Consumers May Find Smart Appliances a Dumb Idea

theodp writes "As GE readies appliances that communicate with smart meters in the hope of taking advantage of cheaper electricity rates, CNet asks a big question: Are consumers ready for the smart grid? Right now, most utilities only offer a flat rate, not time-of-use pricing, so the example of a drier that reacts to a 'price signal' about peak rates by keeping one's clothes wet until a more affordable time is pretty much a fantasy. And longer-term, a big question is whether consumers will want to deal with the hassle of optimizing household appliance energy usage themselves, or be willing to relinquish monitoring and control to utility companies — with a concomitant loss of privacy. After all, losing one's copy of 1984 is one thing — losing one's lights and refrigerator is another thing altogether."

Comments

Re:How long will peak rates be around for?

[TapeCutter]

Australia has had off-peak rates at night for decades, most people use it for their hot-water service.

Florida has a form of this for years.

[jackb_guppy]

I live in Central Florida and we had the "great" box in the garage that controlled A/C, Water-heater and Pool. For a ~$8 saving per month, the power company would send a signal over the wire to turn-off these items to save power on grid.

I had small children that were are home and temperature in house soared to 95+ for hours on end. The A/C cycle time was to at most 80 degrees. We were running the system for 4hrs or more at night to bring the temp back to ~75 degrees.

The pool was constantly green, causing more shock treatments and forcing us to run the filtering all night to catch up.

Finally, had to power company "cut" the connection. Lowered my power bill, 20% since the internal systems did not have catch up.

Also around that time, the power company was also cross connecting the meter with cable. The reason was to improve this control and let them read meter from afar. I had that removed when the power company would not warrant any damage that joining these isolated systems could cause since I was running multiple surge protectors. Lighting strikes were common, one hit the tree behind my neighbor's house taking out the power to back of the house (fried wires). Power Company tired to get me to leave installed after they offered upgrade my wiring to "full house" surge protecting - If I paid them $1000 to install it.

Re:While I am all for green energy, save the Plane

[Mashiki]

Good luck with that. In Ontario, they've already mandated smart meters by law. Here come higher hydro rates too, we're about to get screwed and they said that it will net us lower rates. They did the same in Quebec, rates jumped by 15-35%. Big shock, there is such a glut in raw hydro here, that they're actually shutting down one of our nuclear reactors for several weeks because of excess power.

Annoying as all piss. There was no input on this, bloody statists.

Re:How long will peak rates be around for?

[commodore64_love]

I wish I had points. I'd give you "+1 Ignorant"

Tankless waters heaters are instant. They heat the cold water as it passes through the pipe and into your shower. Picture in your mind a cold pipe heated with a large flame* - the water gets hot as it passes the flame. There's no waiting time involved.

* They also have electric versions.