You could earn $350 a year just for doing this one weird thing for an hour each week. This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique...
What are you normally doing between 5 and 9 p.m.? If you’re anything like us, your typical evening might consist of unwinding on the couch with an episode of your favorite show, getting dinner ready and doing a bit of scrolling on your phone.
But if you’re normally home during those hours, you could make some serious extra money with that time — for almost no effort. A company called OhmConnect will send you a text when the electricity you’re using at home is “dirty,” and it will pay you just for cutting back for about an hour a week.
Seriously. We’ve seen people earn as much as $1,700 a year just for doing this.
If you have a utility account with PG&E, SDG&E or Southern California Edison (which cover nearly every county in California), OhmConnect will pay you to cut back on your energy use. You’ll get a text when a lot of people in your area are using power (usually between 5 and 9 p.m.). Your job is to simply use less electricity. You could turn off your A/C, use the grill instead of the stove, or even turn off your breaker.
Here’s How to Get Cash from OhmConnect
Sign up for a free OhmConnect account here. Sync it with your online utility account through PG&E, SDG&E or Southern California Edison, or connect as a guest. Wait for OhmConnect to text you during high-energy-consumption hours Head outside, or at least turn the TV off until the hour is up. Heck, you can even play games on your phone during this hour — just resist plugging in any electronics. Profit! OhmConnect rewards you with cash, prizes, gift cards and more.This all works because the California electricity market (or California ISO) pays OhmConnect to help them avoid turning on an expensive, dirty power plant. The company then passes the savings on to you.
If you want to automate the process, you can even connect a smart thermostat or plug and let OhmConnect do this automatically. Even connecting some of your biggest energy-hogging devices to a smart plug can help you save $350 a year — effortlessly. Right now, OhmConnect is even offering a free smart thermostat to people in California who agree to try out its free service.
But you don’t need a smart device to save: The more you do, the more money you can make.
For example, we talked to one woman, Tanya Williams, who recently earned an extra $1,700 in one year with OhmConnect — more than $140 a month. A few evenings each week, the 45-year-old stay-at-home mom shut down her home’s electrical panel and took the kids to the pool, or just played board games. Talk about easy money.
Enter your ZIP code here to open a free OhmConnect account, then sync it with your utility account to start earning cash. Your whites can wait until tomorrow.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.