Smart meters: what’s the price tag?

I often get asked by policymakers and others, “How much do smart meters cost?” A simple question, but fraught with details. It’s a bit like asking, “How much does a car cost?”

Full post: How much do smart meters cost?

Programmable Thermostats

I think the thermostats used for this pilot are hard to use.  I use the internet a lot and would prefer being able to program my thermostat via the web.  These types of thermostats have been on the market since 2002. I hope the program considers using different thermostat in the future.

Information on the display.

I went active with the program on 8.14.08 but so far the only thing that I’ve seen on the display is$11 kw/hr.  The next two items that appear just show 0 kw/hr.  Today is my first CPP but sad to say, I’m not home till well after 6pm so i won’t be able to see if any info changes on the display.

Answer to “Interpreting the display” question

The first screen of the thermostat display below shows an estimate of the month-to-date (MTD) bill for electricity since the last monthly bill.

The third screen below shows the MTD electricity usage in kilowatt hours since the last monthly bill.

Both figures are updated using data through midnight of the previous day.

I hope this answers the question! If not, please feel free to contact PowerCentsDC at 1-888-232-5949 or via email at info@PowerCentsDC.org

Interpreting the display

Second Peak Day

Today is the second critical peak day.  Please refer to the PowerCentsDC website http://www.powercentsdc.org for tips on how to conserve energy.

Critical Pricing: Day One

Today was our first critical pricing day. Samantha my wife turned everything off and I think she’s turning everything back on now. So far so good.

She also had an AP reporter stop buy today, conincidently, who is doing a story on the PEPPCO/Office of the People’s Councel’s program.

Thanks for the invitation.

OK, I’m finally on the blog and ready to go. Looking forward to the program.

Critical Day Not Tomorrow

False alarm…tomorrow is not a critical pricing day. I’d still like to explore the Orb idea though.

Where’s the Orb?

Pepco called my wife and asked her to do an interview with an AP reporter. No problem but she told him we haven’t started the prramog yet and we’re on the critical pricing plan. He told her he thinks tomorrow is one of those days.

Great but what if he didn’t call for the media request? How would we know tomorrow is a critical peak day? Is an email forthcoming?

Wouldn’t it be great if we had an Orb that lit up and made noise to let us know the day was coming?

We’ll see how our first peak day goes (if it really is tomorrow)…