Smart Meter rant- technology going Backwards!

[BSVLY]

Well I know there are a lot of groups fighting the smart meter installs. Big brother, health and safety-all of that.

We were notified that we were scheduled for a Smart meter install. Wife and Discussed it and decided to not opt out and fight the system. Must be progress-right? Besides, the meter/Pole is 200 feet plus from the house (Underground run to bldgs from there), so we weren't going to be bathed in RF soup while we slept. We just didn't want to join the fight I guess. Besides, to opt out meant raising a fuss, paying a $100.00, one-time Opt Out fee, then a monthly nuisance fee ($20.00 extra per month to have a reader actually come out and keep manually reading the box).

What follows is pretty dumb on their part.

1) The smart meter was installed. It was a 15 minute job-literally. Less If we hadn't chatted with contractor.

2) Two weeks later, the power company paid us a visit! It was the local meter reader. Needed access to property to go over and "read the smart meter!!" Boy I laughed..:laughing: Reader said system was not up. OK I said.

3) This next month-a different power company PU rolled up to my gate, unlatched it and came on in again. A different reader. I spoke at length with him.

Here is what I found out:

The signal from the meters is not strong enough to reach their receivers. I'm rural-but it won't work in closest town either.

They used to just drive by the property and they had a RF pinger that would read the meter. They never entered my property.

They are erecting a tower on Brock Mountain 27 miles away in the hopes that they will be able to read the smart meters eventually.

So meantime-the Dumb Meter is going to be monitored physically by the Smart Reader in his PU truck.

All of this does not smell like progress..does it???

BTW-I'm paying ~0.16 per KH

Anyone else have a smart meter issue??:confused2:

 

[joshuabardwell]

They put one on my house a while back. Haven't seen hide nor hair of them since.

 

[Western]

Here they just drive down the street and I guess get the reading from everyone's "smart" meter...

 

[ultrarunner]

They want to charge my friend a fee to keep his meter and then a fee each month for having it.

The issue is he still has his original meter... they were unable to access it because he was on vacation when they did the neighborhood.

So why or how can they justify the fee to install a plain meter when this is all he has ever had?

 

[edlegault]

We have them here in CA. Pain in the rear end. The electric utility company can turn off your power at will, whenever they want to.

 

[retiredmgn]

In Maine they threw them up because they got a sizeable chunk of money from the Feds. But that's all they did. The programming to handle it was not even in development yet. At this point a truck still has to pull in to get a reading.
Cluster F*ck. Glad I'm not doing programming for these 'smart meters'. The programming is already 'behind schedule'. Go figure...

 

[boomer1025]

The meters we have send the information back thru the electric lines, as far as I know there is no RF being transmitted

 

[chopped]

I was told that the signal went from my house to the neighbors and on down the line and finally the power company could use the information.

 

[radioman]

same here -- they replaced mine few weeks ago. I had one of those readers for trucks to drive by and read. now they have it setup the same way so they can read from a warm comfy office. whatever. the whole install swap took 15 mins too.

OTOH, I never knew about it or heard of the plan to swap it until I saw the notice on the door tht they need to swap it out oir they will possibly shutoff the water. I was like WTH?!

 

[k0ua]

We have had a Smart Meter for several years, I believer its signals are transmitted thru the electric lines themselves. No one drives by to read it or anything like that. I have not noticed any spurious signals from it and I am very sensitive about my RF environment being an Amateur Radio Operator. If I notice anything new emitting RF, I track it down and deal with it. So far so good with the "Smart Meter"

James K0UA

 

[3930dave]

As I've said before on this subject, mostly your choice comes down to Pay the Tribute, or Disconnect.

I "get" what it takes to provide a reliable power grid. Costs had to rise in most areas, for new build outs/refurbishments.

Instead of running the numbers and saying "Costs are rising for these reasons ________, so kwh flat rates need to go to _______________ cents/kwh , the Marketing mavens came up with Smart Grid.

What they have managed to do is thoroughly obfuscate what is going on with your bill (once the Time of Use billing is fully rolling in your area). Try arguing with a billing computer that 85% of your consumption was NOT at peak time.

Smart Grid has a few other secondary agendas, but the primary one is to blur Rate Increases behind a cloak of environmentalism and the "opportunity" for consumers to "save" money.

Pay the Tribute, or Disconnect.

Rgds, D.

 

[kenmac]

Well, I have a smart meter at my rual property so, I have use of power when I'm there. I get charged a min. fee just to have the meter there for use when I need it ... My flat fee for non use is $ 240.00 per yr. Free money to the power co.

 

[Mousefield]

Guess? :confused3: the one good thing will be when they are reading them remotely is if our power goes off they are notified automatically.
Had 4 installed on our property about 3 months ago. All meters are about 100 feet from a residence and then the wires are underground from there.
They still come out to read the meters, every 2 months, as it will be awhile :confused2: before they can read them remotely.

 

[dmccarty]

When we built the house, we wanted a smart meter so the meter reader would not have to visit the house but the power company wanted an extra $10-20 a month! They wanted us to spend extra money so that they could save money not having to send a read down our road and up to the house. :shocked: $%^&*() 'em. They sent a meter reader for a few years and then all of the houses in the area had the old meters replaced with smart readers. No more meter reader at the house and it does not cost us a cent.

I don't know for sure, but what we were told, was that the meter reader still has to drive into the area but no longer has to visit each meter. The reader had to drive into the area to pick up the values.

I googled. A story I found said that our power company had installed meters that transmitted the meter usage via radio that was picked up by a nearby meter reader. They said they the signal went a few hundred feet but ours certainly goes farther. The story said that new meters are being installed that do not require a visit by a meter reader. Furthermore, the new meters have time of use information. They make it sound like this is a good thing but I think it will just allow different billing aka increase power bills.

We have not had any problems with the smart meter. I have logged every power bill, including cost, days of usages, daily KWH usage and overall KWH usage since we built the house. I did not see any difference between the old meter and the new.

Later,
Dan

 

[RadarTech]

I'd be curious a too which meter it is....

Itron, GE OR?
I did contract IT work for Itron when they developed the meters...

 

[dmccarty]

Well, I have a smart meter at my rual property so, I have use of power when I'm there. I get charged a min. fee just to have the meter there for use when I need it ... My flat fee for non use is $ 240.00 per yr. Free money to the power co.

We wanted, and still want, to put in a gate operator. The problem is that the gate is well away from the house and would require its own meter. The power runs right under the gate and it would be very expensive for us to run a power line from the house back to the gate. A meter at the gate would have a minimum charge of $10-15 a month! No way would the gate use a $1.00 a month in power. $10-15 a month could buy a new battery every year.

We still don't have a powered gate operator. Well, when we pull up to the gate, I point my hand at the wifey, pretend to push a button while making a buzzing sound, at which point the gate operator gets out of the vehicle and opens the gate. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Sometimes this can be painful...

Later,
Dan

 

[RadarTech]

We wanted, and still want, to put in a gate operator. The problem is that the gate is well away from the house and would require its own meter. The power runs right under the gate and it would be very expensive for us to run a power line from the house back to the gate. A meter at the gate would have a minimum charge of $10-15 a month! No way would the gate use a $1.00 a month in power. $10-15 a month could buy a new battery every year.

We still don't have a powered gate operator. Well, when we pull up to the gate, I point my hand at the wifey, pretend to push a button while making a buzzing sound, at which point the gate operator gets out of the vehicle and opens the gate. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Sometimes this can be painful...

Later,
Dan

Get a battery with a solar charger.....

 

[dmccarty]

Get a battery with a solar charger.....

That is the plan...

One day...

The Wifey Powered Gate Operator has been working pretty good. Not perfect I admit. The operator is slow, pretty slow in fact, and often is cranky with issues, especially if it is cold and/or raining. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Sometimes, I have to push the button and buzz at the gate operator multiple times to get it too work. But she is a good ol' girl and I don't want to replace her, I mean the gate operator.

Later,
Dan

 

[RadarTech]

That is the plan...

One day...

The Wifey Powered Gate Operator has been working pretty good. Not perfect I admit. The operator is slow, pretty slow in fact, and often is cranky with issues, especially if it is cold and/or raining. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Sometimes, I have to push the button and buzz at the gate operator multiple times to get it too work. But she is a good ol' girl and I don't want to replace her, I mean the gate operator.

Later,
Dan

I just hope she has a good sense of humor.......

 

[Travelover]

The operator is slow, pretty slow in fact, and often is cranky with issues, especially if it is cold and/or raining. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

Try honking the horn.