A UPS seems a decent place to start.
Charge when the price is cheaper and run off the UPS when prices are more expensive.
Or, if you have the sun, go "off grid" (almost?) entirely now the price of solar is crashing so hard (cells currently falling in price at 50% YoY).
EDIT TO ADD:
I don't think being able to tell what TV program you were watching will help them make your refrigerator more efficient.
UPS would just draw to recharge as soon as you use power. It's not going to mask anything. Plus lead-acid batteries are expensive and not exactly long-lived when constantly drained and recharged.
Being able to tell what TV program you're watching isn't part of the smart metering, it's a perk to hacking it. The point is it needs better encryption in its present form, but nothing serious is compromised so it's not a pressing issue. The power company's really just interested in what's drawing the most power so they can sell that information to companies like GE and make a pretty penny.
Paranoia on these forums is really a little extraordinary.
1. UPS would just draw to recharge as soon as you use power.
Just switch the charging circuit on a timer. (or better, a time/usage based switch)
2. Plus lead-acid batteries are expensive and not exactly long-lived when constantly drained and recharged.
Switch to a pulse reconditioner when not recharging for maximum battery life.
3. Being able to tell what TV program you're watching isn't part of the smart metering, it's a perk to hacking it.
Erm no, being able to tell what TV program you were watching is part of smart meter data mining, nothing to do with the meter or hacking it.
4. Cost.
LAB is around $0.17 per watt/h
so say $1700 for 10kWh (which is fairly high consumption? - I use around 30kWh a day, but I'm "super high consumption"), which would allow you to shift even a high usage entire days consumption to the cheapest rate, in the UK at least night rate is 41% of day rate 12p/kwH day, 5p/kWh night
That alone would allow you to offset up to 70p a day, £255 (~$400) a year, recoup initial cost in ~4 years (should be the same whatever your consumption).
+ you need/will already have a UPS if you have solar panels + all the benefits that come with having protection from the grid.
+ reconditioning LAB is v. cheap, esp if you go with the big chunky truck batteries.
For a large home entertainment system & fridgeFreezer on their own circuit a UPS setup would cost around $500 to build, and should last a couple of decades. Any self respecting hacker should have this already, regardless of privacy issues with smart meters. Combined They draw around 4kWh a day, which is two large car batteries for 12 Hours backup (fridge freezer is 0.8kWh a day, so if the grid power fails this will keep the fridge running for over 2 days).
Throw in a petrol generator if you are
really paranoid.
Edited by mSparks, 12 April 2012 - 12:46 AM.
