[ale] [OT] Load Control Switch

[Greg Clifton]

Jim,

I know you majored in Physics, I in Botany. How much exactly is "a full
metric crapton of power?" I've never encountered that unit of measure before
;-)

GAP sent a letter last spring saying they would be around to swap out the
meter with a "smarty drawers" one that they could turn off & on without a
truck roll. I don't have a bad-ass dog, actually a rather wimpy one, so I
expect they did the deed, but haven't taken note  of the fact.

In my house, I have sprayed in polyurethane foam in the walls and that stuff
is THE BOMB, pretty much kills infiltration which is a MAJOR contributor to
home comfort/energy consumption. The attic insulation, however, is
fiberglass and it needs more. HVAC is via relatively high efficiency heat
pumps (SEER 13 IIRC). I opted to go total electric on account of the stupid
gas deregulation whereby you pay $19.99/mo to AGL for the pipes in the
ground and an additional $4.99/mo "customer service fee" [read BILLING FEE]
even with 0 therms of gas usage. Ergo I calculated that I would be paying ~
$300/yr just to have gas service. I figured that would buy me at least 2
months of electricity in the low months and in the past 4 years I have had
<$150 electric bills several months My worst was this Jan, I think and just
under $600.

Now if they'll just hurry up with that Volt-gle (sp?) nuclear plant
expansion so that electricity will "be too cheap to meter" I'll be setting
pretty.


On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 4:21 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> I looked at the first link in the below list. I put the "RF Sickness" in
> the same category as "cellphone cancer" and "Powerline illness".
>
> The ability to turn off the AC at residential houses during a heat wave may
> seem intrusive, but it sure beats rolling blackouts or the cost of new power
> plants. The house temp will rise but not as bad as the outside temp.
>
> During summer months AC systems run at homes while the occupants are at
> work. It's not uncommon for people to run the AC to chill down to below 75F.
> When the temp outside is 100F that sucks down a full metric crapton of
> power. And to do it when people are not home is quite wasteful of all sorts
> of resources.
>
> Sadly, house construction is pretty uniform across the US and not designed
> to use the local area considerations well. For some dumb reason, a common
> roof color is BLACK in areas where the temp is often over 95F. For some dumb
> reason, houses are _still_ built with 2x4 walls instead of 2x6 or offset 2x3
> on a 6" header. That extra 2" of insulation makes a HUGE difference. Add in
> the radiant heat barrier on the inside walls (foil backed sheetrock or foil
> faced batts) and in the attic (middle of insulation a sheet of barrier or
> foil faced batts in a top one up, bottom one down arrangement; i.e.
> wall/ceiling->foil->insulation->foil->exterior attic/wall cladding) coupled
> with serious attic ventilation (solar powered turbine vents with thermal
> switching).
>
> OP: Programmable thermostats are great! This meter will/may be able to read
> your thermostat and decide if your system is chugging to hard for the power
> delivery ability for the area and twiddle with the temp settings to cut back
> on power usage in summer.
>
> BTW: I have a auto-read power meter that send in the usage automagically
> (they decided jumping my fence and dealing with my dogs was not a happening
> thing :-)
>
> Water Co did the same thing but forgot to tell the meter reader how to do
> his job so he broke off the wires the following month doing his usual
> process. :-(
>
> On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Randy <handran at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> On 4/13/2011 8:45 AM, Michael Potter wrote:
>> > This is off topic, but there seems to be other discussions about
>> > electric power related topics.
>> >
>> > The power company has offered a $36/unit incentive to install a load
>> > control switch on my AC units.
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_control
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_control_switch
>> >
>> > I don't really care about the $36.
>> > I am interested in being a good citizen and cooperating to keep
>> > electrical rates down.
>> > I already have a programmable thermostat so I don't think they will
>> > save much with me.
>> >
>> > My questions are:
>> > a) Does anyone have first hand knowledge of the quality of install?
>> > b) Will this switch turn off a running unit, or just prevent a stopped
>> > unit from starting?
>> > c) If it abruptly stops a running unit, will that shorten the life?
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Stop Smart Meters!
>>
>> http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/03/25/pges-opt-out-plan-a-trojan-horse-the-smart-meter-is-the-problem/
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfT2nfIn8uo
>>
>>
>> http://af.reuters.com/article/idAFLDE6860P520100908?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
>>
>>
>> http://stopsmartmeters.org/how-you-can-stop-smart-meters/ca-local-governments-on-board/
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
>
>
>
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