Re: Digital Tools Help Users Save Energy, Study Finds

["John J. Bengii" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave, I have purchased three KaW meters and, working in a utility
meter lab, found them to as accurate as you would ever need, compared
to a lab standard 0.01% traceable...blah..blah...blah.. but........

There are much better devices out there now, in every hardware store
that record the data, don't lose it everytime there is a power blink
and tell you more stats for a lesser price. I have never tested the
accuracy of one (newer devices) yet.

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:478ccc9b.325416140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>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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