Over the course of the past two months the Daily Mail and others have picked up on reports that appliances like your fridge, oven or washing machine could be shut down remotely to help cope with power demands.
The reports say that the National Grid is calling for devices to be fitted that would allow these non-essential appliances to be shut down when power demands are high and there is a risk of blackouts.
The proposals are apparently being backed by an EU energy body (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E))but critics have slammed the proposals according to the Mail.
These sensors are said to be able to detect spikes in power demand and, if the electricity grid is struggling to cope will shut down the appliance temporarily.
Viktor Sundberg, energy strategy manager at Electrolux, said: ‘This is Big Brother technology on a grand scale. The device inside the fridge or freezer will automatically change the way the appliance operates in response to the output of the grid.
‘This method of shutting down household appliances could to be carried out almost instantly, saving the energy companies millions because they won’t have to start up the turbines or pay huge industrial companies to cut production. Consumers are not benefiting at all and will be left paying more when they buy the appliances, as well as having their private goods controlled by outside forces.’
For us looking in from the outside what appears to be the issue is the call to make this a mandatory requirement on all new appliances which would, inevitably, lead to a price increase that the Mail estimates to be about £40 per product.
But it won’t be a quick fix given that the average age of many washing machines is over five years, with some like Miele and ISE lasting over twenty years and most refrigeration lasting eight to ten years. It could be decades before even the bulk of appliances would be enabled with this function.
What is more of a concern for us as service engineers as, most people would likely never know if their fridge freezer shut off for an hour or so given that frost free fridge freezers do so on a defrost cycle anyway, is the unit picking up errant messages on the power line or, breaking completely.
We see many homes that have poor quality electrical supplies and a number that would appear to operate outside of the defined guidelines that have, allegedly, led to some of the product recalls on dishwashers and other things that we have seen lately. Perhaps, before instigating a function that relies on clean power-line transmission the grid suppliers should perhaps address this issue first.
In any event smart appliances have been tried or trialled by almost all leading domestic appliance brands and customers don’t appear to care for them. Certainly, none would have proved to be a sales success as yet and it is a subject we covered some years ago and voiced concerns about.
In short, we don’t think that this will fly and, even if it does, that people will really care.