Wesley's Tool-Box

The smart meter I installed last month is running nicely, but using it to measure a precise power consumption of an individual appliance is cumbersome as you need to have everything else stable. So it was time for me to invest in a plug-in type electricity monitor. After some comparing, the one from by the company that made the smart meter was deemed most practical. Named SJPM-C16, it cost me about US$18.50 (KRW 22,400) after discounts.

The goal of this sort of electricity monitor is not just about informing you of electricity usage, but also getting you some ideas on how to make savings from such info. Considering this, I liked the way it was packaged. It was pretty compact and minimal, with hardly any waste of space or materials.


Even the manual is a neatly-folded single sheet of paper that lists everything that you need to know when using the product. This includes the fact that South Korea has a bizarre 6-tier exponential residential pricing for the retail electricity, and that this monitor fully accounts for this when calculating the costs. You can also configure for other pricing schemes and the tier prices themselves are also adjustable, making it useful even if there are future changes.

Now armed with this capable tool, I set out to check the power consumption of every appliances and devices scattered throughout the house.

On May 30, 2015, my family went to see an NC vs. KIA baseball game at Gwangju KIA Champions Field with some other families I knew of. Half of the outfield stand was covered in grass, so it was like having picnic with a baseball game in view. There was even a sandbox for the kids to play in next to it. I felt that the whole set up was great.

During the bottom of the 2nd inning, which was about 40 minutes into the game that started on 5 PM, Lee Hong-Gu, a batter for KIA, hit a two-run home run to the center of the field. We saw that the ball was heading right towards the sandbox next to us. One of the guys in our group hurried towards it, and successfully fished out the home run ball out of the protective net.

That was the first time I've been able to see someone catch one in the action up close. Also, we got to hold the ball and take some pictures ourselves for fun, as well. It was the next best thing to catching the ball in person. This home run let KIA pull ahead of NC with a score of 1:3. But later in the game NC managed a grand slam that resulted in an upset. NC eventually won the game 11:6. That was all well and good because I'm an NC fan.


After the game, I wondered if we were caught on the broadcast and carefully pored over the highlights. This video in particular contained the scene with the home run in question: [Media Daum Sports]

Because we weren't directly in the line of sight and the camera didn't dwell on the scene after confirming the home run, I wasn't initially sure if we were caught in the camera at all. Then I did a frame-by-frame analysis. Eventually I found my family sitting at the far left end of the scene. I've put some arrows to make it more obvious, but you can also compare this to the first picture in this post as a reference. All in all, it was an experience to remember.

Power supply/demand situation is getting a bit tight in Korea this year - there's this unusually hot weather coming up, and several large nuclear plants got shut down due to faulty parts being put into due to corruption.

As a result, power grid situation room is up and running early, and I'm taking part in the operation. This means I'll be showing up in the news broadcasts a few times throughout this summer. Yesterday saw some significant coverage from the media, and here are the results.

TV:
KBS News 9, May 30, 2013 (#1)
KBS News 9, May 30, 2013 (#2)
SBS 8 News, May 30, 2013
YTN News, 4PM, May 30, 2013

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