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Something similar was done in Canada about 40 years ago with the high-usage lights installed in every home (usually next to the washer/dryer). If the light was

Something similar was done in Canada about 40 years ago with the high-usage lights installed in every home (usually next to the washer/dryer). If the light was on, people paid significantly more. It was very very effective at reducing peak consumption.

hrpnk 4y ago
This is great, because it shows/teaches people what high-usage is. So far, I've seen very little guidance and advice to citizens on how exactly they can contribute to lower energy usage. Only businesses say they will stop production or change opening times. Is this a missed opportunity?
- wizofaus 4y ago
  > because it shows/teaches people what high-usage is. Consumer awareness of what appliances use the most power should really be a lot higher. It's actually pretty simple too - devices that generate a lot of heat are the ones consuming a lot of energy. That includes devices whose purpose may be to keep things cool - your fridge and A/C still generate significant waste heat even in the latter case it's vented externally. A rare exception would be a car-battery charger, which can obviously draw significant power but the heat is generated later when the power is drawn from the battery and in a dissipated fashion that's hard to detect directly but is still significant.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  These days we have the tech to make this really smooth. Have a phone app with live prices, and integrate with iot makers so things like washing machines and dish washers can be set to trigger on the cheapest times. Have houses automatically heat up earlier in the morning before people start waking up and consuming more power
kennend3 4y ago
This doesnt make sense, at least not for Ontario. Prior to "Time of use" billing (and having to upgrade all our meters in like 2016) i dont see how this was possible. The old meters simply measured how much power was used, they had no idea of WHEN it was used. The electric company would go house to house and "read the meter" once a month and report this back to billing. Based on your usage a bill would be produced and sent to you. How/when would a "high usage light" come into play? I grew up in a house which was over 40 years old, there was no "high-usage" lights near the waster/dryer. Mostly because homes built back then had the waster/dryer in the basement and any "usage lights" would be ineffective.
- teraflop 4y ago
  It's called a multiple-tariff meter. Of course it's easier to implement with modern electronics, but there's no reason you can't design an electromechanical meter device that has two different mechanisms to tally up "peak" and "off-peak" usage. I just did a quick Google search and found patents dating back to the 1970s.
  - kennend3 4y ago
    I think you intentionally overlooked my point. I wasn't debating if these meters exist or not, it was that they were never used in Ontario. Continuing your logic, did Canada ever use these "multiple-tariff" meters? If they did, what was the point of the light the OP mentioned?
    - teraflop 4y ago
      I certainly didn't intentionally overlook anything. I took your "doesn't make sense" to mean that you were questioning the possibility of an "old" meter accounting for different electricity rates at different times. Since it seems that's not what you meant, I apologize for misunderstanding you.
  - tom_ 4y ago
    Economy 7 in the UK switches meters based on time of day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7
    - fy20 4y ago
      ...which is triggered by a radio signal.
      - tom_ 4y ago
        Indeed! More secure that way than trying to do it locally, probably, and now BST is somebody else's problem. But since it's been around since the late 70s, clearly you can do this without needing too much advanced tech - which is what I interpreted as being the perceived problem. (Perhaps incorrectly, but it looks like I wasn't the only one...)
petre 4y ago
Today the lights consume next to nothing compared to HVAC.

hrpnk 4y ago

This is great, because it shows/teaches people what high-usage is. So far, I've seen very little guidance and advice to citizens on how exactly they can contribute to lower energy usage. Only businesses say they will stop production or change opening times. Is this a missed opportunity?

wizofaus 4y ago
> because it shows/teaches people what high-usage is. Consumer awareness of what appliances use the most power should really be a lot higher. It's actually pretty simple too - devices that generate a lot of heat are the ones consuming a lot of energy. That includes devices whose purpose may be to keep things cool - your fridge and A/C still generate significant waste heat even in the latter case it's vented externally. A rare exception would be a car-battery charger, which can obviously draw significant power but the heat is generated later when the power is drawn from the battery and in a dissipated fashion that's hard to detect directly but is still significant.
Gigachad 4y ago
These days we have the tech to make this really smooth. Have a phone app with live prices, and integrate with iot makers so things like washing machines and dish washers can be set to trigger on the cheapest times. Have houses automatically heat up earlier in the morning before people start waking up and consuming more power

kennend3 4y ago

This doesnt make sense, at least not for Ontario. Prior to "Time of use" billing (and having to upgrade all our meters in like 2016) i dont see how this was possible. The old meters simply measured how much power was used, they had no idea of WHEN it was used. The electric company would go house to house and "read the meter" once a month and report this back to billing. Based on your usage a bill would be produced and sent to you. How/when would a "high usage light" come into play? I grew up in a house which was over 40 years old, there was no "high-usage" lights near the waster/dryer. Mostly because homes built back then had the waster/dryer in the basement and any "usage lights" would be ineffective.

teraflop 4y ago
It's called a multiple-tariff meter. Of course it's easier to implement with modern electronics, but there's no reason you can't design an electromechanical meter device that has two different mechanisms to tally up "peak" and "off-peak" usage. I just did a quick Google search and found patents dating back to the 1970s.
- kennend3 4y ago
  I think you intentionally overlooked my point. I wasn't debating if these meters exist or not, it was that they were never used in Ontario. Continuing your logic, did Canada ever use these "multiple-tariff" meters? If they did, what was the point of the light the OP mentioned?
  - teraflop 4y ago
    I certainly didn't intentionally overlook anything. I took your "doesn't make sense" to mean that you were questioning the possibility of an "old" meter accounting for different electricity rates at different times. Since it seems that's not what you meant, I apologize for misunderstanding you.
- tom_ 4y ago
  Economy 7 in the UK switches meters based on time of day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7
  - fy20 4y ago
    ...which is triggered by a radio signal.
    - tom_ 4y ago
      Indeed! More secure that way than trying to do it locally, probably, and now BST is somebody else's problem. But since it's been around since the late 70s, clearly you can do this without needing too much advanced tech - which is what I interpreted as being the perceived problem. (Perhaps incorrectly, but it looks like I wasn't the only one...)

petre 4y ago

Today the lights consume next to nothing compared to HVAC.