Hacker News Reader

Comment by radu_floricica | Hacker News Reader

You don't "build" such a system. You change the metering to follow supply, and everything else will follow naturally.

You'll have enthusiasts that'll do homebrew systems to take advantage of the economy, then you'll have companies catering to their (tbh, hobby), then you'll have products that are actually useful, then you'll see mass adoption. Like in everything else.

Trying to plan a huge strategy from the onset feels (and is!) daunting. Just make sure the price fits the reality, and savings will follow naturally.

View on HN

> You change the metering to follow supply, and everything else will follow naturally.

Tell me your wonderland where this has happened . . .

There are whole countries with wireless meters. There must be papers showing how much effect it has on consumer consumption? Ignore one-off examples, I'm interested in population level effects and statistics.

There's a program called Hilo [1] in Québec where it's using the Hydro-Québec Rate Flex D [2] to automatically stop the heating during peak demand.

> With Rate Flex D, you can save quite a bit of money, since most of the time in winter, you’ll be charged less than the base rate, except during occasional peak demand events, when you’ll be charged more than the base rate.

[1] https://www.hiloenergie.com/en-ca/ [2] https://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/customer-space/rates...

"Ripple control" is vintage technology - hourly usage meters are not necessary.

Everyone imagines that consumers would change their behaviour if they were given price information. In my experience, I've yet to see any good data showing that on average consumers save electricity due to smart meters.

In New Zealand, I think the power companies design their consumer products to be unhelpful (what's the equivalent term here for dark patterns in marketing?). I believe few consumers watch their instant usage or review their hourly usage. Personally I changed away from a plan that used spot prices (after seeing the debacle from snow in Texas, and realising the rewards were low and that judging/managing the risks was hard).

> Tell me your wonderland where this has happened

Plenty of grids had started paying consumers for excess solar generation exactly in this manner.

Yeah right. Because building a freezer that goes to -30 C is as cheap as going to -18 C. It's much beefier hardware with a lot more insulation.

Likewise a heat pump can only boost so much.

This, like other environment related changes never happen by market forces. Not once. And small tweaks even on large scale produce small effects, insufficient for our needs.

Most normal home freezers have a way of setting temperature, e.g. mine can go from -16 to -24

So maybe -30 is difficult but it wouldn't be that hard to have the existing temperature range on new models be dynamic based on electricity pricing

> Because building a freezer that goes to -30 C is as cheap as going to -18 C.

For small sizes, yes it is.

But also, capex vs opex. Even if it's twice the cost, you only pay it once.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com