New Years Rant

[Bwhiskered]

The postman left me bad news today. I got a notice that the Burlington Hydro will be installing a Smart Meter on my house very shortly in the New Year. I am not alone because every house and business in Ontario will have one by the end of 2010. My hydro water and sewer charge already costs me $800 to $900 every two months. Anything the Ontario Government does is for their benifit not ours. It always ends up costing us money.I may have to switch to Blind Cave Fish. No heat or light is needed. If I can get them to live without water I could really win.

Happy New Year to everyone. New Years Eve has a Blue Moon. When 2 full moons fall in the same month the second one is called a Blue Moon. I have a bunch of plecos that only spawn once in a Blue Moon. Maybe New Years Eve is the time.

[Catsaholic]

Charlie, I have Smart Meter from the August. It is not that bad, you just have to adjust your life to it (since Hydro not going to adjust their interests). Your tanks are in the basement, so your fish will not know day time from night time. Can't you turn lights on at 9 pm (during winter time) and keep them on through part of the night? It will actually save you money on electricity since rates at this time are really cheap.
Another great thing to do is Tankless water heater. It saves you a lot on gas, and you can do all your water changes with warm water. It also frees the space occupied by your hot water tank.
Thank you for a Blue Moon part, it's very interesting. I wish your LF Calico will finally spawn (I'm still waiting!).

[arapaimag]

Charlie they installed the smart meter at my house in Oct 2008 and it still is not being used. I asked them why and my local hydro is still upgrading their software (14 months now) so is still using the old rates. It will increase the cost of hydro for anyone that has a lot of tanks.

I have a tankless hot water heater and it has many good features and some bad ones too. It's flow rate is not as fast as my oil heater(I kept the oil hot water heater also in case he THW malfunctions) and it does take a lot longer to heat up the initial load of water.

I also had a problem with the filter in it being too small. I had to install a larger filter and still must change the cartridge every 2 to 4 weeks otherwise the flow rate becomes too slow and I have no hot water at all from the THW. In my case when this happens I then switch back to the oil hot water heater.

I realize I use more water than most hobbyists but many of the 100 tank plus breeders also use a lot of water also.

[Catsaholic]

This is interesting, because I never had problems with a water flow. It exact same as it was with regular HW tank. But I guess, it depends on the tankless brand or something else?

You are right, it does take somewhat longer to heat the initial water load. I found that benefits of tankless overweight inconveniences.

[jlloydb]

love a good rant: in the same way diesel oil prices caught up to refined fuel values, it will not take much time for hydro to reassess 'off peak' demands and reprice them. IMO, the term 'off peak' = 'carrot'. they brag now, of opportunities to save during 'off peak' hours, but the truth will be exposed as the collection of data gets twisted to support the need to increase and expand 'peak' rates. we already pay similar fluctuations for fuel on holidays and after extreme weather patterns. we can expect no less but the same from these meters. the list of additional misc. fees will grow on invoices faster than you can say 'debt retirement charge'.