Electricity demand management

[Emg03063]

Anybody have any experience with DIY electricity demand management?  I've got my house at net zero with a 5kw solar system, but my last power bill was still $50 due to basic service and peak demand charge (peak demand was 10kw at 6 am--probably a temperature breakpoint in my programmable thermostat).  Anyway, what I'd like to do is limit my peak demand to about half the steady state demand for the central Ac/ heat pump (peak demand is averaged over 15 min increments) by controlling the central air, water heater, washer, dryer, and dishwasher intelligently.  I know there are commercial products that do this (http://energysentry.com/PP-residential-controllers.php), but I was wondering if anyone had any experience cobbling together their own system.  Payback is a little long on a $1000 commercial system for me at this point.

[DaveSch]

This works for me: :)


(From the 60's tv show Green Acres. The farm had a generator and the idea was to limit the maximum peak usage.)

My boss had this problem with the peak usage driving up the power costs. He ended up running the air conditioning before the store opened. He was able to cool the place before the lights (the other high power use) were turned on. While the lights were on, the a/c was kept off. He kept a daily watch on the peak usage. He ended up saving thousands. He was MMM and didn't even know it.

Dave

 

[Emg03063]

That would work for me as well, but unfortunately my roommate is a moron and can't handle a concept like that, so whatever I do needs to be automated.  I'm thinking about just putting the water heater onto a timer and leaving it at that, but if anyone has cobbled this type of system together, I'm interested in hearing about it.  My google searching has been unsuccessful thus far.