ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Is somebody pulling my leg?

I just read in another forum that they have temperature-sensing electric meters in Canada. They sample the outside air temperature and adjust the billing rate accordingly for peak periods. He said that the peak rate (cold temperatures) is 17 cents per KWh and the off-peak rate is only 4 cents. He said that it can be tricked by using a heat lamp on the meter. I would tend to think that if the meter is that sophisticated, then it probably keeps a log of temperature measurements that can be polled. Is this guy serious or am I just that gullible?

Either the guy you got that info from is full if you know what OR they don't know what they are talking about... Here in Ontario now we are all getting " smart-meters".. They record the time of use and you get billed according to that at either an off peak, mid peak or high peak rate. These meters are also going to be remote read every hour so you will be able to track your usage each hour on the internet when thats all set up, and these meters will even report a loss of supply to the PoCo should the supply go dead or someone pulls the meter out of the socket! But in no way that I am aware of are there even meters in existance that sample the outdoor temperature and adjust the peak billing rate..
Besides,if you had a meter you could "defeat" with a heat lamp, just how accurate would it be if say my meter sat in direct sunlight while my neighbours is in shade?? There would be a little bit of discrepancy between the two meters would there not?

A.D

April 1st is still a few months away.

The buzz over on rec.home.repair is about a California idea for a thermostat controlled by the utility. In peak loads they turn the heat down (or A/C up)

The method has been used for decades in Australia for off peak electricity is the two meters and a time clock for staorage water heaters. In Victoria it was known as "J tariff", Northern Territory doesn't have off-peak power so a single meter is used.

From what EV607797 has in the original post, the off-peak power is for the whole installation, not just hot water-is this correct?

I'm getting letters regularly in the mail from the power utility offering to switch to peak/off peak billing. I assumed they were talking about time-of-day.

Dave

speaking of off rate many POCO want to do that way so they can keep their exsting system long as they can.

sure i get some type of flyer both regular snail mail and email formats but my home and shop i can qualify it but i turn down i make a moot point is that my load demand is not very high to point where i have to switch it over.

Merci , Marc

The buzz over on rec.home.repair is about a California idea for a thermostat controlled by the utility. In peak loads they turn the heat down (or A/C up)



Geeze, isn't it bad enough having my wife tell me how hot or cold I can set the thermostat!

Is somebody pulling my leg?


Yes. Just like dye in the pull stations (FA) when you were ten.

From what I was told, it consists of a single meter in a typical all-electric residence in Canada. Basically, the metering is all or nothing.

We tried the separate meter plan in the US for the water heater, citing that hot water was a necessity while heat was a luxury back in the 1950's and 60's. I don't know if that was a government thing or just a POCO idea. Virginia and North Carolina are full of older services where a separate meter socket was provided for the water heater. All of those installations that I have seen are bypassed now and have blank covers in place of the second meter. The only signs of that logic nowadays are remote control devices on water heaters that were installed in the 1980's. Honestly, I am not sure that these programs are still in place. I can tell you that many of these remote control units fail and we have to bypass them to restore service to the water heater. Nobody ever says a word.