Ah yes, I left out the important info that there was no information about the relative heights the two points. Kind of destroyed the whole point of the story, sigh
This is probably an appropriate place to put this anecdote.
GCSE-level equivalent physics exam, 1997: Bicycle weighs 20kg, you carry bike from point A to point B. Distance from A to B is 5 metres. How much work does Bob do moving the bike? g=9.2ms-2
If you wrote down g x d x m = 1000, you got the right answer. If you wrote, 'you guys are idiots' you got it wrong. Personal experience.
Note, I've probably made some basic mistake in the retelling, but hopefully the point is clear enough
Then again, it seems that most people who "switch" to Linux, especially these days, do it because they want cheap/free windows, then complain when its not windows. No, no, no. At least, not in my case. I switched to linux to avoid windowisms.
In fact, while I was using my windows partition shortly after installing ubuntu I recieved a "windows update, stop what you're doing and restart your computer message, you can click later, but I'll keep popping up every 5 minutes ad infinitum" message, and I rejoiced.
I've always thought that open source software suffers by cloning commercially available software. The incentive to use linux/openoffice etc shouldn't be that it's cheaper, it should be because it's better.
I've been (indirectly) involved with transporting super yachts.
Generally there's not much sleep to be had while shortstaffing a 50 metre yacht across an ocean. The crew eat to stay awake. I'm not sure the theory behind it, but apparently it works.
We'll have an economical superluminal vehicle before we get that sort of clone tech. They're such remote fields I don't think one can make that sort of statement
The rainbow warrior motored into our harbour on a perfect day for sailing. They'd left from a place about 600km away and I have no idea if they motored the whole way or not./n
Oh, and it's a large, not particularly difficult harbour to get into, so they certainly could have sailed
There's also the factor of different time zones. People finishing work, coming home and cooking dinners at different times helps spread out the peak load.
I don't quite understand what you mean by lowering the cost of transmission though, as this only increases it.
Right, "just" a day's storage of the power used on the US grid. You'd better be building some big batteries.
Wind contributes anything from 10-20% of it's nominal capacity to peak supply.
New Zealand still sources 30-40% of it's energy from thermal (gas/coal). In addition, New Zealand has water storage capabilities of a few weeks to months, so it's very possible to run low, and as such requires additional thermal capabilities to compensate.
Norway is closer to 100% hydro.
"There's currently no incentive for consumers to respond to changes in spot electricity prices"
The end of month electric bill can hardly be considered to help people "make choices about how and when to consume power" other than simply not using electricity.
The way the power grid is structured now makes such demand based pricing for *residential* users unnecessary, since industrial loads tend to run somewhat opposite times of residential loads. And during peak periods, many large industrial users have already agreed to shed load automatically, so why should residential users be burdened... they shouldn't. Why do you say demand based pricing is unnecessary for residential users? Total grid load still increases during peak residential customter usage periods (5pm-8pm).
The main driver behind smart metering in my part of the world is the Government, and although I share your cynical view of big business, I think this is one situation where the main driver isn't greed.
Firstly, Consumers can "make choices about how and when to consume power" but they currently have no incentive to do so. Smart meters give them that incentive.
Secondly, Water heater control isn't as great as it was, (I'm unsure of the reason for this, presumably they make up an increasingly smaller proportion of electricity bills) and is being dropped from most security of supply legislation.
The price of power changes hourly/halfhourly (depending on where you are in the world). Currently residential users aren't exposed to that price variability, it's all absorbed by the retailers (of power). My understanding is that smart metering is primarily designed to move to a user pays scheme that's based on that halfhourly price.
Yes, there will be the ability to automatically cut power to certain appliances, but this is a good thing because you'll be exposed to the higher cost of electricity. Power prices regularly double/triple or more through the course of a day, and smart metering will allow you to plan your cooking/washing/drying when the price is lowest. For smart users this should result in a lower power bill.
Of course the actual cost might not be any lower due to the cost of the smart meters. However, in the long run this fewer peaking plants (plants that only run sporadically when demand is high) will need to be built, and this is why governments concerned with green issues push smart meters, even if they're not economical.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah yes, I left out the important info that there was no information about the relative heights the two points. Kind of destroyed the whole point of the story, sigh
This is probably an appropriate place to put this anecdote.
GCSE-level equivalent physics exam, 1997: Bicycle weighs 20kg, you carry bike from point A to point B. Distance from A to B is 5 metres. How much work does Bob do moving the bike? g=9.2ms-2
If you wrote down g x d x m = 1000, you got the right answer. If you wrote, 'you guys are idiots' you got it wrong. Personal experience.
Note, I've probably made some basic mistake in the retelling, but hopefully the point is clear enough
Everything that will be discovered has been discovered. Honest
I've been (indirectly) involved with transporting super yachts. Generally there's not much sleep to be had while shortstaffing a 50 metre yacht across an ocean. The crew eat to stay awake. I'm not sure the theory behind it, but apparently it works.
The rainbow warrior motored into our harbour on a perfect day for sailing. They'd left from a place about 600km away and I have no idea if they motored the whole way or not. /n
Oh, and it's a large, not particularly difficult harbour to get into, so they certainly could have sailed
It's called English, not American. Those are perfectly valid alternative spellings.
Better be careful with your generousity. If there was copyrighted material on the computers, wouldn't this constitute 'making available'?
I'm sure that Ms. Thomas's lawyer is charging much much less than the RIAA's lawyer. Unfortunately you often get what you pay for.
There's also the factor of different time zones. People finishing work, coming home and cooking dinners at different times helps spread out the peak load. I don't quite understand what you mean by lowering the cost of transmission though, as this only increases it.
Right, "just" a day's storage of the power used on the US grid. You'd better be building some big batteries. Wind contributes anything from 10-20% of it's nominal capacity to peak supply.
New Zealand still sources 30-40% of it's energy from thermal (gas/coal). In addition, New Zealand has water storage capabilities of a few weeks to months, so it's very possible to run low, and as such requires additional thermal capabilities to compensate. Norway is closer to 100% hydro.
OK OK
"There's currently no incentive for consumers to respond to changes in spot electricity prices"
The end of month electric bill can hardly be considered to help people "make choices about how and when to consume power" other than simply not using electricity.
Firstly, Consumers can "make choices about how and when to consume power" but they currently have no incentive to do so. Smart meters give them that incentive. Secondly, Water heater control isn't as great as it was, (I'm unsure of the reason for this, presumably they make up an increasingly smaller proportion of electricity bills) and is being dropped from most security of supply legislation.
The price of power changes hourly/halfhourly (depending on where you are in the world). Currently residential users aren't exposed to that price variability, it's all absorbed by the retailers (of power). My understanding is that smart metering is primarily designed to move to a user pays scheme that's based on that halfhourly price. Yes, there will be the ability to automatically cut power to certain appliances, but this is a good thing because you'll be exposed to the higher cost of electricity. Power prices regularly double/triple or more through the course of a day, and smart metering will allow you to plan your cooking/washing/drying when the price is lowest. For smart users this should result in a lower power bill. Of course the actual cost might not be any lower due to the cost of the smart meters. However, in the long run this fewer peaking plants (plants that only run sporadically when demand is high) will need to be built, and this is why governments concerned with green issues push smart meters, even if they're not economical.