Shortly after my last post, I checked some blog (and website) statistics, just out of sheer curiosity. Much to my surprise, my little rant about blocking Firefox must have managed to get some attention somehow, because I went from a daily visit count of under 10 on average to something close to 400. For a few days straight.

So it got some attention, which wasn’t exactly my intention but kinda cool at the same time. So perhaps I need to pick a few more hot button topics and rant about them. Seems to work to some degree from the traffic perspective.

Today’s coffee time talk ended up on the subject of power companies and their control programs. I’m a huge proponent of the ‘load management’ programs that most respectable power companies offer. The discussion really centered around people who try to conserve electricity, but really don’t save themselves much (and cause more hassle) by trying to manually control their loads with the use of timers or simply killing power at the breaker.

While those sorts of measures really can save electricity, its cost in annoyance and forgetfulness can quickly outweigh the benefit. My point in the discussion was simply that most power companies encourage (generally through the use of rebates or lower electric rates) the use of load management options. For instance, by having our water heater under control of the power company (using their radio and connection/switching equipment), we have a sub-meter next to the water heater and pay a rate about half of the normal power rate. So the cost per kilowatt-hour of water heating is half of what it costs per kilowatt-hour of running the stove for supper, for instance.

You can’t beat that. And I don’t have to deal with switching the water heater on and off. If we’re expecting a high demand, I can also temporarily remove the load control (without losing the rate adjustment) for a certain number of hours per month.

It just makes sense.

Same sort of thing with the air conditioner. I don’t have that hooked up through a sub-meter (although I could and pay a half-normal rate), but I take an annual credit of $25 for allowing them to cycle it on and off (in 15 minute intervals). I did the math, and the $25 credit pays for my air conditioning costs in May and June or just the month of July. For letting them cycle it.

And unless the house is warm to begin with (if the air conditioner were recovering from an inactive period of several hours), you’d never really know it, because the fan still runs inside circulating cool air.

It surprises me how many people are either unaware or opposed to things like this because of the control factor. They can’t control when something is running, and that seems to really bother some people. The electric companies don’t necessarily have it in their best interests to offer load management programs that cause users to be inconvenienced. It doesn’t make sense if they wish to keep adding to customers actively participating in load management.

It helps the power companies, the power grid, the power supply, and one’s pocketbook to participate. It even helps the planet when you really think about it. And it’s easy. And works.

So next time you think about helping the planet, think about the easy little steps you can take by doing things like participating in load management. A good reason: my electric bill for July (typically the highest electric bill for the year) was less than my bill for June. Simply due to the use of automatic control and a $25 credit for participating.

Anyway, short of that little side bit, it was a pretty normal day. I’m awfully tired right now (hence the early post tonight), but I’ll leave with this note. Until next time…

“The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.”
– Lucille S. Harper

–MZ