Changing Your Electric Meter to Save Electricity
Is your electricity meter as old as the hills? If you are like the majority of people, your electricity meter is most likely is over half a century old. Sometimes even though the electricity meter is new, the technology that it uses is just as ancient anyway.
The olden day meters were designed to be used in a world where power was abundant and cheap. Surprisingly, although the world has undergone drastic changes and power is no longer cheap nor abundantly available, electricity meters are still being manufactured using the same antiquated technology.
Studies that have been done indicate that if all the power companies in the United States switched over to upgraded electricity meters, the estimated savings in energy costs accrued over 20 years would be roughly around $35 billion. This would also do away with the need for having an astounding 625 power plants.
One of the major drawbacks, though by no means the only drawback of older electricity meters is the fact that you get charged the same amount, irrespective of what time of day you consume the electricity. The baseload power plants need to be continuously kept at full operational capacity by the electric utilities and the coal is kept burning right through the night even when no one is actually consuming any power.
All the electricity that is produced by the major power plants is utilized during peak hours and inefficient, expensive peaker plants need to be put on everyday to meet the huge electricity demands. But nobody really cares about all this. If they are going to be charged the same amount whether they use their electrical appliances during the day or at night, they just do whatever is convenient and cannot be bothered to change their schedule.
Taking all this into consideration, California, a state that prides itself for been a green state, commissioned a study about three years ago with the aim of proving the advantages of switching over to upgraded electricity meters. For the purpose of the study, new types of electricity meters with programmable thermostats were installed in a few thousand premises. These electricity meters were designed to charge higher rates when electricity was consumed at peak hours and reduced rates when electricity was consumed at off-peak hours.
The result- those people who had the new electricity meters installed in their premise reduced their peak power consumption by an astounding 10%.
Take a look at some of the implications of this study:
• The energy consumption of the United States could potentially be decreased by a minimum of 5% by using these new electricity meters, which allow dynamic pricing programs
• The electricity demand in the United States could be lowered by as much as 20% over a period of 20 years just by implementing broader technology applications such as plug-in-hybrid-to-grid technology and in-home power plants.
Moreover, the widespread implementation of the program would eliminate or at least reduce brownouts and greenhouse emissions and would also eradicate the need for costly peaker plants.
Tags: changing electric meter, electric meter, saving electricity, saving money