[LINK] NBN Smart Off Peak Appliances Needed

[Phillip Musumeci]

> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 08:54:31AM +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> > Since the "it's time for offpeak" message is still a very simple
> > signal to send, why bother with the Internet?
>


> On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:45:07 +1000, Ben Elliston wrote:
> Precisely.  Stephen Conroy was trying to use the smart management of
> appliances as an example of why we need the NBN.  Really .. a very
> slow serial line would be more than sufficient.


If the focus were cheap national control of consumer energy use to manage
electrical grid peak loads, perhaps the federal government could resurrect
a radio time standard transmission service modelled on Germany's DCF-77
which wikipedia reports has some spare data bits now being tested for
control of civil emergency sirens. A long wave service has good reach with
a single site probably covering the Australian continent (I've seen reports
in whirlpool of people returning to Australia with Japanese radio
synchronised clocks which inadvertently surprised their owners in the
morning).
Mass produced products like radio-synchronised alarm clocks reportedly sell
for A$5 in Europe --- no need for local house wiring or time spent
configuring networks, and maybe a cheap way to reduce peak energy loads.
phillip

-- 
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