Jim's picture of the wildly spinning meter reminded me that I was
going to mention that we got our house wired up the the "Smart Grid".
Everything is electric in it (no natural gas). The power company asked
a bunch of us if we'd like to save a few bucks a month.
Yeah, like I'd turn that down?
So, our air-conditioner and hot water heater now have these nifty
controllers on them that allow the power company to disable them
during peak times. Of course, the way our place is built, we aren't
that big of a draw anyway, but we said sure. So these controllers do a
rolling 10 minute blackout on our devices. The rest of the house is
fully electrified, but the controller cuts off power to the these two
devices for up to 10 minutes at a time. Theoretically, we should never
know the difference. Sure, if the thermostat were to decide to turn
the air on, the fans go on, but the compressor doesn't. If the
thermostat turned it on right at the time the rolling blackout
occured, it would take up to 10 minutes longer before the house cooled
back down to the set temperature, but that would be worse-case.
So, for no real inconvenience we get to save $10 per month. The way
these are wired in, there is no damage to the systems. With this heat
wave, I'm sure if they are actually going to utilize it, they probably
have. But we're none the wiser.
Another thing that we've done for a couple years is peak/off-peak
billing. During the hottest summer months our electric bill will be
slightly higher than normal billing, but the rest of the year it is
very much in our favor. We save over $200 per year on this program.
AG
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