Electricity-saving devices for a household

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Electricity-saving devices for household are devices, routines, or methods that can be used to reduce the electricity need of daily life.

Price monitor

This device requires that there is a real-time electricity price monitoring system and the price information is distributed via the electricity network. Thus, with electricity, there is always a signal included about its price.

Price monitor is like a clock switch: it is a small device that is put between the wall socket and the plug of the equipment that is being monitored, such as a freezer or floor heater. The monitor simply switches the device on and off depending on the price of electricity or some more sophisticated optimising algorithm. Typically the equipment that are monitored are such that use a lot of electricity and whose activity time is flexible by hours, not by seconds. (There is no problem if you turn your freezer off for one hour during a price peak, but there is usually a problem if you turn off your computer even for a five-second peak.)

The price monitor is also a clock switch, because it can monitor the following:

  • time and date
  • electricity price
  • temperature
  • weak-signal transmissions from sensors (such as a battery-driven thermometer that is located in a freezer)
  • Bluetooth signals from and to the user's computer
  • the time series of the actual electricity consumption and the restrictions applied.

With the price monitor comes a software (probably a website rather than a stand-alone software). With the software, the user can develop an optimized switch procedure with his/her computer. This procedure is then uploaded to the price monitor via Bluetooth or some other nearby transmission system.