We all know the one about how, if every bulb in the country was changed to economic cfls (or leds, when the time comes), we could close down a power station or two.

But this is something that has only recently been discovered.

It turns out, that if all United States power companies were to upgrade to new electricity meters today, America would save roughly $35 billion in energy costs over twenty years and it would eliminate the need for around 625 power plants.

625 power plants. Everything is on an enormous scale in the US, but it must make one pause, even in a small country like Ireland, where the gurus keep telling us we need nuclear power. I hear people who were dead against it agreeing with it now, so the propaganda is working.

I think we must have more sophisticated meters in Ireland than in the US, as storage heaters are based on cheap night time electricity, are they not?

There is change afoot with regard to energy meters, oddly enough. As far as I can make out it’s to do with SEM, or the Single Energy Market, between the Republic and Northern Ireland. I haven’t the technical head to work it all out, or whether the proposed new meters are more sophisticated, and energy-saving, than the ones we have, but the Commission for Energy Regulation posted pdfs of a Metering Code in June, and also has a link to the All Ireland Project, with more pdfs.

So all you meter geeks, get stuck in.

With strong signs of a depression in China akin to what happened in Japan in the nineties, and for the same reason - but which could have far greater consequences for the world; and with peak oil just a few years away we have to keep on the ball with regards to energy and much else.

EcoGeek: Why your electricity meter sucks

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