Posted on 06/24/2011 10:23:26 PM PDT by smokingfrog
HOUSTON -- After KHOU 11 News aired the story of a man who said a smart meter installation ruined his AC, many people have come forward to share similar stories.
It's been a long couple of weeks for a Sugar Land man who only wants to be identified as Mike. "This is basically the first thing I noticed. Just trouble," he said.
He said first it was the alarm, but things just keep going wrong, next was the thermostat.
“Just all screwed up. Scrambled up," Mike said.
It was like a laundry list of home appliance disaster. He said his modem and computer were also malfunctioning. There was one thing in common with all of it.
"It's just been one appliance after another, and it has all been since the smart meter has been here," Mike said.
Mike is not alone, Zach Foster said that a smart meter installation caused his AC unit to fail -- specifically the start capacitor.
Mike said he has an AC problem too.
“Four or five years old, should not have been bad, had to replace both the starters on the compressor and the fan," he said.
One commenter on KHOU.com could sympathize:
“I have had to replace the circuit boards on three appliances and a printer all less than three years old. This has cost over $1,500 so far."
Another Centerpoint customer complained online, saying, "I cannot even turn on my air conditioner since the power flow is not reliable."
Centerpoint says that there have been about 500 complaints about smart meter installations here -- that's with 1.3 million installations so far.
There have been complaints about smart meters and appliance outages in North Carolina, California, Illinois, Florida, Virginia, Maine, and Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
Was it mandatory to install??
In my town it is or you can pay to have your meter read.
We all know the real reason behind “smart meters”.
It’s so the govt will one day be able to ration your electricity.
Rolling blackouts make large numbers of people very angry simultaneously.
But under the new, improved “smart meters” the gummint will be able to switch off your juice on an individual basis.
“Was it mandatory to install??”
Only if you want electricity in your house...it’s comepletely voluntary you see..
There is no “right to electricity”...
/sarc
Have you seen this?
http://www.augustreview.com/issues/technocracy/technocracy_endgame:_global_smart_grid_20110609169/
Imagine some third world based un bureaucrat in charge of cooling North America. Oh yeah, it gonna be fine.
I think TXU wants $70 for the damn things, so nobama can turn your juice up and down and you can only sit and watch.
“Smart meters”
Can they do my math homework?
Seize the language and you seize the debate, to me just one more reason to leave grid power if at all possible.
It’s time to get a natural gas fired electric generator for the home.
For us it was voluntary and they’d pay you a big ole $25 bucks. It was for the church and for some reason they sent him to me and I listened to his spiel and I was interested but said we needed to think about it.
Well, anyway, there was a guy in the office who had experience with them and he said we needed to tell them not only, no but heck, no.
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Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Unlike home energy monitors, smart meters can gather data for remote reporting. en.wikipedia.org
Example of a smart meter in use in Europe that has the ability to reduce load, disconnect-reconnect remotely, and interface to gas & water meters
Never occurred to me. I just looked at them, and they sound so worth the modest price. Now, I soooo want one.
We have the basic type of 'smart meter' that only sends usage data back to the office. That part I like.
Previously, we "got to" read the meter for free, and record that, and the date read, on the bill stub that was sent in with the current payment. Once or twice a year, somebody that had other line or right of way work to do in the general area would do a 'check' reading to keep customers honest.
OTOH, a load-controlling meter is something else entirely. No, thanks; but N.O., NO!
I love being on a co-op, where we at least noddingly know the Board & management...and if we don't like the job they're doing, can vote them out. Quite a change from having been, at various times, on municipal systems, as well as being a peon customer of PG&E, SoCal Edison, and even a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Scottish Power. (YES, based in Scotland, but they bought out several smaller U.S. power companies.)
Bottom line, I liked that particular system a lot and it saved me a boat load of money. For example, the high energy cost in my climate was in the winter. Before the smart meter, electricity cost was about $300/month and with the system, the cost was reduced to about $90/month.
A “black box” was mounted next to the breaker box in the garage and had a telephone line to it for the communications modem. The modem dialed the power company several times an hour and uploaded my KWH usage and downloaded a variable rate update. The concept was simplicity itself. I had the same variable rate industrial electricity users commonly have. Depending on the load rate the utility was at, my power cost in 4 tiers ranged from 0.5 cents at the low rate and 10 cents per hour at the emergency rate (like a major load on the utility combined with a power plant dropping offline). It was my choice via the controller (a real fancy programmable thermostat) on what temperature settings to use on the HVAC based on both time of day and on the cost of power to me. For example, if I was at the low rate, I would set the heat to a greater temperature and if it was more expensive power I would set the heat to a lower temperature. The hot water heater was enabled/disabled only by the controller and when enabled, would operate normally off of the hot water heater's water temperature thermostat. For example, on weekdays when everyone was at work, I set the controller to enable the hot water heater from 5AM to 8AM and 6PM to 11PM.
The components of that system were very simple in concept and could not in them damage the HVAC or hot water heater. Interfaces were to the HVAC and hot water heater only and consisted of a double pole, single throw relay at the hot water heater that would require a permissive signal from the smart meter system in addition to the water heater thermostat. The system's controller for both the HVAC and the hot water heater were built into the programmable thermostat that hung in the hallway so no extra components were needed for the HVAC.
As I mentioned, this very simple system saved me a boatload of money on electricity cost. When I moved from Virginia to Texas, I contacted my TX power company to request the Honeywell system. Once I finally found someone that was familiar with it the person told me 1) that they were not set up with the infrastructure (computer communications) to support the system so it was not available and 2) probably never would because it would cost them too much revenue because of lower electricity demand.
I work with industrial controls and there is noting in these functions that is uncommon or inherently damaging. Now though for example, if the system was set to throttle the fan on the air conditioner unit and that fan motor was not rated for variable speed operation then the motor is going to have a short service life. As another example, if the installation was sloppy or it had the afore mentioned cheap crap components then “dirty” electricity could be sent to the house and cause a failure to electronics or power supplies in things like the electronics in the TV or microwave or even the washing machine.
I confess that I am skeptical that very many of the claimed problems are due to the newly installed smart meter systems. it is certainly fair game though to question the consent or lack there of in what information is shared or external controls on consumption are appropriate.
Then they will put in a 'smart' gas meter.
This makes me wonder if these people had something 'rigged-up' that was exposed by the smart meter.
thats great if u have a well in your back yard
bump
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