There is almost always someone at home here and I really don’t like the idea of a radio transmitter attached to our house. Besides it should be none of the energy company’s business how much I want to spend in electrical or gas power. Evidently they now want to make their business.
I don’t disagree with you one bit. It should not be mandatory. I however found it was a good fit for me and saved me money as I lived alone and worked. Honestly the times I was a home during the day and worked from home, which was quite often at my last job, I noticed very little difference and had my programmable thermostat programmed such as the heat or air was turned down anyway and if I found it too hot or too cold, I could still override the thermostat and the smart meter and set the temperature to where I wanted. It’s not as if BGE is going to completely turn off the air or heat at their whim.
Don’t you have a hand held radio transmitter called a cell phone? The system is essentially a cell phone that transmits preprogrammed data.