DIYbanter - View Single Post

Mike

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:24:25 -0500, wrote:

What you are totally missing is why we buy power in the first place.
We buy it to do work. If my AC is getting less power, it has to work
longer to cool the same space. Since air conditioning is about 1/2 to
3/4 of the total power consumed in the summer, that becomes a
significant issue. If a light burns a little less, or the pool pump
runs a little slower, I might not notice it or bother to compensate
for it. However, the thermostat on the AC compensates automatically,
and the AC runs longer without my doing anything. Therefore, the
power wasted in heating the wiring has to be made up by using an
equivalent amount of power to allow the AC to do its work.

If utility companies (worldwide) want to reduce demand they have three
standard approaches - although not all are used in every country.

They either:

1) dynamically constrain demand from commercial users (AC/heating
setpoint changes for instance)

2) drop the volts at the consumers point of service by transformer
tapping at the HV-Distribution voltage transformer

3) block load shed.

A resistive joint upstream of your supply simply drops volts but
doesn't EVER make your local meter turn faster by increasing your
instantaneous power consumption.

A resistive joint, of the magnitude that doesn't set fire to your
house makes bugger all difference to your power consumption.

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