Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?

[Commander Kinsey]

Bullshit, a fridge or freezer uses 70W. Fuck all compared to total household usage. I'm currently using 8kW.

Wow, spending £15 to save £1.

[Commander Kinsey]

I have a stupid fridge freezer which I can't adjust, it actually has only one thermostat! I either have the fridge frozen, or the freezer too warm. My LG fridge freezer is more sensible, the compressor cools the freezer, on command of the thermostat in the freezer part, and the fridge is cooled by a fan blowing air between them, on command of the fridge thermostat.

[Ralph Mowery]

If the neutral line is lost or a bad connection the line voltage in a house could have one side to be very low and the other side very high in the US system.

[Ralph Mowery]

A number of years ago the power company put on the television stationa a message asking people to turn off things due to a power shortage. They did and the next year the company asked to raise rates due to not enoughpower was used.

Some have devices on the water heater and AC or heat pumps that allow the power companies to shut them off. Mine has one on the heat pump and saves me a few dollars on every bill just for having it.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

The heaters are often temperature controlled, and will run longer to make up for the reduced power.

[snip]

[Carlos E.R.]

There is a type of electricity contract in which you accept the provider will remotely switch off your heavy appliances to reduce power overall for some time. In exchange, you pay less.

[Carlos E.R.]

Domestic fridge power consumption is typically between 100 and 250 watts. Over a full day, a fridge records between 1 to 2 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of total energy usage, or about $150 per year per fridge.Nov 13, 2019

How Much Power a Fridge Uses - in Watts, Cost & kWh

› blogs › how-to › frid...

[Commander Kinsey]

Yip, the stupidest system ever. In the UK it's either on or off.

[Tim+]

As has been explained, reducing voltage is a crap idea. You can email folk and ask them to reduce consumption at peak time though. I got refunds last December for doing this.

Eventually when we’re all on smart meters, more variable tariffs will become available that will encourage this behaviour will become the norm.

Tim

[Commander Kinsey]

Not quick enough to adjust for peak loads.

Doh!

I only know of one person with that, but it's more extensive. He has a huge water tank heated by electricity when the power company tell it to. The central heating is radiators which pump that water round the house.

[Commander Kinsey]

But the idea is to reduce peak load. Spreading that out for longer is exactly what they're after.

If they want to reduce annual load, they just need to turn up the cost of electricity, but the stupid UK government is now subsidising it, so we're just carrying on using as much as we like.

[Carlos E.R.]

I have it on my heat pump.

And my purely resistive loads are controlled by thermostat, so if you lower the voltage they stay on for a longer time, so the saving effect on the network is nil.

Maybe. Maybe not. They can tell you that you submitted them to a voltage out of specs. If it burns, sue the electrical company to pay you a new device, because it is their fault.

A traditional fridge could burn out on a brown out, the motor would overheat trying to compensate.

The electricity companies know this, and will not do a brownout, but switch off completely. Or do rolling blackouts.

[Commander Kinsey]

Is this available in the UK?

[Commander Kinsey]

BULLSHIT. I measured my fridge freezer, and it's old and inefficient. It's 70W.

One of the results from your first link actually said "The average refrigerator uses 725 watts of power"

[Commander Kinsey]

Not so accurate though. Could they get you to turn things off at a few seconds notice?

No smart meter will ever be installed in this house.

[Tim+]

You think they’re all the same? Weird. 70W equates to around £200 a year at today’s electricity prices.

You’ve clearly got money to burn. Not every one is so lucky.

Tim

[Commander Kinsey]

Heat pumps are not resistive! That would defeat the whole purpose.

But the reduction of peak power is good. Not enough power between 5pm and 5:15pm because everyone turns their oven on, drop the voltage and everything takes longer, spreading the load into the next 15 minutes.

Bullshit. If the voltage is out of specs, the PSU should cut out. Very easy to implement.

Very bad design. A simple thermal cutout would suffice.

Except they do.

[Commander Kinsey]

I would ignore any such request, just as I ignore hosepipe bans. I pay them to provide a service. Build more reservoirs and power stations and give me what I pay for.

[Commander Kinsey]

And the average annual bill in the UK is £2500.

And did you also factor in the fridge switching on and off?

I get money back for most of that usage. And most people heat their homes, which uses way more than a fridge.

[farter]

works just as well.

Doesnt work at all.