Japan Today reports that at a meeting on Nov. 2, the Energy Conservation Subcommittee of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry decided to begin working group discussions with the goal of gaining the ability to remotely shuts down proprietary air conditioning/heating units.
The goal, of course, is to reduce energy use during expected power shortages, something the committee is looking at with growing concern as Japan tries to shift to renewable energy sources like solar power.
But the amount produced can be affected by the daily climate making it very difficult to stabilize the total available power. The ministry says AC use accounts for about 30 percent of household electricity consumption in Japan.
From a technical point of view, the plan is not particularly difficult to implement.
Air conditioners have remote controls, so external inputs are not a problem, and many models now allow the owner to turn the system on and off or adjust temperature settings via the Internet.
By asking manufacturers to extend this access to government regulatory agencies and granting them such functions, the ministry's plan could be easily implemented in practice especially for Internet-connected ACs.
According to Japan Today, the committee is currently working on the idea that the government will only be able to shut down ACs if their owners have agreed to give up that power.
