proverbial limit. We know of members who have easily cleared $5,000 in one year through referral rewards. There is even a case of a member who made $41,000 in one month with OhmConnect referrals, but those results are not typical.

A hand putting money into the piggy bank illustrating how much you can earn with OhmConnect

How do OhmConnect rewards work?

Whenever you can successfully save energy during an OhmHour or AutoOhm, you'll earn what we call Watts. And Watts are worth money or rewards in the OhmConnect Rewards Marketplace! When you have Watts in your OhmConnect account, you can do any of the following:

  • 1
    Improve your home’s energy efficiency with smart home technology. Smart home tech like smart thermostats and smart plugs not only earn you more Watts during upcoming OhmHours and AutoOhms but they’ll ensure your home is operating as efficiently as possible (saving you money on your electricity bills). Watts you earn can be put towards serious discounts on these items.
  • 2
    Enter to win prizes. Every week, there’s a new, big-ticket prize up for grabs for one lucky OhmConnect member that's actively saved energy in the last 30 days. Peloton bikes, gift cards, ENERGY STAR appliances, cash prizes and more are up for grabs, and you're automatically entered to win!
  • 3
    Donate your Watts to the California State Parks Foundation.
  • 4
    Maximize your future earnings with bonuses that double your referral or device bonuses for a select period of time.

Where does the money come from?

Great question! And please bear with us, it’s a little complicated. 

In the US and Canada, there are nine regional energy markets where energy is traded.  These markets provide a trading mechanism for buying and selling energy over many timeframes.  Multi-year planning is done to make sure that the region has the right development of infrastructure and minute-by-minute planning is done to make sure that supply and demand are balanced and there are no blackouts.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

OhmConnect trades energy in these markets like a power plant. We bid a quantity of energy at a specific price and if the market accepts our bid, we are contracted to (and get paid to!) deliver that energy. The trick is that we don’t actually create any new energy - we simply reduce as a community, which has the same effect as contributing energy to the grid. OhmConnect then distributes the rewards to its members in the form of cash payments and fun prize drawings.

How to link your utility and get approved

In order to earn your cash payments, you’ll need to connect your utility's online account to OhmConnect. Each utility company is a little different, so you’ll want to check out the instructions for your specific electricity provider:

Welcome to the OhmConnect community!