"Roland Perry" wrote in message
news

This is a classic example of market failure. Why should I run around
putting all those things on timers, with all the inconvenience of taking 2
days to wash clothes [wash at 2am one day, dry at 2am the next day], just
to return my bill to the level it used to be before!!

I don't! You completely missed the point of my post and assumed I was
talking about Economy7 tariffs.

In my case I have a separate supply which is connected to the heating system
*only*, and it's switched via the electricity suppliers switch. My main
supply is charged at the standard rate - I effectively get two bills. The
switched supply has a simple mechanical time switch which gives me 7 hours
overnight and a 3.5 hours during the afternoon.

HOWEVER, my parents have the radio controlled switch that I described in my
original post and (like me) it controls the heating circuits and (like me)
it gives them 7 hours overnight and 3.5 hours in the afternoon. However,
they don't know for certain when the supply is active, because their
supplier can remotely switch the supply at their convenience in order to get
the best prices from the National Grid - in effect the local supplier will
selectively shed load when the grid 'market' price rises, whilst ensuring
that everyone gets their quota of cheap rate hours fed to their heating
systems. For obvious reasons consumers aren't allowed to connect appliances
like dishwashers and washing machines to a supply that is controlled in this
manner, but my parents get cheap rate overnight electricity on their main
supply (per Economy7) as well.

Just to get us back to the original thread, I was suggesting that a similar
mechanism could be used to control car charging points in order to avoid
overloading local and national electricity distribution networks during
peaks in demand, thus delaying (or possibly avoiding altogether) the
requirement for the major upgrades that you had suggested would be
necessary.

D A Stocks.