as to just *how* this electric company will be able to control my A/C without shutting off my oven.
Because at my house BOTH are on the same 220V lines.
...Or do you have some super sekrit way of telling my A/C to stop working and leave everything else on?
Yeah- I didn't think so- because I have STUPID appliances that are too old to join Big Brother in the pursuit of .GOV controlling every aspect of my life.
BUT don't worry citizen, only the scoff-laws will be affected!
The military has beem doing this for decades in family housing on base. They control the thermostats and can remotely shut off AC whenever they need to to reduce base-wide power consumption.
ReplyDeleteI'm at a loss on this one. A meter is nothing but a measuring tool. Digital does the same thing the old analogs did, except it uses electronics instead of little spinning gears and knobs.
ReplyDeleteIf there is some transmitter, it would be able to pass on information on increasing loads, although I'd think the same thing would be glaringly apparent when the amperage increased on the transmission lines.
As far as having a digital meter, with a logic circuit that's used to regulate loads in a house, that's a little on the tin-foil hat end of the spectrum. Such a thing would require way more money than an individual, or utility, would be willing to spend and the legal ramifications are something only an attorney would envision as useful.
I have a digital meter. It works much better than the one that shorted out after Ike. (If you've never seen one short out, it's an interesting thing to watch from a distance. Thank goodness the main was thrown to the house wiring.)
To the best of my knowledge, a meter, if the technology exists, would only be able to disable one 110 volt leg, rendering any 220 volt appliance in the house unusable. When I was doing a lot of HVAC work (around 15 years ago) the power company would install a box next to the condensing unit power disconnect that was tied into the meter. One of the two low voltage wires was broke at this normally closed switch. The power company could send a signal opening this switch and turn your a/c off during peak hours. It was a trade-off for customers, they got a lower rate on their light bill, but Progress could kill their a/c whenever they wanted to.
ReplyDeleteFor people we really liked, we used to bypass that switch and let them enjoy the price break and still keep their a/c running. Cheating, I know, but when has the power companies ever not cheated us?