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OregonSean: I will bet you have a thermostat in your home residence.  And since you are responding to this message you probably have an internet service provider as well.  

All I am talking about is replacing your stat with one that can communicate over the internet.  How does that work?  Easy, a radio on your stat allows information to flow both ways from your computer at home to the internet. 

The technology has been around for years, but just recently at the residential level. 

It is more expensive than a conventional thermostat available at Home Depot.  So most people won't do it. 

However the utilities have a need to share in this cost:

On hot summer days the electrics might have the right to bump up your set points temporarily say from 76 degrees to 80 degrees to keep peak demands down.  After 20 or so minutes they can return your setpoints to 76 degrees and move on to the the next house.  This reduces the need for expensive upgrades to transmission and reduces the need for expensive and inefficient peaking power.

Same for the gas company on cold winter days to maintain system pressure.  With many thermostats you can build a huge portfolio to control and limit demand and maintain reliability.

You get a very easy to program thermostat that is all menu driven on your computer and the savings to boot.

So who pays? 

Well the customer pays a portion and the utility puts the rest of the cost in rates.  The rates are still a lot cheaper than building a new pipeline, or new peak power plant, or new transmission line.

Its called Least Cost Planning in utility speak and it works.

Hope that was not to technical.  Let me know if you need further clarification.

posted 3 years ago
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EnergyWebMike brings up an interesting point.  I have an internet based thermostat system on my gas furnace.  The natural gas company has not boarded the smart grid train yet. 

However two or three things may change this:

1. A European style "Dash to Gas" to replace coal with clean natural gas may put huge burdens on supply.  Wind and solar are not firm supplies and must be backed by something.

2. Inability to site new or larger transmission lines. NIMBY!

3. The insatiable appetite of California putting more pressure on the Rocky Mountain supply and Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

In the meantime I figured that I can get nearly 10% conservation savings from my new internet stat.  Putting a higher dead band and longer runtime strategy will improve the waste of short cycling my furnace and the inefficiency of pre and post purge start stop.  Night setback is a huge plus and if I am out of town I can just get on the net and keep it in night setback.   Pretty cool.  

Just seeing graphically on a dash board how I am using energy is a way to change my behavior.

We can argue about global cooling, global warming or whatever we want to call it these days, but the real issue is conservation and using what little resources we have more efficiently and wisely.  The side benefit of that is less carbon, less utility bills and more resources for future generations. 

Smart Grid (GAS AND ELECTRIC) makes that happen.

Conservation Chris. 

posted 3 years ago
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