By Paul Homewood

Some more letters in the Telegraph about smart meters:

SIR – The purpose of “smart meters” (Letters, June 26) is to allow the eventual introduction of charging of domestic users at different rates according to the time of day, the day of the week and the season of the year.

Power companies already know when we use most energy in the aggregate but, except for very large energy users, they are at present unable to bill individual customers according to the exact time that energy is used.

Smart meters will allow them to do this, so if you are unreasonable enough to want to turn the lights on when it gets dark, or cook food at mealtimes, or charge the electric car that the Government wants to force you to have, ready for the morning commute, then you will be hit with penal levels of billing.

These meters are voluntary now, but they won’t be voluntary for ever. You do not have to have a water meter, but if your house has one, you are forbidden to go back to water rates, though metered water probably costs you about half as much again as rated water.

Eventually, if you have a smart meter for energy there will be no going back and you can expect your bills to rocket. The lucky few will be those living in houses where a smart meter was never installed.

Anyone who does not believe this should cut this letter out and keep it – and read it in daylight, obviously.

Dr Richard Austen-Baker
Abbeystead, Lancashire

SIR – Until 2003 I was responsible for the type approval of gas and electricity meters at Ofgem’s Technical Directorate. After this I spent several years on European and international committees negotiating measurement standards for next-generation meters.

Only common sense can show how savings can be achieved. For instance, smart meters will show what it takes to run a washing-machine cycle but they cannot advise that it would have saved energy to await a full load.

A smart meter can tell you what an appliance uses under certain conditions if you take the trouble to ensure all other appliances are off at the time. However, this information is readily available in manufacturers’ data.

An estimated cost of £200 for each meter will add at least £20 to bills each year, as it is the consumer who will pay for these “free” meters eventually. Smart meters give only freedom from estimated bills or a visit from the meter reader. However, suppliers are now very good at estimating usage and a periodic visit by the meter reader can allow safety or measurement problems to be checked.

The meter suppliers and fitters enjoy the increased business and profit that fitting smart meters brings. The Government is supporting the programme, but this seems to me like its encouragement for switching to diesel cars some years ago.

I believe that the hidden agenda behind smart meters is that they will allow half-hourly charging. Instead of having two charge rates (day and night) the price of energy will change every half hour, so when solar and wind generation are low and usage is high the price of electricity will rise steeply.

What would make more sense than smart meters is smart appliances that could be automatically switched on or off depending on electricity-grid demand. For instance, fridges, freezers and some battery chargers could be switched off at peak demand periods, as could some washing machines and dryers.

It is claimed that smart meters are safe and secure. Not having one, because they are not needed, is even more safe and secure.

Jerry Fulton
Draycott, Somerset

SIR – You cannot fatten a pig by weighing it and by the same token you cannot reduce your electricity consumption simply by measuring it with a smart meter.

Crombie Glennie
Hawksworth, Nottinghamshire

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June 29, 2018 at 04:11AM

Potential effects of volcanic warming on ice-sheet melting and sea level rise still to be determined

Tracing a chemical signature of helium in seawater, an international team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has discovered a previously unknown volcanic hotspot beneath the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

Researchers say the newly discovered heat source could contribute in ways yet unknown to the potential collapse of the ice sheet.

The scientific consensus is that the rapidly melting Pine Island Glacier, the focal point of the study, would be a significant source of global sea level rise should the melting there continue or accelerate. Glaciers such as Pine Island act as plugs that regulate the speed at which the ice sheet flows into the sea.

The new research was published by an international team, led by Brice Loose of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. His research was supported by an award from NSF’s Office of Polar Programs, which manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Researchers from East Anglia and Southampton universities in the U.K., Arizona State University, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the British Antarctic Survey contributed to the study.

Their findings were published in the June 22 edition of the journal Nature Communications.

Peter Milne, program director for ocean and atmospheric science in NSF’s Division of Polar Programs, noted that the discovery adds significant information about what controls the stability of the Antarctic ice sheets.

“To model the complex processes of how the ice sheets move is a difficult, but essential thing to do if we are to understand their role in the global climate and their potential for contributing to sea level rise,” he said. “This research may add a critical piece of information as we try to assemble that ‘big picture.’”

The researchers first noted the volcanic activity in 2007 and verified its existence again in 2014.

It remains unclear how the newly discovered activity affects knowledge about the glacier, because researchers don’t yet know how volcanic heat is distributed along the bottom of the ice sheet. However, researchers do know that the heat from the volcano is producing melting beneath the ice sheet. This meltwater is leaking across the grounding line where the ice shelf meets the ocean.

The heat source, Loose and team note, is about half that of the active volcano Grímsvötn, in Iceland.

Full post

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June 29, 2018 at 03:49AM

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June 29, 2018 at 03:10AM

The greatest joke ever played on the world is the idea that the wind can – and will soon completely – power modern economies. When the wind disappears for days and even weeks on end, those that promote it tend to get twitchy and change the subject. Sometimes it’s mutterings about mega-batteries (that don’t exist) … Continue reading "Wind Power: World’s Greatest Joke – UK Left Powerless During the ‘Big Calm’"

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June 29, 2018 at 02:30AM