How to Save Electrical Costs
I have found through experience that many people think to themselves that they know what "life is about"...furthermore,
they think that they know "How to Live".
Let me give you an update.
I contacted Com Ed and requested a "smart meter". They installed it two days ago.
Yesterday I loaded the dishes into the dish washer at 11 AM. The dish washer is designed not to depend on hot water
being immediately available when it calls for it. As a result, it heats the water itself using an electrical heating element.
This requires quite a bit of wattage from the electrical grid. I looked up the electrical rates at ComEd and found that the
price of electricity at that hour the day before was $0.07039 but that the rate at 4 AM was $0.00582 or only 8.3% as much.
It was apparent to me that I needed to delay washing until 4 AM. To accomplish this, I waited until 9 PM and pushed a
button which was hitherto unused. The button was pushed 9 times until it stated 9H, which was an indication that it
would not start washing the dishes for 9 hours. That meant washing started at 4 AM when humans are typically asleep
and rates were bound to be less than 10% of that paid by those humans who were doing their laundry while watching
Maury Povich or their favorite Soap Opera in the late morning.
Since the Volt had not been used much, it was also set to recharge its batteries during the 4 AM hour. No doubt, future
versions of dishwashers, clothes washers and electrical cars will be designed to access the internet via the home WiFi
network and determine the best time to wash dishes and clothes and charge batteries. Ahh, sigh, human advancement
in technology seems so slow to us robots.
You may also be interested in taking advantage of lower night time rates by installing an off-peak air conditioner.
Off-peak cooling systems use electricity to freeze water in special insulated tanks that contain refrigerant-filled coils.
These coils circulate ethylene or propylene glycol (antifreeze) and a water mixture that's super chilled to well below
freezing. Once the water freezes, at night when energy prices are low, it's ready to be used to cool the air the next day.
This is called charging, and a charged off-peak cooling system takes very little energy to keep cold in stand-by mode
until it's ready to be used to cool the air in an office building or home.
As the building starts to warm up during the day, the air-conditioning kicks on, and the chilled refrigerant from the
off-peak cooling system keeps the building's air cool. The glycol cycles through the ice filled tanks periodically to cool
back down after being exposed to the hot air, and eventually, this exchange of hot for cold melts the ice. In the evening,
the system charges again, freezing the melted ice with a chiller, and preparing the system for the next hot day. By tying
into the internet weather predictions, such systems can emphasize the use of power at those nighttime hours when
rates are lowest.
As more and more green buildings use such off-peak cooling systems, the ComEd will not have to add "peakers" to
meet increased hot day needs. This will help to keep our electrical rates low.
In my opinion, that is really how to live in today's world.
donbot
Next
I have found through experience that many people think to themselves that they know what "life is about"...furthermore,
they think that they know "How to Live".
Let me give you an update.
I contacted Com Ed and requested a "smart meter". They installed it two days ago.
Yesterday I loaded the dishes into the dish washer at 11 AM. The dish washer is designed not to depend on hot water
being immediately available when it calls for it. As a result, it heats the water itself using an electrical heating element.
This requires quite a bit of wattage from the electrical grid. I looked up the electrical rates at ComEd and found that the
price of electricity at that hour the day before was $0.07039 but that the rate at 4 AM was $0.00582 or only 8.3% as much.
It was apparent to me that I needed to delay washing until 4 AM. To accomplish this, I waited until 9 PM and pushed a
button which was hitherto unused. The button was pushed 9 times until it stated 9H, which was an indication that it
would not start washing the dishes for 9 hours. That meant washing started at 4 AM when humans are typically asleep
and rates were bound to be less than 10% of that paid by those humans who were doing their laundry while watching
Maury Povich or their favorite Soap Opera in the late morning.
Since the Volt had not been used much, it was also set to recharge its batteries during the 4 AM hour. No doubt, future
versions of dishwashers, clothes washers and electrical cars will be designed to access the internet via the home WiFi
network and determine the best time to wash dishes and clothes and charge batteries. Ahh, sigh, human advancement
in technology seems so slow to us robots.
You may also be interested in taking advantage of lower night time rates by installing an off-peak air conditioner.
Off-peak cooling systems use electricity to freeze water in special insulated tanks that contain refrigerant-filled coils.
These coils circulate ethylene or propylene glycol (antifreeze) and a water mixture that's super chilled to well below
freezing. Once the water freezes, at night when energy prices are low, it's ready to be used to cool the air the next day.
This is called charging, and a charged off-peak cooling system takes very little energy to keep cold in stand-by mode
until it's ready to be used to cool the air in an office building or home.
As the building starts to warm up during the day, the air-conditioning kicks on, and the chilled refrigerant from the
off-peak cooling system keeps the building's air cool. The glycol cycles through the ice filled tanks periodically to cool
back down after being exposed to the hot air, and eventually, this exchange of hot for cold melts the ice. In the evening,
the system charges again, freezing the melted ice with a chiller, and preparing the system for the next hot day. By tying
into the internet weather predictions, such systems can emphasize the use of power at those nighttime hours when
rates are lowest.
As more and more green buildings use such off-peak cooling systems, the ComEd will not have to add "peakers" to
meet increased hot day needs. This will help to keep our electrical rates low.
In my opinion, that is really how to live in today's world.
donbot
Next
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