In this way, our small group of home air conditioners reacted to grid changes the way a power plant would – using more or less energy to balance the grid and keep the frequency near 60 hertz.

Air conditioners place a heavy burden on the grid when the weather gets hot, but this strategy shows they can actually help—and without compromising your home's temperature.

Every few seconds, our system slightly changed the timing of air-conditioning compressor switching for some of the 100 air conditioners, causing the units’ aggregate power consumption to change.

It is the way air conditioners work, if they move heat from inside of your house to outside. And if it's really hot outside and they don't have a good way, they don't have a good spot to put that ...

Those acronyms on air conditioner or refrigerator labels—EER, CEER, and SEER—are calculations that represent savings on the cost of running the appliance.

But if everyone turns on their air conditioner at the same time, electricity demand spikes, which can force power grid operators to activate some of the most expensive, and dirtiest, power plants.