Does it come as a surprise to hear that Texas electric companies have figured out a new way to make more money? Sure, the old ways still work. Ask Don Scoggins of Dallas, who diligently shopped for a lower electricity rate, found one he liked, but neglected to read the fine print. Guess the rest.

The bill came with a monthly $15 penalty because he used less than 1,000 kilowatts per hour. But that’s old-school money-grabbing, so 2009.

The 2013 way to puff up a monthly electricity bill is by adding monthly rental charges and penalties courtesy of the growing popularity of customer contracts for fancy-pants smart thermostats.

These are thermostats that are slickly designed, Wi-Fi enabled and operated with a smartphone, tablet or Web page. Supposedly, some thermostat models can learn the patterns of living habits of a home’s inhabitants and adjust temperatures accordingly.

Tamara Galbraith of Plano says she agreed to a two-year thermostat contract with her electric company, Tara Energy, a subsidiary of Just Energy. She regrets it entirely, especially after she switched companies and Tara charged her $495 for breaking the thermostat contract.

But it wasn’t entirely her fault. The hard sell was hard, promises were vague and the contract sent by Tara is, I promise you, unreadable.

‘Facts were squishy’

Call this the Great Thermostat War of 2013. Many Texas electricity retailers, including the giants, are using smart thermostats to promote energy conservation. But there are pitfalls to using them that customers need to know.

Foremost is what happened to Galbraith. She received a promotional phone call from Tara promising a SmartStat thermostat with free installation and a guarantee that it would pay for itself.

“Although the facts were squishy,” she says.

Among the promises: If she didn’t see at least 15 percent savings on her electricity bills, she wouldn’t have to pay the monthly $15 rental fee.

“I asked many questions about how this worked, how the costs/savings were compared and was assured if I didn’t save money, I would pay nothing,” she says. “Very slick, but I feel like I still didn’t ask enough questions, obviously.”

Still, she signed the contract, the second with her electric company, the first being for electricity.

The company provided her with a one-page “Terms of Service,” which she didn’t read. In fairness, how could she? I needed a magnifying glass, and even then, the print is so tiny that individual letters could fit on a pinhead.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas has a wonderful rule about the font size of words on electricity contracts — 10 point or bigger — to avoid situations such as this. But since thermostat contracts are new, they aren’t covered in existing rules. Tara took advantage of the loophole. (Note to PUC: Please fix.)

Buried deep in the pinhead text, I found, thanks to my trusty magnifying glass, wording that states a customer such as Galbraith who switches to a different company must pay that $495 termination penalty.

Tara Energy officials did not make themselves available for an interview with The Watchdog. The company sent an email Friday stating that “with customer satisfaction at the heart of everything we do, we make every effort to address and resolve complaints and queries thoroughly and promptly.” Galbraith’s thermostat was installed. She paid $15 a month for six months. That’s high, a PUC spokesman told me. By comparison, TXU Energy charges $8 a month for one model. And, she says, she didn’t notice any additional savings, although she says it’s difficult to tell.

When her electricity contract expired last month, she jumped to another company with a lower rate. But that company wasn’t thermostat compatible (yes, one more problem to deal with), so she couldn’t use her SmartStat.

“I blame myself quite a bit for falling for it,” she says. “I admit I did not read the fine print and naively believed that ‘this will not cost you anything’ meant it from beginning to end. I did ask specifically if the service was transferrable and was assured that yes, it was.”

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In the fine print

Termination penalties (TXU charges $150 when someone opts out of its iThermostat contract) may not be the biggest issue for consumers who sign up for a smart thermostat.

Contracts for these shiny objects with color screens, vibrant colors and the lure of 21st century technology carry another notable clause.

Smart thermostat contracts specifically allow utilities to cycle a homeowner’s air conditioning system on and off during brownout periods on high-demand summer days. Although some electricity companies allow customers to opt out, the default position for contract holders appears to be that smart thermostat customers are going down for the count by their own consent.

I love saving the planet as much as the next person. But a customer who agrees to pay a monthly fee for a brainy thermostat also gives an electricity provider permission to use that thermostat’s Wi-Fi communication abilities to reduce electricity usage temporarily in a home.

What a deal.

If ever there was a set of contracts that consumers should force themselves to read before signing, it’s electricity agreements. That is, if the print is big enough to read.

Final note: Galbraith complained to the PUC and copied Tara Energy on the complaint. Immediately afterward, a Tara representative called her and promised to drop the entire termination fee.

Follow Dave Lieber on Twitter at @Dave Lieber.

Read the latest Watchdog Nation reports from Dave Lieber at The Dallas Morning News Watchdog page.

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Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change.