power grid friendly appliance

I was thinking it would be kind of cool to have a microcontroller detect if the power company is running at peak rates. like this little product does, The problem I'm having is finding information on the standard that might be used.. some relevant sites seem to refer to it as using radio signals? maybe someone here already knows how its done?

like this little product does,

What little product?

opps http://www.cpsenergy.com/Residential/Rebates/Peak_Saver/index.asp

Question #1 in the FAQ section explains how it's done.

:slight_smile: I'm really hoping for a radio frequency number and maybe a document that covers the standard..

Detecting if the power grid demand is above current supply is trivial. Have a look at my power grid monitor experiment to learn how Power Grid Monitor | Blinkenlight. Instead of using LEDs to watch the frequency you could sample it through A/D and then convolute with a 60 Hz reference in Software. This is easy.

However the peak "detector" is actually controlled by the power company. Thus their "peak signal" will not necessarily match what you would detect. I assume that they control for peak price instead of peak load. Although these values correlate they are not always the same.