A recent article appeared in the New York Times on the topic of how utility companies are letting customers know how their energy use compares to their neighbors'. The information lets you know if you are keeping up with the Joneses.
Read the article and let us know what you think!
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3 comments:
Well you asked so I'll give you an opinion.
This approach is wrong because the folks who get letters showing higher use - do not know where the problem is specifically - even if they really wanted to learn more and do something to reduce usage.
The ones with the smiley faces might feel smug - but the ones with the frowns might be frustrated by not wanting to be in the frown face category but not knowing where to start to reduce use.
It's a lot like having a steering wheel but it does not actually steer...
That's why Dominion should support - legislatively if need be - decoupling - and smart meters in every home.
Take the initiative to help Virginians reduce their use.
If you get beat over the head about that - consider it a badge of honor as opposed to folks beating you over the head for proposing to build more power plants.
so.. you did ask...
:-)
Awareness is the first step in understanding. This would be a great option for our neighborhood to have and discuss. Obviously, different size families have different power needs thus the data becomes skewed on a house-to-house comparison. Just showing overall kWh usage doesn't tell the full story.
Just wait until more people start plugging their cars in at night. They may be a high kWh users but be greatly lowering their carbon footprint. Also, just to be fair, the data should also to breakout the kWh usage for those households that purchase renewable energy credits. Again, separating carbon based energy from cleantech.
What's missing is the ability to monitor the household energy usage on a daily basis. Smart metering is the key but needs better support. There are companies like Agilewaves that build smartmeters for homes but these type of systems are very expensive.
There are inexpensive devices (~$150) like the TEC (www.theenergydetective.com) that can be placed in the home where power usage can be monitored in real-time. Turn on a light, see how much it costs. These type of devices are needed to teach the proper association between usage and conservation.
When it comes to conserving energy, I came across an article that talks about using Sharp LCD tvs that run in solar energy. That will be really economical considering the amount of energy that LCD TVs consume. Take a look at it
http://www.kanbal.com/index.php?/Electronics/sharp-carves-out-the-solar-powered-lcd-tv.html
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