unconstitutional
what’s the rationale for people wanting to opt out and have someone come into their home instead? They think it could send more than basic units-used information?
Another poster in a different thread suggested this... how hard would it be to simply install another thermostat that runs your HVAC? Let the utility-provided thermostat go on and merrilly adjust the settings on its own, but don’t have it hooked to your HVAC system.
A system designed by totalitarians. Why do Californians put up with this treatment? They should be chasing the utility and the public service commissioners with pitchforks and torches.
Soft tyranny
Couldn’t this be defeated with a fifty-cent Faraday shield?
Well, the whole thing sounds crazy to me. What a smart meter does is tell the company how much power you used that month, so they don’t have to send a meter reader around to read them all manually—at considerable expense. It certainly is more efficient.
The complaint is not a privacy violation, since it doesn’t tell them anything they couldn’t find out by sending people around to read the meters—except that it’s easier to read the meters often instead of monthly. Big deal.
The complaint is that it’s a medical problem. People with illnesses or pacemakers might be harmed by the wireless signals back to the company.
Well, I’ll let a real scientist answer that one, if real scientists can still be found in California. But I strongly doubt whether there is any real health risk. I think this is just one more instance of liberal insanity.
The power company installed the meters because, once in place, it’s far more efficient. And if you don’t like it, it’s reasonable that they should charge you to have some guy drive over, climb out of the car, and read your meter. Since he’s not going down the street reading meters, but just driving out to read yours, that would be quite costly.
I know the folks at the company that is installing these millions of meters. There’s some nut-job(s) in CA making a big stink about the radio emissions/health, etc. As I understand it, the radio modules in this particular case are not that different than wi-fi. Why doesn’t CA get rid of wi-fi, cell phones and other causes of radiation?
The whole point of the new meters was better management of power and eliminating the need to send meter readers (who were bitched at, shot at, attacked by dogs, etc).
If it does, someone could just wire it up to an incendiary charge, duct-tape the charge to a Koran, put the whole thing in a steel box in their back yard, with a web-cam pointing at it, and then broadcast the details of their setup on the internet. Each time the thing burns a Koran, you get a new Koran and a new incendiary.
I had a smart meter once. They cut off my air-conditioner any time it got really hot. The idea was they’d cut it off during peak periods for “up to 15 minutes.” Then, they’d let your air conditioner run; you “won’t know it’s happening.” Well, at 100 degrees and 100% humidity, I timed it; or, started to. But it went off and stayed off. I called the centric company. Somewhere in the fine print it said that they could do whatever they pleased. I had it removed.
There’s a power problem? Build a couple of coal fired power plants. Problem fixed.
I would be suing, they never authorized the work in the first place.
This is theft.
“considering that they never gave their consent for installation”
The utilities get around this through existing easements. They’re allowed to do work on your property.
So nothing to do, per installation. Participation in the program (allowing them to cut your power during peak loads) is another story.
I imagine they’ll be stuck yelling at their local gov officials.
Surgical removal is indicated.
can’t these things be set up for one-way telemetry (send usage data to the utility) while disabling the Orwellian “central control” abilities coming the other way?
Tell them that some crazed greenie destroyed your meter with a baseball bat and you need a new one.