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I work in the Energy/Utility field and just got back from a “Smart Gird” conference where smart meters (i.e. real time interval metering) was discussed at lengt

by F_J_H 17y ago

I work in the Energy/Utility field and just got back from a “Smart Gird” conference where smart meters (i.e. real time interval metering) was discussed at length. Although these types of devices are really cool to “energy geeks” like me, if you look at the energy used today at the author’s house, it amounts to less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So, the big question is, until electricity prices really increase (which would be a nightmare for politicians), will the average person really care? I love the device and think it is a great concept, but I wonder if it will have a very wide appeal.

wheels 17y ago
It might make more sense in e.g. European markets where electricity costs 3x as much per kW/h.
tomharrisonjr 17y ago
Well, I am the guy that lives at the author's house. We are saving over $100/month as a result of the reductions we have made. I agree with your general position, but there's at least a niche market out there, and growing rather fast, actually.
- F_J_H 17y ago
  That is interesting. At the Smart Energy conference I spoke about, one Canadian utility that has implemented smart meters and Time of Use pricing found virtually no evidence that people were reducing their consumption. If anything, load was shifted from peak periods to the off peak periods on the weekend. You would have been a great example of what they were hoping for. I am curious though. If you are using about .09 or .10 an hour in total (for the brief period I looked at the graph), how were you able to achieve such high savings? Did you get rid of unnecessary appliances, or simply find ways to reduce consumption?
  - tomharrisonjr 17y ago
    I had found some reasonably scientific research done a while back in a pilot program showing 15% reduction by otherwise passive people. I can't find the study now, so I could be full of it :-) Actually, shifting to off-peak is a good outcome since fewer spinning reserve plants (usually the least efficient) are needed. But, as you say, not really the desired outcome. My baseline use tends to run at about 300W. We first did obvious things like replace some of our lighting with CFL, and we got rid of an old chest freezer we didn't need. We changed behavior through learning to turn off lights when we left a room. There were some no-brainer things (my stereo apparently allows multi-room hookups, and if you have the buttons turned on, it uses several hundred watts to do nothing. I replaced a fileserver + routers with an Apple Time Capsule and saved 100+ watts. We use the dryer differently. And we installed a few BITS smart strips. The reason our savings are high is partly because I live in the Boston area, where our electricity rate is currently $0.19/kWh, I think. Bottom line was that we made a lot of little changes. I have written about most of them in my personal blog, called fivepercent.us if you're interested.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
gridspy 17y ago
It seems that only industrial power users have a serious need for power monitoring. Various people talk about how the home market is the holy grail, but most home-owners simply don't use enough power and they think they have a good idea where it is going. Gridspy in a typical business will pay for itself within a year, as most businesses use in excess of $1000 a month. All it takes is the opportunity to educate the employees to turn off PCs at night and to identify the expensive lights in the building and the power usage goes down by 10%. I'll soon have some nice case studies to back up this widely held belief in the power of live monitoring.

by F_J_H 17y ago

wheels 17y ago

It might make more sense in e.g. European markets where electricity costs 3x as much per kW/h.

tomharrisonjr 17y ago

Well, I am the guy that lives at the author's house. We are saving over $100/month as a result of the reductions we have made. I agree with your general position, but there's at least a niche market out there, and growing rather fast, actually.

F_J_H 17y ago
That is interesting. At the Smart Energy conference I spoke about, one Canadian utility that has implemented smart meters and Time of Use pricing found virtually no evidence that people were reducing their consumption. If anything, load was shifted from peak periods to the off peak periods on the weekend. You would have been a great example of what they were hoping for. I am curious though. If you are using about .09 or .10 an hour in total (for the brief period I looked at the graph), how were you able to achieve such high savings? Did you get rid of unnecessary appliances, or simply find ways to reduce consumption?
- tomharrisonjr 17y ago
  I had found some reasonably scientific research done a while back in a pilot program showing 15% reduction by otherwise passive people. I can't find the study now, so I could be full of it :-) Actually, shifting to off-peak is a good outcome since fewer spinning reserve plants (usually the least efficient) are needed. But, as you say, not really the desired outcome. My baseline use tends to run at about 300W. We first did obvious things like replace some of our lighting with CFL, and we got rid of an old chest freezer we didn't need. We changed behavior through learning to turn off lights when we left a room. There were some no-brainer things (my stereo apparently allows multi-room hookups, and if you have the buttons turned on, it uses several hundred watts to do nothing. I replaced a fileserver + routers with an Apple Time Capsule and saved 100+ watts. We use the dryer differently. And we installed a few BITS smart strips. The reason our savings are high is partly because I live in the Boston area, where our electricity rate is currently $0.19/kWh, I think. Bottom line was that we made a lot of little changes. I have written about most of them in my personal blog, called fivepercent.us if you're interested.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

gridspy 17y ago

It seems that only industrial power users have a serious need for power monitoring. Various people talk about how the home market is the holy grail, but most home-owners simply don't use enough power and they think they have a good idea where it is going. Gridspy in a typical business will pay for itself within a year, as most businesses use in excess of $1000 a month. All it takes is the opportunity to educate the employees to turn off PCs at night and to identify the expensive lights in the building and the power usage goes down by 10%. I'll soon have some nice case studies to back up this widely held belief in the power of live monitoring.