Most smart meters do only one thing: send a meter reading to the utility every 15 minutes. The rest of what the letter claims is imaginary.
“Most smart meters do only one thing: send a meter reading to the utility every 15 minutes. The rest of what the letter claims is imaginary.”
There actually is a bit more to it. For example, the next generation of appliances will have the ability to be commanded off by your ‘Smart Meter’, for cases like when the wind stops blowing in West Texas - and there are now patents on lockable (by the utility) receptacles that do the same. So it’s best to be your own electrician (like some of us here) so that you can defeat these lifestyle-changing features that our brave new world is bringing us.
The 15 minute reporting is also nothing to play down, being that resolution before the ‘Smart Meters’ was 30 days, or roughly 3000 times as long. What 15 minutes means is that anyone that can access your meter’s data will likley know the following:
a) When people go to bed at night
b) When people wake up in the morning
c) When people go to work in the morning
d) When people come home from work in the evening
e) When people leave to go on vacation
f) When people return from vacation
In Texas, as far as I can tell, there is ZERO PROTECTION of that information (unless someone knows otherwise). This information can legally be taken by a person that works for a utility, or is contracted to a utility, or to a policeman, to a university doing a study, or to anyone else that is interested in your ‘habits’, as the left calls them.
And also don’t think that what you will pay for electrical power won’t be based on when you use that power - its GUARANTEED, for sure. And guess what: Those high-cost times will be when it’s 100F outside.