Power Meter Project
We have been awarded grants to roll out a Smart Meter project. We will lend you with a free Smart Meter which will clip onto your electricity meter and measure the total amount of power your house consumes. The idea is that the meter will help you to manage your energy consumption more wisely, saving you money on your bills.
The Peckham Power Meter Project has two broad aims:
- to provide Smart Meters to Peckham Residents to help us to manage our electricity consumption more effectively
- to measure and collect live information about renewable electricity production in the area and to display this on our website and in public spaces
We're currently developing the project and we're thrilled that we’ve now got connections to two local renewable electricity sites and we're successfully collecting live production data. Hooray! Many thanks to Donnachadh McCarthy’s photo-voltaic panels, and the wind turbine at TRUE (Trust for Urban Ecology) at Rotherhithe.
The TRUE wind turbine on the left with Canary Wharf in the background
A close-up of the TRUE wind turbine from which we're now collecting data
The grey box on the right is the communications device that Hugo has installed for us. It collects the production data and sends it over the local cellphone network. Ultimately this data will drive our online graph.
Live production data from the wind turbine. This graph is just a proof of concept. One of our next tasks is to commission a piece of web software which will make more user-friendly graphs.
The next stage is to get this local renewable electricity production information displayed on our website live, and we’re waiting to hear back from a website designer who may be able build the necessary software. If you know someone who could help us display graphs on our website that are updated with live data, please get in touch. We're also exploring the possibility of including 1st Place at Burgess Park, and the CHP (Combined Heat and Power plant) at Sarawak Court, Consort Road, as local renewable electricity sites.
Jack's energy consumption. The tall, thin spikes are the kettle and toaster. The regular bumps along the bottom are the fridge's compressor turning on and off.
Please contact us if you would like to take part in the project and learn about how to reduce your energy use at home as well as learning more about renewable electricity.
The Power Meter Project has been funded from Cleaner, Greener, Safer awards from both Peckham Community Council and Nunhead and Peckham Rye Community Council.
Read about Jack's experiences (during testing) with the power meter here (although this was with a meter that we probably won't be using in our main project).
