[ale] [OT] Load Control Switch

[Jim Kinney]

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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