Bringing meters out of the closet (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Mark Kinver
BBC News science and nature reporter

There are growing calls for gas and electricity meters to be dusted off, brought out from the cupboard underneath the stairs, and given pride of place in people's living rooms and kitchens.

Advocates of so-called "smart meters" say the information provided by the devices can revolutionise the way households consume energy, and can reduce demand by up to 10%.

The domestic sector in the UK is responsible for about one-third of the nation's carbon emissions, and the government has become increasingly focused on the need for greater energy efficiency in the nation's homes.
***
"Smart meters" is a catch-all phrase used to describe a new generation of devices that have a range of extra functions, unlike existing "dumb meters" that only measure gross gas and electricity consumption in a home.

The extra functions include:
{bullet points, details edited out}
Remotely read: ...
Meaningful displays: ...
Internet meters: ...
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4754109.stm

This sounds like a good (and obvious) idea to me. It would be nice if there were a way to monitor power usage on an outlet-by-outlet basis. People might be quite surprised to find that many of their appliances are drawing power even when the main power switch is turned off! This is because "instant warmup" TV's, stereos, computer monitors, etc. have the power switch between the power supply and the device, not between the power supply and the power cord. A small amount of power bypasses that switch and keeps crucial components running at constant low power (this is especially needed by CRT's). A number of years ago I remember seeing a TV program describing how a fire had started in a TV that was supposedly turned off, in just this manner. I tried unplugging my own TV and found that all the info about skipped channels etc. is lost when the power is cut. Evidently the mfgr felt it was better to leave the AC power running constantly rather than to provide a rechargable battery to preserve RAM contents (the way laptops do).

[Kutjara]

1. Actually, laptops don't preserve RAM contents.

When you turn off a laptop, whatever was in RAM is lost. If you put your laptop into 'hibernate' mode instead, the contents of RAM are written to a reserved space on your hard disk so that they can be read back to RAM when the machine is 'woken up.' It may appear that the RAM contents were preserved, but they weren't. The only volatile memory that is preserved through a shutdown is the PRAM or CMOS settings, that allow the laptop to preserve things like the correct time. The battery that powers PRAM/CMOS is a small 'hearing aid' battery rather than the laptop's main battery.

On an unrelated point, the UK, for many years ran public information announcements on TV and radio, advising people to switch their appliances off at the wall when not using them (the British three-pin plug system includes a switch on the wall socket in addition to a circuit-breaking fuse in the plug). In the days when TV programming used to shut down for the night, there'd always be a final, cozy, 'thought for the day' followed by a reminder to turn off the TV and switch it off at the wall.

With the advent of 'always on' TVs, Tivos, stereos and PCs, the reminder has gone the way of the Dodo. You still find older people (like my parents and mother-in-law) reguarly turn off the wallsocket switch whenever they're finished using the item plugged into it. For lazy bastards like me, this is intensely annoying, since I regularly flop down in front of the TV, grab the remote, and then realise I have to get off my ass to turn the TV on.

Maybe a return to the days of switching off at the wall is what we all need to reduce the amount of 'standby energy' we waste (I seem to remember reading somewhere that it accounts for something like 10% of our energy budget).

[bananas]

2. In sleep mode, the laptop will refresh ram. nt

[Kutjara]

4. Ahh yes, sleep mode...

...forgot about that one. Ahem. <slinks off to hide>

[NNadir]

3. Just for the record, how much current will 8 billion meters draw?

;-)