Taking challenges in Moderate, Intrepid or Extreme modes: What are the differences?

Let’s start at the beginning: A Hilo challenge is an event in which Hilo reduces the temperature settings of your thermostats and encourages you to reduce your energy consumption for a few hours, whether during the morning or evening. The rationale is simple: The more you reduce your home’s overall consumption during a challenge, the more cash rewards you’ll receive! You can set the parameters for each challenge yourself to adapt them to your own lifestyle.

The three phases of a challenge are called preheating, reduction and recovery. The preheating phase is optional, but we recommend it for rooms you’ll be occupying during the challenge in order to maintain your comfort. But don’t hesitate to deactivate pre-heating in unused rooms to limit your consumption. For every challenge, you can choose your mode of participation based on your preferences.

Extreme (new!)

This new option lets you save the most energy—and potentially earns you the most rewards. In Extreme mode, the temperature of your smart thermostats increases 2°C during pre-heating, then lowers 6°C during the reduction phase. We suggest coping with the lower temperature by snuggling up under a blanket in front of the TV or proudly shuffling about wearing those fuzzy slippers your grandma knit for you!

Intrepid

Midway between the other two modes, Intrepid offers greater comfort than Extreme while enabling you to save more energy than Moderate mode. With Intrepid, the temperature increases by 2°C during preheating, then lowers 4°C during the reduction phase. As you’re accumulating your rewards, every member of your family can help, making the challenge a great excuse to have some fun!

Moderate

For those who treasure their comfort, but also want to contribute their fair share in terms of saving energy, we have the answer! In Moderate mode, the temperature increases 1.5°C during pre-heating, then lowers 3°C during the reduction phase. Since the calculation takes into consideration your household’s total energy use, you can increase your rewards even more by not using certain devices, or by switching to Intrepid mode once you’ve gotten used to taking challenges.

Here’s a tip: You can exclude certain thermostats from a challenge, such as one located in an child’s room, for example.

Temperature variations during the three phases

Note that the variation in temperature during each of the three phases occurs gradually. Your living room won’t fall from 24°C to 16°C all of a sudden!