Posted on 05/28/2013 7:21:52 PM PDT by opentalk
BRADY, Tex. — In October, the City Council of this Central Texas town voted unanimously to purchase advanced electric meters, known as smart meters, for the city-owned electric utility. But some residents resisted, and the smart meter vote played a large role in last weekend’s recall of the city’s mayor and the electoral defeat of two council members.
Voters here passed a referendum last weekend to enshrine in the City Charter the right of residents to refuse the installation of smart meters on their property. Sheila Hemphill, an organizer of the effort, called the victory her “San Jacinto.”
The reaction in Brady could signal a shift in the debate over smart meters, which collect detailed data on electricity use and transmit it to the utility using radio frequencies.
… “The ultimate goal of the smart grid, of which smart meters are a part, is to connect us internationally to share the power we generate with the world,” she said. Having its own grid provides the state with autonomy it would not have otherwise, she said. “We’ve survived all these years without being connected to another grid,” she said. “Why should we change that?”
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.nytimes.com ...
Same here. The electric bill dropped a lot after they put in the smartmeter. They also respond much faster to power outages during storms since they can map the outage better.
They could have done the same thing with a smart phone app that takes a picture, emails it to the power company, the computer reads the image, tells you if it got it, and then sends you the bill to your phone or computer email.
The meters are probably not the reason for that. Power companies now use reflectometry to find the line break. It is very accurate.
Speaking only for my household, we will not sacrifice our liberty for saving a few dollars. My liberal neighbor (who moved to Texas from Nashua, NH and refuses to assimilate to our values and cultures) is all in favor of these evil devices. An Obama supporter, he also has one of those silly COEXIST bumper stickers on his car. That tells me everything worth knowing about these intrusive things.
“or shootable dogs to be at home.”
Why do they NEVER shoot CATS???/s;)
My in-laws lived in Nashua for a time, I hear you
Of that, the lion's share is lost in HVAC.
There is a way to seal the building such that all HVAC needs could be serviced by a heat pump powered by solar panels and/or wind turbines.
In that situation, the building can be removed from the grid altogether thus emasculating said politicians as well as the energy companies.
It's the American way.
People are going to jail over trying to remove smart meters from their house or trying to prevent the installation of them.
Glenn Beck has been all over this for a year now...nice to see the NY Times reporting for once.
People hear this kind of talk and instantly think granola cruncher, but this is quite American in that it cuts the legs out from under huge monied interests that have had their way with American consumers for far too long.
Highway robbery!
This guy a real piece of work. He's been here since the mid-90s, brazenly refusing to assimilate and complaining about the lack of the four seasons here in Texas. My next door neighbor, a Tea Party Patriot, and I always look forward to tweaking him, most recently on Earth Day, when we turn on all the lights, run our lawnmowers and he keeps his motorcycle roaring in the driveway. Earlier this year, we had a great time on MLK day by flying our Confederate flags.
Our work must be paying off. His daughter is a cheerleader at high school and speaks with a Southern accent. She also convinced him to attach a flagpole to his house, which sports both Old Glory and the Texas flag.
...and a little child will lead them... -- Isaiah 11:6
When he removes that stupid COEXIST bumper sticker, we know we're on our way toward a conversion!
” No matter how little you use they keep raising rates to make sure utilities pocket big profits (with the PUC’s blessings, of course).”
They also raise rates so they can subsidize the solar panels on a lot of wealthy peoples homes. It’s big stuff to brag about all you are doing to save the environment at elitist cocktail parties. Don’t talk about the average ratepayer shelling out dough to make it affordable though. Without the subsidies very few would be installed.
Wonder what would happen if you slipped a Mylar bag over the meter. ...
shootable dogs
Why the redundancy?
You've got it! But the nasty part is that in order to survive economically, conservatives like me -- opposed to government hand-outs -- are almost forced to accept the subsidies in order to keep our lights and hot water.
My electricity rates (without any major changes in usage) have gone from around $50-$60 a month 4-5 years ago to an average of $235 a month now. And the PUC keeps approving higher and higher rates. I expect to see $300 a month fairly soon.
I’ve had a smart meter for several years. No meter reader is one less thing for the dog to bark at.
I got another of those calls last week.
I simply said:
“NOT HAPPENING!”
Caller was trying to mumble some appeal as I hung up.
Our water co. tried to pull some bull with us to install a smart meter.
I happened to have A HORRIBLE flu when the guy came over - so I started to have a conversation with him, in FLU language, about how I had some medical conditions and my Dr. had told me “No smart meters” due to “medical equipment” I had to have to sustain my life.
He ran like a bastard out of my house. Turns out he had CUT the line outside on a perfectly good meter in order to claim that our meter was not working and needed to be replaced. It’s the super secret trick the towns are pulling now. The decent fellow who came to repair the cut line explained it all to me.
I just kept saying, “I don’t know anything but that my Dr. said the new digital meters will disrupt my life sustaining equipment.”
Then I cough real bad. REAL bad I say.
I though I was the only one that did that.....here in Michigan....run the garden tractor, lawn blower, use the table saw to cut some wood just for the heck of it, lights on....in every room, fans going unless its cold......my kids laugh at me but they all know where I stand on everything....:O)
They respond much slower to outages for small clusters of outage as they can more easily prioritize where to send the crews. We used to get faster repair as we live near a service center.
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