Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Joerg Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: Surplus electricity Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:32:28 -0700 Lines: 43 Message-ID: References: <10pf7qk$7o0t$1@dont-email.me> <10pfals$8fij$1@dont-email.me> <10pfb3r$7pri$2@dont-email.me> <10pk17m$1pupm$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net IU774mjDMycT2liOrruZugtnNYVuNyV/EhDGblwPymBHO2UrGb Cancel-Lock: sha1:TfDb5rghLILF2Ocn4YP3V5XVgRs= sha256:pojCjLA01k87SCNUTpBUC1uWAIsUv9Hh3Lyi19eepWk= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.8.1 In-Reply-To: <10pk17m$1pupm$1@dont-email.me> Content-Language: en-US Xref: csiph.com sci.electronics.design:742224 On 3/20/26 10:47 AM, Don Y wrote: [...] > I worked at a firm that made ice on a large scale to cool the factory > "the next day".  My understanding was that their electricity rate > was based on peak demand; their peak demand when the building was > occupied and machinery operating dictated the rate they paid for the > entire day -- even though the building was empty for half of the day. > So, making ice had twofold value:  shifted some of the peak load > AND took advantage of electricity that wasn't being used (but was being > billed). > There are many nonsensical pricing/tax structures that result in bizarre behavior in order to get around at least some of that. I am largely retired but in California I believe we had (have?) a sort of inventory tax or measure that took that into account (UDITPA?). Anyhow, when I moved here I asked about the reasons for the smog cloud over Highway 50 only in December. I was told it was trucks carting lots of inventory to warehouses in Nevada. And then back. > Making ice on that large of a scale likely took a huge investment > in capital equipment.  But, was also a huge energy "saver" (misnomer). > > As with pools, many parts of the country don't have/need air conditioning > (at least not on the scale and frequency that we use it here -- 101F > yesterday) so it loses its value as a potential solution on those grounds. > Same in Germany where I grew up. A/C wasn't needed. However, they used the same concept for heating, converting lots of electrical kWh into thermal energy and then storing that for the next day in a massive amount of dense bricks. Insulation only does so much and some of that heat leaked out overnight when it wasn't needed. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/