So here is the first look at the data for my own home courtesy of HydroOne's webportal - for yesterday, actually. I'm quite surprised HydroOne got this working before Hydro Ottawa did! As per the graph, the biggest draw we have is the electric dryer, and you can tell by the spike exactly when that was in use, and how much it would have cost under TOU. We are not on TOU rates yet; still paying the flat per-kilowatt-hour rate. You can see this data by day, by month, or download data directly into Excel. This should prove very useful for some of the smaller buildings for which I manage energy that aren't large enough to justify a phone line for reading meters.So if there is going to be any mercy with time-of-use (TOU) rates, it's that you'll get to see a minimum of one month of hourly use data, so you can see how much extra you'll be paying, or how bizarre the changes you'll have to make to your lifestyle will be to try and minimize the damage. To be fair, for something running 24/7/365, the cost will not be much more, perhaps 2 or 3%, as the current TOU rate structure averages out. But if you consistently need to run equipment during peak periods (oh, like the stove), then you're in a very unfortunate situation. This is especially troubling for the poor and retired folk. I wonder if Dalton McGuinty's mom has electric heat...
We're putting up a clothesline when we move into our new home in June.
