I disagree because eventually, retail rates will be allowed to float and will track wholesale rates. Meaning that what you want to do is run the HVAC during the day to preheat or precool (depending on the season) when electricity is cheap and then shut down the system in the evening, when the price of electricity spikes. This will negate most of the advantage of a variable speed system. Variable speed is for reducing or eliminating cycling, but in the Bay Area, the outdoor temperature crosses through our indoor set point on most days, meaning that the system cycles anyway. Variable speed systems can generally only get down to 20-30% and if the building requires less than that, the system will cycle.
Nah man, my wife sets the AC to whatever she is going to set it at. The whole reason I got the ESS was to become agnostic to TOU.
Plus she complains these condensing units have a ridiculously loud startup.