On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 11:11:28 AM UTC+1, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 12:33:51 AM UTC+1, wrote:
On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 11:35:49 PM UTC+1, The Other Mike wrote:

If the government keep their stupid fingers out, it won't be long before appliances with this feature are available for an extra £5.
No you'll be entered into a free prize draw....

An 8 bit cpu can respond to frequency,

Not that easily, and I doubt using that method would be very successful.

its not hard to divide the clock frequency down to 50Hz and time the period from local zero crossing to mains zero crossing, and log the latest value to see how far it moves.

Far better to have teh aplience switched off on demand from the suplier than wait for the frequency to alter which would be difficult to measure cheaply.

well, thats what checking the frequency achieves. How would you do it cheaper?

Be silly to have to measure the frequency of every device.

Either you measure locally or decide centrally and communicate. Do you think 2 way communication's cheaper?


and send the appliance serial number down the wiring now and then, and the power co software will automatically knock £1 off the bill.

Too much hassle and no need for it.

The user needs some reason to spend the cost of the control unit. If I were offered 20% ROI I'd buy, for a prize draw I wouldnt.


NT

The customer is free to choose, and it'll become popular because & when its worth it.
With government involvement it'll be nothing but problems and one more parasite ripping us off. Seems they really cant help but be idiots.