Posted on 06/12/2013 7:03:14 AM PDT by biggerten
Honeywell has announced a new Wi-Fi-controlled thermostat that is intended to be distributed by municipalities instead of purchased at retail by consumers in order to better manage energy consumption across a town or city.
South Sioux City, Neb., will be the first community to deploy the new thermostat to help its 13,000 residents manage electricity costs, which are said to have risen steadily there in the past three years.
In the future, other municipalities will recruit residents to reduce energy consumption when demand spikes, a strategy known as automated demand response, or ADR.
As part of this, the residents would receive the $150 Honeywell Total Connect Comfort with ADR thermostat for free so that utilities can link to the home devices and reduce that residence's energy as needed.
Such an approach can help avoid brownouts and blackouts on the hottest days of the year, when power-grid stability is threatened.
Honeywell's thermostat can be controlled with a Total Connect Comfort app, available in versions for Apple iOS and Google Android devices.
Honeywell is based in Morris Township, N.J., but its division responsible for the Total Connect Comfort technology is based in Golden Valley.
This was being done in Las Vegas NV over 20 years ago. It never bothered us, and in fact, was not even noticeable.
How difficult would it be to set up a remote toilet that fills on command?
My hot water is gas.
Now my air on the other hand, is not. Why would I want to give them the power to shut down my air "on the hottest days"?
Shutting off my electric water heater on the warmest days when there is a high electric load due to air conditioners has never affected my comfort level to any perceptible degree.
I’ve had this setup for over 20 yrs.
Be vil kontrol deer horizontal, be evil kontrol deer vertikal, ve bill,.,
How much do you think your hot water heater actually runs on hot days? Probably next to nothing.
Well since the basement temp is always about 67F, I assume it runs pretty much the same every day.
There’s a difference between shutting off your hot water heater and shutting off your a/c.
You probably won’t notice the former but definitely would notice the latter. These aren’t hot water heater controls they’re forcing on people, they’re thermostats. Imagine you’re ill with pneumonia and the city cuts your heat. Or recovering from surgery and find you have no a/c when the ambient temp outside is 100.
I say, move south young man! Live without a/c in the deep south. In August. Prove your merit as a human! Box fans only allowed and all the cold running water you like!
I understand your post.
All I was doing is talking about the effective and painless system used for decades by our rural electric co-op to do some peak load limiting in summer.
We’ve got an electronic load balancer on our water heater. Not provided by the utility company though. It saves us energy all year. 24/7. IF you want a hot shower at 3am you might not have as much and as hot of water than if you take a hot shower at 7am. It’s worked for us. WithOUT external control of the dialie thingies in my house.
It’s seldom on during the day because the little computer thingie has determined we don’t use hot water then. And does this 365d/yr.
That would depend on the amount of hot water used, the temperature of the water entering the hot water tank and the temperature set on the thermostat. Most homes have mixer valves installed in the plumbing system so every time you flush a toilet you use a certain amount of hot water.
I think a lot of FReepers don’t understand how the utility peak loads have to be accounted for and the facility costs they incur.
I retired from a plant that was one of the top 5 juice users in Indianapolis, on hot summer afternoons the utility would always have to limit our power.
LOL!
Good luck with that crap out here where I live.
(Note to self: Be sure to leave the windows open a crack and burn plenty of dead trees in the woodstove next winter.)
I generally turn my a/c up to 85 if the outside temp is over 95. Even in a fairly modern home the thing would stay on all the time in the afternoon. I usually line dry clothes in the summer too. The dryer costs money. Outside in the deep south in August is free!
Can’t understand the peeps that keep the a/c on 72. They’ve got way more money than we do that’s for sure. I’m not into subsidizing boondoggles at the local utility company.
How about the temperature of the air surrounding the hot water heater? Do you think a hot water heater would run more often or less often if sitting in a 110F garage in the Summer? Now remember, we're only talking about during the day when load leveling is most likely to occur.
I've actually experienced this when they took the local nuke plant offline and they started cycling my air conditioner 30 mins out of every hour. Screw that. It's not worth saving $5 a month to let them do that.
Negligible because of the insulation.
started cycling my air conditioner 30 mins out of every hour. Screw that
Would you prefer brownouts and blackouts? You could buy a generator and screw the electric provider.
mark
Negligible because of the insulation.
Bullshit.
You can't tell me a hot water heater doesn't work harder when the ambient is 30 as opposed to 130.
Never had a brownout or a blackout due to load. And if there ever was for an extended period I would fire-up my generator and plug-in my window a/c.
I stated it was negligible not that it wouldn't work harder. What moron would keep a hot water heater where temperatures would drop below freezing?
Never had a brownout or a blackout due to load.
Plenty of places have.
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