Re: Digital Tools Help Users Save Energy, Study Finds

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

I saw the same article on several different sites. I believe the authors of
the study suggested there would be a reduced need for "peaking" plants
rather than an overall reduction in new plants. The consumer controls let
users respond to peak pricing by reducing peak demand. The media tends to
distort the facts to fit their preconceptions.

The Kill A Watt meter, now available from Smarthome for under $25 will let
you monitor a specific appliance. It's been around for quite some time
although it cost about $60 when introduced. The same nitwits who now attack
me for questioning CFL statistics viciously attacked my review here of the
Kill A Watt when it was first introduced. One of them even referred to Home
Energy Magazine, published by folks from Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, as an "obscure west coast magazine" when it published an article
I wrote on the Kill A Watt (at their request BTW).

You might wanbt to check their site.

http://www.homeenergy.org/blog.php?id=35&blog_title=January/February_2008_Editorial:_The_Afterlife_of_a_CFL

Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:03:52 -0500, Robert Green wrote:
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/technology/10energy.html?ref=science
>>
>> "Giving people the means to closely monitor and adjust their electricity use
>> lowers their monthly bills and could significantly reduce the need to build
>> new power plants, according to a yearlong government study.
>
>I question the 'reduce the need to build new power plants' portion.
>I'd agree with reduce the number of new plants.
>
>> The results of the research project by the Pacific Northwest National
>> Laboratory of the Energy Department, released Wednesday, suggest that if
>> households have digital tools to set temperature and price preferences, the
>> peak loads on utility grids could be trimmed by up to 15 percent a year."
>
>Skipping the environmental debate, if we had tools that would allow us
>to monitor each device's power usage we could probably come up with
>tools that allow us to figure out a lot more. Say I have a
>refrigerator that was new 3 years ago and it uses x kw avg/day. If I
>monitor it I may be able to determine that the unit is going bad (it's
>now using 1.5 * x kw avg/day). Or maybe I can figure out that if I
>purchase a new 'frig in n months I'll be able to save more money
>(return on investment in y months at current power pricing).
>Monitoring our own usage allows us to more than 'green' it allows us
>to use our money more wisely. I've always found that it's easier to
>sell money-wise vs enviro-wise.
>
>Here's something from California on a related subject, it's titled:
>"California Seeks Thermostat Control". The gist of the story is that
>the California Energy Commission wants to be able to control the
>temperature of your HVAC to 'manage electricity shortages'.
>
>Here's the link that appear on Slashdot:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/us/11control.html?ex=1357707600&en=708b7b53b2933934&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
>
>If you get nasty wrap:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/us/11control.html?ex=1357707600&;
>en=708b7b53b2933934&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
>
>cut and paste the second set of lines together before sending.
>
>I can easily see this being used throughout the country. It does make
>me a bit nervous. I'd like to understand the rules. The reason it
>makes me nervous is that the local power companies have been going out
>of their way to reduce cost at the sake of quality. We have power
>problems in my area because they refuse to expand but rather just add
>onto the existing strained system.


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