[LINK] [PRIVACY] BT: 'Are meters too smart by half?'

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Richard Chirgwin wrote:
<snip>
> The question of "living standards" is mostly too subjective to yield 
> sound decision-making. Everybody, wherever they live, compromises their 
> personal ideal against cost, and makes a trade-off.
> 
> For example, is the rule "don't light empty rooms" an intolerable loss 
> of living standards, or sensible economy?
> 
<snip>

What irks me is the spin and lack of localisation. Some of 
the stuff we are swallowing in 2010's Australia is lifted 
lock stock and barrell from the UK, Europe or US. We design 
and approve houses with terrible natural lighting, no 
natural ventilation/cooling or insulation/passive warmth.

We purchase and run giant fridges, stoves, computers, cars 
(which may be energy efficient if used to capacity, but 
usually the are only used well below.

see
> Comparative Motor Vehicle CO2 emissions (2008)...
> Comparative Refrigerator Electricty Usage
<http://ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/carbon.shtml>

> CO2-e emissions of Vehicles(greenvehicleguide) Travelling 1km in Sydney
<http://ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/>

on computers....
> Designing data centres and workplaces to passively dissipate the heat generated by computers will reduce cooling requirements and energy used by air conditioning.14. Choosing appropriate and energy efficient air conditioning 15 and utilising the heat generated by computers to heat buildings16 also reduces energy demand.
> 
> Capacity planning often focuses on peaks. However, in quiet times, idle computers consume energy (which emits greenhouse gases) and generate heat within data centres. Ensuring their is sufficient rather than excess computer capacity helps to minimise energy requirements.17
<http://www.ramin.com.au/itgovernance/green-ICT-governance-imperatives.shtml>

and this from the latest issue of the ACM mag...
> But those grids (and their attendant smartness) stop at the residential meter, so consumers never know which household devices are the biggest energy users. Once monitored, these devices would need to communicate—to turn on the ceiling fan and adjust the air conditioner when electricity prices peak, for example. The final ingredient for such a system to be useful to consumers is an easy-to-understand interface for monitoring and controlling the devices.
<http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/6/92476-beyond-the-smart-grid/fulltext>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202