And I love the idea of "biofeedback" style conservation ... if only they weren't making this shit mandatory I might be more agreeable to it.
wintler2 wrote:Smart meters, dumb response
Kevin Drum, Political Animal (Washington Monthly)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archiv ... 011790.php
Yeah, I'm willing to deliver it for free too. In fact, I just did. But I don't expect that this post will really have much impact on my readers' electricity use. Conversely, a colorful LCD display in your home that showed you, in real time, how much electricity you were using and how much it cost, would almost certainly change your habits over time.
The way the system works is fairly simple: your old meter gets replaced by a nifty new SmartConnect meter, which then connects wirelessly to a display inside your home. It can also connect wirelessly to compatible appliances in your home and you can, if you want, program the unit to automatically turn certain appliances off if the price of electricity goes over a certain level. I haven't seen what the actual indoor meters look like, but you can get an idea here.