"We need more wind farms to power electric cars", said Mr Cameron last week, leaving Booker to wonder in this week's column whether there could be anything "dottier" than putting these two huge blunders together: "the fanciful belief that we can somehow provide a third of our electricity from unreliable windmills; and the quixotic enthusiasm for electric cars which, despite hefty subsidies, remain so unpopular that their UK sales have fallen this year to just 749".

Yet, says Booker, Mr Cameron's faith in these vehicles is just as absurd as his plan, confirmed again last week by an energy minister, Baroness Verma, that every home and business in Britain must be fitted with "smart" meters within seven years, at a cost of £11 billion.

Who, incidentally, is Baroness Verna, you might ask, that she is telling us such things? And therein lies a tale all on its own. She is one of these ghastly token ethnics which David Cameron seems to believe he must have around him.

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We’ve been intermittently hearing about these “Smart Meters” for some time too. I suspected that the EU had something to do with it. I must have missed this on the blog when you posted it in September.

The whole thing sounds absurd, even by EU standards. I can’t see this being a runner. Greenery is dying a slow and painful death. With any luck the whole thing will be forgotten about by the time this lunacy is ready to roll.

Roll-out 2014 ... they are serious:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/e...meters/smart_meters.aspx

Which is precisely why I ignore invitations from my energy supplier to have one.


That's interesting. It was suggested some years ago that electricity lines could be used for data transmission. However, unless appliances are fitted with remote controls and given unique IDs it is only going to be possible for the supplier's computer to tell the meter to cut the supply to a building and not individual appliances within it, which will mean disrupted central heating controls, spoiled perishable foods, and possibly essential medicines, and perhaps dialysis and other home based life support machines. 'I'm sorry your child died, unfortunately there was a computer error and the supply was not reconnected when it should have been, Central Power Supply regrets any inconvenience ... '?


That they think controlling demand can obviate problems of supply proves the limit of their thinking. Domestic demand is a drop in the proverbial ocean and switching off domestic supply cannot compensate for a demand that is comprised mainly of commercial and industrial requirements.


That's interesting. Unless appliances are fitted with remote controls and given unique IDs it is only going to be possible for the supplier's computer to tell the meter to cut the supply to a building and not individual appliances within it, which suggests that there are plans to fit such controls to domestic appliances, if they are not already being fitted. The fly in the ointment here is that most of us will be using old appliances for some years to come, especially if we know they can't be switched off when a remote controller sends the command, which suggests 'enforcement', which suggests the introduction of compulsory registration and inspection, and perhaps registration fees, inspection certificates, licences and fines, and special exemptions for certain people, and, of course, compulsory replacement with suddenly more expensive, legislation compliant appliances.


They can but how often do they?


What happens when the windmills don't produce energy at night (wind being blind to light and no more certain after dark, even though it may be more frequent)? Imagine waking to find that one's breakfast has exceeded a safe temperature in the fridge and must be destroyed, one's computer has not received that vital e-mail from corporate HQ on the other side of the world and the car cannot get one to work, if one's electric alarm clock has gone off when it was set to do so.


Unless they can control our thoughts and desires, and order our lives from second to second, they cannot control demand.


When were things otherwise with Grooovey Dave? The man is clearly out of his depth and has always been.

How long is it going to be before people wake up and understand that life as they thought they knew it is over, if it were ever that way to begin with?

William Gruff.

What you miss is that at times, all washing machines will be switched off because they have identified themselves as washing machines.

How do I mess them up?

The easiest but probably too expensive way is a 100A isolating transformer.

Transient reducing filters on every socket. Quite cheap in fact.

A mixture of the above.

Anything to block them getting the signal back for appliance type.

It is odd. I understand that they would have to be on a different circuit. I have Economy 7 and the heaters are on a different circuit that only comes on at night. If people can chip Sony Playstations so they play foreign and pirated games I am sure there will be a thriving black market in chipping domestic appliances.


The public don't realise that it's coming yet. When they do realise we must be ready to ride the wave of discontent.

Edited by user 11 November 2012 07:04:45(UTC)  | Reason: Added a bit

Assuming they can send messages to the appliances through the mains wires (a big assumption) the appliances would have to recognise the signals. Since so many household appliances are now designed and manufactured in the Far East there would have to be an internationally agreed communication standard. Does such a standard exist?

Otherwise they would have to be connected to the telephone line. Impractical and easy to circumvent - just unplug the appliance from the phone line. Also requires an international communication standard.

Only other way, as mentioned, is separate circuits in the home. This would require rewiring of millions of homes. Consumers would need to be paid large subsidies to persuade them to put up with the inconvenience of rewiring, unless TPTB plan to do it by force.

I dare say our politicians are making laws about technology of which they have no understanding.

Wrap the plugs in tinfoil or just replace them? I think this is a technology which will be hacked to hell.

It's tempting to think that the politicians who approve these schemes are sinister sods who know what they are doing, and the people who sell them the idea are competent and honest. Experience of huge government IT projects shows that politicians are mesmerised by the control these schemes promise, but they really haven't got a clue about how they work, what the limitations are, what the consequences might be, or how to deal with the shysters they get to implement them.

And in the mean time we all get generators and CO2 emissions shoot up.

I have a house in Italy with a smart meter installed, (without my permission ) leaving the house unattended for sometimes weeks at a time the bank used to pay my electric bills on the old system, now, it all arrives on the smart meter in the house, a message arrives on the meter telling me I have to pay X into account No. X, if it is not payed within 14 days the electric is cut off, I have written to and received replies from my supplier saying that the responsibility is mine, ( even switching off all there is still a service charge which is enough to still cut the supply ) they say that my circumstances are a minority and at this time they cannot reprogram the system for a minority, I have resolved the problem by having a friend do the dirty work and take the information for me to the bank, under the Italian smart meter system there is no possible way to monitor the electrics in the house, ( that would require an investment of several thousand euros ) it is only, on, off, or, hours on, off, regulated, or reduced supply.