It’s summer, and that means the temperatures are rising. In many places, air conditioning is essential this time of year. Without it, the temperature inside could become dangerously warm.

Not everyone agrees about the perfect indoor temperature. Some people like it warmer than others, but we doubt that many people would consider an indoor temperature close to 80 to be appealing.

In order to conserve energy, some energy companies ask consumers to turn up the temperature on their thermostats a few degrees. This makes sense and can be good advice. Especially in the middle of the day when a lot of people are at work, there’s no need to cool down a home any more than necessary.

While advising consumers to turn down the thermostat is one thing, turning it up for them is entirely different. Yet, that’s just what happened to some residents in Texas. For example, one family turned the air conditioner on, took a nap, and woke up sweating. The temperature in their home had been turned up. Watch the video below to hear their story and to find out why their thermostat was turned up.

Remember last winter when many Texas residents were completely without heat and had icicles hanging from their ceilings? That happened because the power grid couldn’t handle the unusual winter weather in the state. Once again, the power grid is having trouble keeping up with consumer demand. This time the power grid is threatened by a heat wave instead of winter weather.

Texas residents, like the family in the video above, had their thermostat’s adjusted remotely to help the power grid keep up with demand. This family didn’t even know they had opted in to letting their thermostat be controlled remotely. They had simply said yes to entering a sweepstakes.

Texas isn’t the only state that has a program where the power company can control the thermostat remotely. These programs exist from coast to coast. It’s possible that you opted into one without realizing it. If you want to make sure your power company can’t control your thermostat remotely, you might want to call them to make sure you didn’t accidentally enter a sweepstakes without reading all of the fine print.

How would you react if you woke up and realized your thermostat had been controlled remotely?