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What's that touchscreen in my room?

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Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#421

Post by waiwai933 »

albert180 wrote: post #407
failingslowly wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you want people to be more environmentally conscious [...] they need far better data This is one of the reasons all UK homes are being fitted for free with smart meters. (There are others, such as enabling better grid control.) > You want to be able to see usage to a resolution of at most 5 minutes. My one updates every few seconds and has a set of traffic light LEDs at the bottom giving a visible guide to energ…

Your Grid is operated by the french government? Is there some infrastructure you haven't sold out abroad

The UK energy market is complicated.

The high-voltage transmission grid is operated by National Grid, which is a British company. Distribution to end-users is operated at a regional level by one of six* Distribution Network Operators [1], three of which are British-owned.

Consumers can purchase electricity from any electricity supplier that is willing to sell to them. Naturally, since it all goes into one grid, suppliers are responsible for ensuring that they purchase from generators and sell to consumers an equal amount of electricity. EDF is one of several suppliers in the market. (There were many more until energy prices rose following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and many suppliers collapsed.)

The gas distribution system works similarly, but I'm not familiar with the details.

* It's slightly more complicated, but it rounds to six.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_network_operator

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#422

Post by mcbishop »

amluto wrote: post #360
bloomingeek wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt about the tampering comment. However, my gas, water, and electric meters are all wireless and now I want to be able to monitor them for on demand usage. We shall see.

In PG&E land, you can buy one of a handful of approved ZigBee gadgets that can read out your meter data.

If you can recommend one of these gadgets... I'd really appreciate it.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#423

Post by mcbishop »

bloomingeek wrote: post #323
swozey wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no frame of reference but I have a feeling here (usa) it's super illegal to "tamper" with any pub utilities infrastructure. Could be wrong, though, but no usb ports. That's really cool though I wish we could do that.

No doubt about the tampering comment. However, my gas, water, and electric meters are all wireless and now I want to be able to monitor them for on demand usage. We shall see.

I've heard that it's hard to measure gas in residential contexts, because the pressure is so low.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#424

Post by mcbishop »

andirk wrote: post #418
runamok wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SDGE started breaking down our energy usage by "type" a few months ago. Not exactly sure how but they can categorize things as laundry, lights, entertainment, computers, always on, etc. There are some screenshots here that kind of give you the idea: https://www.sdge.com/energy-management-tool

My PGE (Bay area) does the same but I'm pretty sure it's an estimate according to house size, # of people, and a questionnaire I filled out such as "how many times do you run the dishwasher per week". Your house pulls electricity through the breaker box or doesn't. Then again, it's possible different appliances have a specific electrical signatures like +5KWH x 1.5 hours = dishwasher.

> I'm pretty sure it's an estimate Yeah, I (cynically) assume this utility-provided breakdown data is worthless. There's no way around circuit-level monitoring.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#425

Post by fouc »

masklinn wrote: post #338
snickmy wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered why we cannot find hot filled appliances in the old continent. Also, I wonder why compressors in heatpumps are not multi-speed (basically energy consumption can be modulated). If you are an expert please let me know I'd love to talk more.

> I always wondered why we cannot find hot filled appliances in the old continent. You can find them but they'll be in the semi-professional space and above (relatively expensive high-duty). They're very rare in the consumer space because - it requires running more hot water lines / extensions, historically houses are built with lots of cold water lines but hot water lines only where required - for their heating requ…

for laundry - cold/warm setting + cold water detergent is popular these days, further reducing the heating requirement.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#426

Post by philwelch »

lazide wrote: post #412
philwelch wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North America has standard plugs for 240V too. They’re different from the 120V plug for the obvious reason, but it’s not a particularly special setup.

The odds a random US plug will be 240v is essentially zero, unless you’re standing next to an electric range/stove/dryer. And those plugs typically have one outlet and it’s already in use. Unless the prior owner was a welder anyway. Then you might have a few in the garage. Either way, not convenient for kettles.

Maybe I should make the obvious reason more explicit. If you have something designed to operate on 120V and plug it into a 240V outlet, there will be safety issues. It might even catch on fire. So the two voltages have to use different outlet and plug shapes for safety reasons. An outlet is not “randomly” going to be one voltage or the other because that would be a terrible idea.

And yes, the 240V outlets are set up for heavy appliances rather than small countertop appliances. Remember, we were talking about washing machines and dishwashers, and the claim that European appliances don’t need to consume hot water because they have 230V circuits. American appliances have 240V circuits and they still consume hot water so that’s not a satisfying explanation.

It’s true that Americans don’t plug electric kettles into a 240V plug. There are a few reasons for that:

* Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. So the tea kettle is usually a lower priority in an American household compared to a British one.

* Stovetop tea kettles and microwaves are both perfectly fine at boiling water. Are they as optimal? Maybe not but it’s not a priority. (Microwaves might be just as fast actually.)

* Electric kettles work totally fine on a 120V circuit anyway. I have one. Is it as fast as it would be on a 240V circuit? No, but it’s not a priority. We probably make up the time difference by having faster dishwashers and washing machines that consume hot water in addition to using 240V power.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#427

Post by fouc »

miellaby wrote: post #136

I like how the author is surprised by the technological aberration that form Linux powered home appliances. A node server to power and publish over wifi a web site, an API, a web socket, while the site is being displayed by a outdated webview engine within an heavily constrained terminal which cant be reused for anything else. That's... the norm. All this is very common. And yet displaying a couple of digits and a ba…

> A node server to power and publish over wifi a web site, an API, a web socket, while the site is being displayed by a outdated webview engine within an heavily constrained terminal which cant be reused for anything else. That's... the norm.

I really wonder why this happens. Seems penny wise & pound foolish. Perhaps they failed to hire the right developer for the right abstraction level, and ended up with "web developers" I guess.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#428

Post by Tijdreiziger »

wkjagt wrote: post #275
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend that is diabetic (a number of friends, actually). He has been doing a pretty lousy job of managing his diet. Until his doctor prescribed a monitor for a few weeks. This is a device that looks like a big Band-Aid that you put on your arm, inserting a fine needle under the skin, and communicates with an app on the phone, reporting things like glucose levels. Once he realized the effects of the foods he…

I think even people who don’t have diabetes could benefit from this. Would having access to my own glucose levels throughout the day give me some insights into how what I eat influences my own mood, energy levels etc?

You might be interested to look into a calorie tracking app / cronometer. It's a bit of a slog as you need to (somewhat) accurately input your food intake, but even a week or so is enough to gain insight into your dietary habits (caloric intake, nutrients, vitamins, minerals).

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#429

Post by philwelch »

mcbishop wrote: post #419
philwelch wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North America has standard plugs for 240V too. They’re different from the 120V plug for the obvious reason, but it’s not a particularly special setup.

For most people, running a 240-volt circuit requires an (expensive) electrician. In some cases, it requires drywall work. And maybe a utility service upgrade.

American homes already have 240V circuits for large electric appliances and electric water heaters. If you want to convert one of those from gas to electric or just want an extra appliance for some reason, sure it’s going to be more expensive than just plugging it into the wall but you’re also buying a fairly large, expensive extra appliance. And many of those appliances need work done anyway: water heaters, dishwashers, and washing machines need plumbing, gas appliances need gas lines, dryers need dryer vent ducts, and ranges need range hoods which ideally also require ductwork.

Besides, it’s not like European homes actually have more heavy appliances than American homes. Americans are much more likely to own clothes dryers, despite the fact that Europeans could easily just plug one into any normal outlet.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#430

Post by lazide »

philwelch wrote: post #426
lazide wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The odds a random US plug will be 240v is essentially zero, unless you’re standing next to an electric range/stove/dryer. And those plugs typically have one outlet and it’s already in use. Unless the prior owner was a welder anyway. Then you might have a few in the garage. Either way, not convenient for kettles.

Maybe I should make the obvious reason more explicit. If you have something designed to operate on 120V and plug it into a 240V outlet, there will be safety issues. It might even catch on fire. So the two voltages have to use different outlet and plug shapes for safety reasons. An outlet is not “randomly” going to be one voltage or the other because that would be a terrible idea. And yes, the 240V outlets are set up…

Uh, you might want to reconsider who you’re talking to. I’ve run 40 amp 240v split phase and 3 phase in North America (permitted) for personal projects. I’m well aware.

No one installs L30R/L6-30R receptacles in the US for ‘normal’ (as in used by a human for random stuff) use as standard practice, because yes - most of the time no one needs it. Maximum power for a normal 120/20 amp branch circuit is 2.4kw, and that’s 7.2kw. The most I’ve ever actually had a use for in a residential building was 50 amp @ 240v (arc gouging), but I did setup 50 amp @ 480v for a massive CNC milling machine once.

And when someone does, it’s a special case.

Most of Europe and Asia, they have receptacles that can handle that kind of load. And many other wiring changes.

But they also don’t really use them to capacity very often either.

But it is convenient to be able to run a decent welder off a normal house outlet in Germany or Singapore if you want.

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