Smart Meters Are Here!

The cottage recently received a "Smart Meter" courtesy of our local power utility. I don't know if Canada is behind the times in introducing this technology but here is what it will mean for us:

• our electricity consumption will be recorded hour by hour through a wireless technology
• eventually we will be billed according to time-of-use rates
• you can take complete control of how much you wish to pay
• you can see just how much phantom power is really going on
• accurate bills, no more estimates
• there are low (4.0 cents/kWh), moderate (7.2 cents/kWh), and high rates (8.8 cents/kWh) to chose from
• according to the time-of-use graphs, the cheapest times to do laundry etc is on the weekends and holiday days, as well as between 10pm and 7am during the weekdays in the summer and winter.

I'm excited about this new change. As I don't plan to be doing laundry in the middle of the night, we will likely change to the weekends. I will also change when we switch the hot water heater on too. You may as well get into the habit now so when the program goes "live", the transition will be seamless.