D Yuniskis wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
D Yuniskis wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
Dave M wrote:

Starting about 25 years ago, the local power company started a
program whereby they installed these boxes to home AC units and
electric water heaters, supposedly to reduce peak demand on the
grid in times of high demand.

Wonderful idea. If the AC units are creating an excessive load, just
turn them off remotely. Beats investing in grid infrastructure.

The problem is getting people to buy into this idea. It
usually is under a different tariff than "normal service".
And, utilities often don't price those tariffs rationally.
People are hesitant to let someone else turn off a "comfort
feature" if they aren't getting something "significant" for
their potential inconvenience [1]

There's not much point in having a comfort feature if it's likely to
get turned off at the time of greatest need.

It's not "turned off", per se. Rather, it is *deferred*.
I.e., maybe 10 minutes later your ACbrrr will kick in
instead of at the (slightly) earlier time when the
thermostat called for cooling.

Chances are, a normal user wouldn't really perceive the fact
that the ACbrrr kicked in "late" -- the house may rise some
fraction of a degree beyond the thermostat's set point?
But, the *idea* of this is unnerving to many people:
"Oh, I am going to be *so* uncomfortable!"

OTOH, if they were to raise their thermostat's setpoint
that degree (or two?) all the time, they would probably not
notice the difference.

But, as I've commented elsewhere, as soon as the AC is powered up it
will stay on for longer to bring the temperature down again.

There is an energy saving, but it's very much a second order effect,
arising form the slightly higher average temperature.


I'd only go with it if the saving were enough to finance a petrol
generator to supply the power instead.

frown Defeats the purpose. The utility can produce electricity
far cheaper/cleaner than you can.

I'm not so sure that's necessarily true for extreme peak loads. They not
only have to generate the power, which is likely to be done using diesel
or some such, but they also have to deliver it to me, which involves
transmission infrastructure which is only used during these extreme peak
loads, but which is there all the time.

Sylvia.