At its most basic OhmConnect pays you when you save electricity.
During peak demand times OhmConnect will give you a one hour window called an OhmHour during which you need to use less than electricity than the utility forecasts you’ll use. If you beat the forecast they pay you a small amount. If you progress through the membership levels and consistently beat your forecast your earning rate goes up.
The peak demand OhmHour times tend to be in the 5-9PM range and are always one hour. You’re typically given a heads up the day before that one is coming up.
Above the dashboard shows a successful OhmHour and a payout of 83 points.
Points are redeemed through PayPal, Amazon, Target or a number of other options at one point equal to one cent.
The easiest way to beat your forecast is to automate energy savings. For example put a smart plug on your refrigerator. When the OhmHour happens the service will automatically cut power to your fridge. Your food will be just fine without power for an hour as long as you don’t leave the door open.
Network connected thermostats also are an easy way to reduce power usage. By turning off air conditioning for an hour it’s pretty easy to cut back electricity usage dramatically.
To ensure a successful OhmHour you can also take a brute force approach and just flip your main breaker and then go read a book for an hour.
In addition to points you also earn tokens. Tokens are a currency on the OhmHour platform that can be used to do things like opt our of an OhmHour, increase your baseline forecast or protect a streak.
If you sign up here I get $20 and you get $10 on enrollment and $10 when connecting your first smart device.