towers 18 each of the comfort system users 16 has an antenna 19 that picks up the broadcast message and a pager 21 that is programmed with the broadcast address to receive the message the curtailment set back message then operates to automatically adjust the thermostat setting to one which is require less power the user may choose to override the power company initiated curtailment command so as to leave the thermostat setting at its initial setting in either case each of the users 16 will automatically respond back through the two way wireless protocol to the utility company 11 that they have received the curtailment command because of the large number i e in the ten of thousands the individual user systems are programmed to spread out their confirmation responses to avoid overloading the system that is for the utility 11 to receive responses from the entire network it may take on the order of one to two hours of course there will be some of the users 16 that do not receive the curtailment command experience has shown that the confirmation rate of a broadcast message is in the range of 90 95 of total users 16 because of the relatively long response time by the time that the utility 11 is made aware of which of the users 16 did not receive the curtailment command it is generally to late too rebroadcast the command or to communicate to those users in another manner in accordance with one aspect of the present invention the ability of the wireless devices to receive and confirm the receipt of broadcast messages is enhanced by way of a preliminary process as set forth in fig2 and then to modify the user broadcast message process as shown.