Re:Off-peak meter (Score 1)

Over here (Finland) the dual rate thing goes like this: For those who have a dual-rate contract, all power comes in through one meter, which has two counters. It switches between them by control signals from the grid. One counter is for the daytime rate and the other one is for the nighttime rate (obviously). Any electricity consumed is tallied to the meter currently in use. Therefore, it is economical to run things like water heaters and washing machines at night, but nothing prevents them from being used during the day. From our local utility company: single-rate electricity costs 4.94 euros per kWh, with a monthly charge of 2.34 e. The monthly charge for dual rate is 3.05 e with a daytime rate of 4.84 e/kWh and nighttime 3.72 e/kWh.

This does tend to balance the load on the grid a bit, shifting some of the load to the off-peak period.

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