Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by teraflop on Sunday September 25, 2022 @02:51PM
(#32974651)
It's called a multiple-tariff meter. Of course it's easier to implement with modern electronics, but there's no reason you can't design an electromechanical meter device that has two different mechanisms to tally up "peak" and "off-peak" usage. I just did a quick Google search and found patents dating back to the 1970s.
Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by tom_ on Sunday September 25, 2022 @02:57PM
(#32974738)
Economy 7 in the UK switches meters based on time of day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7
Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by fy20 on Sunday September 25, 2022 @04:29PM
(#32975800)
...which is triggered by a radio signal.
Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by tom_ on Sunday September 25, 2022 @04:55PM
(#32976131)
Indeed! More secure that way than trying to do it locally, probably, and now BST is somebody else's problem.
But since it's been around since the late 70s, clearly you can do this without needing too much advanced tech - which is what I interpreted as being the perceived problem. (Perhaps incorrectly, but it looks like I wasn't the only one...)
Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by kennend3 on Sunday September 25, 2022 @02:57PM
(#32974725)
I think you intentionally overlooked my point.
I wasn't debating if these meters exist or not, it was that they were never used in Ontario.
Continuing your logic, did Canada ever use these "multiple-tariff" meters? If they did, what was the point of the light the OP mentioned?
Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages
by teraflop on Sunday September 25, 2022 @03:00PM
(#32974784)
I certainly didn't intentionally overlook anything. I took your "doesn't make sense" to mean that you were questioning the possibility of an "old" meter accounting for different electricity rates at different times. Since it seems that's not what you meant, I apologize for misunderstanding you.
Prior to "Time of use" billing (and having to upgrade all our meters in like 2016) i dont see how this was possible.
The old meters simply measured how much power was used, they had no idea of WHEN it was used.
The electric company would go house to house and "read the meter" once a month and report this back to billing. Based on your usage a bill would be produced and sent to you.
How/when would a "high usage light" come into play?
I grew up in a house which was over 40 years old, there was no "high-usage" lights near the waster/dryer. Mostly because homes built back then had the waster/dryer in the basement and any "usage lights" would be ineffective.