> It’s a shame smart meters have such a bad rep in Europe due to the privacy issues.
They've got a bad rep because they're some proprietary computer with a cellular modem transferring who-knows-what back and forth to the mothership.
My power company (in .nl) wanted to install one, and I rejected it on that basis.
It would be trivial to implement what they're supposedly doing without relying on user-hostile technology and autonomous phone-home.
But what you're mentioning doesn't require smart meters at all, you could just e.g. poll prices online, and at the bottom of the curve turn on the power socket to your dishwasher with ZigBee. You'd just need a dishwasher that would start as soon as it got power.
Smart meters are there to phone home about your consumption in real time. They're mainly there to benefit the power company, any ability to inform your own consumption is incidental.
They've got a bad rep because they're some proprietary computer with a cellular modem transferring who-knows-what back and forth to the mothership.
My power company (in .nl) wanted to install one, and I rejected it on that basis.
It would be trivial to implement what they're supposedly doing without relying on user-hostile technology and autonomous phone-home.
But what you're mentioning doesn't require smart meters at all, you could just e.g. poll prices online, and at the bottom of the curve turn on the power socket to your dishwasher with ZigBee. You'd just need a dishwasher that would start as soon as it got power.
Smart meters are there to phone home about your consumption in real time. They're mainly there to benefit the power company, any ability to inform your own consumption is incidental.