Setting your demand limit: the savings vs. comfort dial

One setting, one job

The Demand Limit (DL) is the ceiling your 9388A works to stay under. It is the only setting an owner adjusts. Everything else, including your utility schedule, load priorities, and compressor timers, is programmed by your installer and locked so it cannot be changed by accident.

Think of the DL as cruise control for the house. As Bill Brayden, who invented the system, puts it: raise the number and you pay a little more. Lower it and you save more. Most owners land on a happy medium within a few weeks.

Lower DL = more savings, less comfort headroom.
Higher DL = more comfort, smaller savings.

Do this: move in 0.5 kW steps

Turn the knob to DL and change the value by 0.5 kW at a time. Then wait at least one hour before you touch it again.

The wait matters. Your system controls to a rolling average, not an instant reading, so a change you make now takes a full averaging period to show its real effect. Adjusting twice in ten minutes tells you nothing.

Know your floor: base load

Your home draws power all day from things the system does not control. Lighting, refrigeration, electronics, well pumps, and pool equipment run whether or not you are home. That background draw is your base load, sometimes called phantom or vampire load, and it sets the floor for your Demand Limit.

If you set the DL below that floor, the system will shed everything it can, every minute of the on-peak period, and still never get under the number. The result is a hot house and no additional savings.

One documented home

A documented Arizona installation, a home under 3,000 square feet with two AC units and a pool, started at a DL of 3.0 kW. On 110°F days the indoor temperature climbed further than the owner wanted. The reason showed up in the numbers: base load alone was running 1.2 to 1.9 kW, leaving almost nothing for cooling.

Raising the limit to 4.5 kW held the house at 74°F while keeping the peak well controlled.

That is one home with its own base load, square footage, and equipment. Treat it as a reference point for how the dial behaves, not as a number to copy or a promise about your results.

Where to start

Ask your installer what limit they commissioned the system at and why. That number was chosen from your actual measured baseline. Move from there in 0.5 kW steps until comfort and savings both feel right.

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Questions about your own setup? Call toll free (888) 461-9336, direct (970) 461-9600, or email help@energysentry.com. Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM Arizona time.