You Call This Fun?
As for the much-touted (by everyone from equipment vendors to utility execs to the president) ability to “control” one’s energy usage, that feature may be the most over-fluffed bit of marketing associated with smart grid rhetoric. On the surface, it sounds good—most of us like to know that we have “control” over the myriad aspects of our lives. But what’s not explained is that gaining control will require work—likely going online regularly (maybe even daily) to monitor one’s home energy usage and adjust thermostat setpoints or reschedule the operation of washing machines and dishwashers (given that mass deployment of programmable ones are years away). At the very least, in order to have any hope of lowering a power bill, folks with some sort of energy usage-monitoring equipment will have to stop and think before making decisions about discretionary energy usage.
Regarding her expectations for being able to better control her energy usage, Knox, who is well-informed about the promised merits of smart grid technologies, said, “I expect that once smart meters and in-home energy displays are installed, Xcel will eventually be able to offer customers various pricing options such as time-of-use or critical peak pricing. These technologies will provide customers with more information about when they’re using energy and how much it costs at certain times of the day. With this knowledge, customers will be able to decide if/how to manage their energy use in order to reduce their utility bills.” However, as we chatted, she admitted that, “Unless they make it really easy” she might not take the time to tweak her settings.
The irony is that, although Boulderites are on average highly educated and technically savvy, they also place a high premium on fun—especially outdoor athletic varieties of fun. Faced with the choice of spending even five minutes at a computer or other monitor evaluating energy usage and modifying settings and schedules or spending that extra five minutes on a run, hike, or bike ride, I’m betting that Knox won’t be the only one willing to choose the outdoors in exchange for an extra nickel or two on the day’s electricity bill.
—Gail Reitenbach, PhD is
POWER’s managing editor.
Email
Comments
Print
Reuse
Comments (1)