Anybody who thinks this has anything to do with economy should invest in my perpetual motion machine.
It’s about control. Just like medical care, electricity in Obama’s Brave New America will be tightly rationed.
Or as my grandmother used to say: "When not in use, turn off the juice."
Smart meters would allow buying and selling electricity on a spot market. It would be possible for appliances to automatically turn on at times of day when electricity prices are lower. Businesses like grocery stores that run lots of refrigeration and air conditioning could run their cooling systems more heavily at non-peak times.
I have no doubt these will decrease energy consumption. It was interesting in that I got a Prius for a rental on a recent trip driving from Tennessee to Wisconsin. The energy meter on that thing absolutely made you aware how much gas you were using, and while I went along, I would play little games to see how I could maximize things.
The control issues with these meters make me skeptical. And frankly, it annoyed me to no end to hear mom always telling me to turn off the light when I’d walk from the study to the kitchen and then back. Not sure if I’d be a fan of these.
Considering that the bills of paying customers go up to cover losses incurred by deadbeats who do not pay, I don't see this as a bad thing.
I have my own ‘smart meter.’ Whole house is computerized, and I control it. I log and regulate every heavy power load in the house and on the property. I have found ways to trim costs. Watering to cool the roof and power ventilating the attic space, all timed to temperatures and computer decisions.
The problem with the proposal(s) in this thread is the lack of the user control.
could help consumers control energy use.
Not hardly...could help GOVERNMENT control energy use.
If a wireless smart meter is cost effective for the utility to cut costs or reading meters. Then, fine, it’s their cost and their savings and their meter, so they should not be passing anything costs along to us because it is an investment which gives them a return.
If the meter is suppose to be for me, I don’t want it and don’t see why I should be forced to buy something that is not cost effective for me.
I do think there is clearly an element of control, however, that I find particularly offensive. I buy the service, I pay for the service, I use the service whenever, however and how much I elect to. If the utility has to raise rates, because their costs go up, those costs are passed along to us and we can elect to change our usage or not.
It is not the utility or government’s right or authority to turn on/off my power because they think I should be controlled and forced to use less, because some idiot in government thinks it is a good idea from their perspective.
We have had these so-called “smart meters” here that our Public owned elecrtic utility started switching to a couple of years ago. Not one of the dire predictions that this article makes have come true. Not one.
The real result of our smart meters?? The Utility saves a fortune in payroll expenses by eliminating the need for a number of on-foot meter readers.
The meter reader simply drives past the house, and the meters transmit the current readings.
That’s it. We are saving money, ergo keeping electric rates lower than they otherwise would be, by using smart technology to read the meters more accurately than before. If a meter doesn’t read correctly, the reader can tell that from the street and call in for a replacement.
That’s why they call this “smart” technology...
One interesting bit I have not seen elsewhere is what my father has. His electric meter tracks what the maximum instantaneous power during the month was in addition to the total energy used and he is given a discount or penalty based on that. The big trick is to turn off the air conditioner when he is drying a load of clothes so he doesn't have his two big 240v power hogs running at once.
I trust the government. I really do. They do such a great job with the DMV, vet hospitals, road repair, etc.
Sure, this is a nice jump in technology to help us all save some money. But I reject it, not because I don’t believe that it will accomplish energy efficiency for consumers, but because of the timing of all this. Could the power company, and the government, still gain access to control over power usage in the house via the two way wireless from the smart meter? Of course they can. They will already have the information that the consumer sees from their web portal. I don’t trust it with the current regime in the White House and their extreme agenda for control over the people, and forcing the global warming hoax on us, which is nothing but a religon to them. And these are religous fanatics.