Posted on 03/22/2012 4:27:29 PM PDT by Libertynotfree
We the below refuse to pay any additional fees to retain our analog meters or have smart meters that were installed without our permission replaced with a safe, reliable analog.
Please spread the word and have everyone you know sign this Petition.
(Excerpt) Read more at naturalremediesmatter.com ...
” Some website that claim these meters “kill”?”
As do cell phones and your neighbors wireless router and so many other things in your immediately vaccinty. I’m sure life expectancies are plummeting.
We just got a notice that if we don’t want the “smart meter” we have to pay a $35 fee, then $15 a month to stay on the opt out.
ah, No! You do not pay not to do something.
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Electronic meters at my house but not RF readable ...
Don’t waste your time ,, this is a non-issue ,,, the electric companies are just trying to save on employee expense. If you’re going to make them send someone out to physically read the meter you’re going to pay for it.
LOL!
Involuntarily have a SM on my house currently. FPL - we’ve only lost service a couple times in a yr. And after HURRICANE WILMA we were only out 2.5 days! Across the street was out for 2 wks though. Gotta hand it to FPL on that one. Hurricane Andrew wiped out electricity for 2 months.
Last month’s electric bill was $50 for 29 days. $1.75/day.
I don’t like the freq. though. It’s microwave. Microwaves fry. Depends on the duration, proximity etc. but it is not negligable. Our houses are CBS, so that’s the only reason I don’t care about the EMR. If I was in a wooden house, I would be more concerned.
Didn’t the original engineer for Motorola’s cell phone get a brain tumor?
Exactly right. My company also refurbishes old analog meters, and I have seen the ladies on the line calibrating these.
The fact that analog meters can get out of calibration (moving parts again) is yet another reason electronic meters will soon be universal. E-meters use a single crystal for timing and a single precision voltage reference for both current and voltage measurements; neither get out of calibration.
We already pay for them to come out, this would be a fee on top of tat.
No, it's not.
Microwaves used in your oven are around 2.45 GHz. The frequency is chosen because it's a peak in the absorption vs. frequency graph for water molecules. Those waves are designed to "jiggle" water and heat it.
Major electric meter companies: Landis & Gyr, GE (no longer in the home meter market), SmartSync, Itron and Elster ALL use 902-928 MHz. I know because I work for one of them (not going to tell you which one).
That is not microwave. That is UHF.
And by the way, all of our meters put out less than 1 Watt at 902-928 MHz (most are less than 1/4 Watt). Amateur radio operators are LEGALLY allowed to transmit 1,500 Watts on 902-928 MHz, aimed right at your house.
And believe me, I would do it.
Thanks for the info. Have also been hearing of these “smart” meters and about same time our Elect. provider began “offering” some “smart thermostat” or somesuch. I think many, include self, have smart meter confused with the smart thermostat thingy.
Couple of years ago ONCOR replaced our analog meter with one they can read over the powerline, their reasoning was to quit the meterreaders.
I seriously doubt the smart meter has any way to cut power or reduce power to us and as you say is to report usage every 4 hours. Interrupting 200 amps is not something that could be done in that small smart meter package. Right?
We already pay for them to come out, this would be a fee on top of tat.
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They want to stop using manpower to read something that can be easily RF transmitted or backfed over the lines to a central station. This is a non-issue ... I would love to have a remote readable meter to have one less person come around.
That web site looks like you must either smile a lot or put on tinfoil hat to read.
Who produced the web site?
That “smart thermostat” thing is a remote operated cutoff for your AC / heat and water heater ... could also control heavy motors like a pool pump , they state xx minutes off in a xx hour period but they always seem to exceed the promise when they’re short on power, the purpuse is to let the electric utility run their main generator (coal , nat gas , oil ) up to VERY near full capacity and then spike demand when it gets critical long enough to fire up their secondary generators (basically jet engine driven), it keeps them from having to fire up the jet engines as often saving them fuel.. typically they offer peanuts ... not worth it ... I tried it maybe 20 years ago and had the box go bad ,, lost AC and hot water for a few days .. not cool...
This device you mentioned is not what people are being fee’d for refusing.
Have heard others with same complaints about the smart thermostat. That thing I would fight against.
Smart meter, living in the country I’m happy to not have some stranger just showing up on my place. Who knew if they were for certain from the power company?
This device you mentioned is not what people are being fee’d for refusing.
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I understand that ,, your reply#28 spoke to 2 different subjects ,, meters and the remote cutoff device which most utilities give a small bonus to their customers who have it installed (in my area it’s $15/month). In my reply I was taking to the “remote cutoff” device mention and not the meters themselves.
My objection is that these utilities are getting government subsidies to install these. If so much money is to be saved, why does it take the government to finance this?
I don't confuse the two but I know smart meters are simply the "camel's nose under the tent" for Big Brother thermostats. Once ratepayers are comfortable with that concept, centrally-controlled thermostats will follow like night follows day.
Utility companies and state PUCs have happily jumped into bed with Obama's energy program. When he says under his plan energy prices "will necessarily skyrocket," that's music to their ears. My electricity rates have more than doubled in the past 3 years and "smart meters" will increase them even more. My "smart" water meter has caused my bill to jump about 20% even with a decrease in usage. I trust the utility companies as much as I trust the EPA.
really. do you work for pg&e?
Hell no but if you want a human to read your meter, pay for it and don’t expect me to subsidize your paranoia!
Quick question for the backwoods engineer - I haven’t been able to dig up any information on this in my last search. On the old electro-mechanical watthour meter, you could read your instantaneous demand by timing the speed of the disk rotation and plugging the time (in seconds) along with a couple of characteristics from the meter (like the watthour constant Kh) and determine your load in watts. I now have an electronic meter on the house and, as you would guess, it has no disk so I can’t time its rotation to determine load.
It’s not that important, but I am curious as to how a user might determine their instantanious demand on one of these.
LOL, oh, don’t worry, they are making us pay. rates are up for everyone i talk to (you’d think they’d go down at least for a little while since these meters are so smart), we have to a 75 dollar “setup” for nothing in our case and a monthly fine or surcharge. and for those who just want their old meter back, they get to pay for their old meter and installation.
some people are apparently so “paranoid” that they are having headaches and trouble sleeping with these meters installed on their bedroom walls.
this of course doesn’t even get into the tyranny CARB, CPUC and PG&E are unilaterally imposing on us with no legislative mandate whatsoever.
but, thanks for your input. moving on.
If they want an electronic one. Fine. they can install it. However, when that meter takes over how I want to use MY electricity that I pay for.. well.. we have a problem.
As it is. My electric company has no intention of replacing meters with “smart” ones.
They are in the business of selling electricity, not limiting ones ability to use it.
my gas company however charges more per unit the more you use.
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