4 ms·

At least for the specific case of washing you can get most of the benefit by moving to a time-of-use tariff and scheduling the washing machine to run during the

by caf 8y ago

At least for the specific case of washing you can get most of the benefit by moving to a time-of-use tariff and scheduling the washing machine to run during the off peak time. (Washing machines do seem to use a surprisingly large amount of energy, particularly the ones that heat the water internally).

carlmr 8y ago
With a quick search I can't find any energy company in my area offering time-of-use tariffs. I remember in the 90s it used to be standard to have a cheaper night tariff. But there's nothing that actually does impedance matching through financial incentives. By the second spot rates might be slightly too volatile for the average consumer to use, but what you could have is smart pricing mechanisms where you can e.g. lock in a rate for the next 1 or 2h and then your washing machine waits for the expected best rate in the day and with maybe a timeout when it starts anyway (if you need it). That way you could usually get good rates when you start your washing machine in the morning and it waits a few hours, depending on price history. This is just a case of simple enough statistics that they can be calculated on the smalles microcontrollers available. Those are already in most home appliances. If you now add Wifi capabilities (which also a lot of home appliances have), you could get the communication done. For any smart appliance the marginal cost to implement this is zero. The investment cost is only the software. You'd still need a company offering this.
- caf 8y ago
  If your energy retailers aren't offering a simple TOU tariff, I feel like an automatic auction system is going to be several bridges too far for them. You should try writing to them and asking if they have any plans for TOU - they might not realise there's any demand for it.

4 ms·

At least for the specific case of washing you can get most of the benefit by moving to a time-of-use tariff and scheduling the washing machine to run during the

by caf 8y ago

carlmr 8y ago
With a quick search I can't find any energy company in my area offering time-of-use tariffs. I remember in the 90s it used to be standard to have a cheaper night tariff. But there's nothing that actually does impedance matching through financial incentives. By the second spot rates might be slightly too volatile for the average consumer to use, but what you could have is smart pricing mechanisms where you can e.g. lock in a rate for the next 1 or 2h and then your washing machine waits for the expected best rate in the day and with maybe a timeout when it starts anyway (if you need it). That way you could usually get good rates when you start your washing machine in the morning and it waits a few hours, depending on price history. This is just a case of simple enough statistics that they can be calculated on the smalles microcontrollers available. Those are already in most home appliances. If you now add Wifi capabilities (which also a lot of home appliances have), you could get the communication done. For any smart appliance the marginal cost to implement this is zero. The investment cost is only the software. You'd still need a company offering this.
- caf 8y ago
  If your energy retailers aren't offering a simple TOU tariff, I feel like an automatic auction system is going to be several bridges too far for them. You should try writing to them and asking if they have any plans for TOU - they might not realise there's any demand for it.