[jenamety]

I believe building your own 'storage' units would be better (letting you draw from these as you need, without monitoring) thus having a continuously slow supply of water,gas, electricity coming from the grid.

As long as these storage units don't simply begin to 'top off' when they are drained, the usage could be masked by averaging and predicting demand.

very simplified water day

6am - Toilet flush & hand wash 2 Gal

7am - Shower 36 Gal

8am - Breakfast - Coffee, Oatmeal, Dishwashing - 2 Gal

6pm - Dinner & dishwasher - 8 gal

10pm - flush and brush - 2.5 Gal

So you'd want a constant 2.1 gallons to be fed in from the street per hour, and you'd need a minimum 40 gallon reserve tank to cover that day.

[jpitz]

Quite true, but the opportunity for time-of-day rate arbitrage is tempting.