[Greenbuilding] Triac Thermostats

Corwyn corwyn at midcoast.com
Fri Dec 23 16:54:24 CST 2011


On 12/23/2011 1:05 PM, Richard Garbary wrote:
> John:
>
> "The grid cares about the total size of the electric load (resistive or
> inductive) and the peakiness of it."
>
> Yes, I agree. Especially when a cold front comes in and temperatures and
> thermostats drop drastically. Simultaneous switching on of baseboards
> puts a heavy load on the grid.

I have a serious problem imagining this happening due to temperature 
changes.  First, outside temperature changes slowly.  Second, 
temperature changes happen at different times in different areas. 
Third, different houses react differently to outside temperature 
changes.  Fourth, thermostats react differently to inside temperature 
changes.  All of those changes happen much slower than the cycle time 
for baseboard heaters.  Changing that cycle time from a few minutes to a 
few seconds is going to have a near zero affect on the peak load of 
thousands of customers.

I am willing to bet you can't even pay off the energy cost of all those 
triacs.

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn


-- 
Topher Belknap
Green Fret Consulting
Kermit didn't know the half of it...
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topher at greenfret.com
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