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How magnetic force led PGW to cut off a customer (Meter Tampering?)
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 04/09/2016 | Andrew Maykuth

Posted on 04/09/2016 8:39:06 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

The Philadelphia Gas Works shut off Ruth Mathieu-Alce's service 14 months ago, after PGW workers discovered a suspicious device on the gas meter at her Lawncrest home

PGW said the power converter tampered with the meter by emitting a magnetic force that caused it to dramatically underreport fuel usage.

Mathieu-Alce proclaimed her innocence and filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

On Thursday, the PUC upheld an administrative law judge's finding that PGW had failed to prove that the power adapter caused her meter to run slowly. It ordered the utility to restore her service.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: meter
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1 posted on 04/09/2016 8:39:06 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen
"PGW spokesman Barry O'Sullivan said a magnet would interfere with the amount of energy use recorded on the electronic wireless transmitter on top of each meter, which sends data to the billing system. But the gas meter itself still would accurately record consumption."

Anyone familiar with this type of device that would interfere with the wireless transmitter causing it to send data different from what was collected? Seems like doublespeak from the PGW, but I'm always open to new things.

2 posted on 04/09/2016 8:46:19 AM PDT by Purdue77 ("Hillary for Prison, 2016.")
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To: Purdue77

search youtube there are lots of interesing videos.


3 posted on 04/09/2016 8:48:52 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Good for her.

More power to her.


4 posted on 04/09/2016 8:57:50 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Raycpa

I see what you did there . . .


5 posted on 04/09/2016 9:01:13 AM PDT by BraveMan
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To: Raycpa

“Good for her. More power to her.”

You condone theft? REALLY!


6 posted on 04/09/2016 9:02:35 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Purdue77

“Anyone familiar with this type of device that would interfere with the wireless transmitter causing it to send data different from what was collected? Seems like doublespeak from the PGW, but I’m always open to new things. “

According to the article, some winter months she has a transmitted usage of ZERO. However, the meter still records the actual usage and they have billed her for over $6k for that usage.


7 posted on 04/09/2016 9:06:35 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

I got that. My last two homes had electronic transmitters allowing power company to sit in their easy chairs while receiving my data. I was just wondering how does installing a magnet prevent the transmitter from sending the actual collected data. What about the magnetic field is altering the data collected causing the transmitter to reduce the reporting of the amount collected. I understand with the old style meters slowing down the meter itself, but I got the impression that wasn’t what the PGW official was discussing. If I’m wrong, so be it.


8 posted on 04/09/2016 9:30:20 AM PDT by Purdue77 ("Hillary for Prison, 2016.")
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To: Purdue77

“on the gas meter to boost his TV signal”


You can take a Haitian out of the blacks,
but you can’t take the black out of a Haitian.


9 posted on 04/09/2016 9:43:49 AM PDT by sparklite2 ( "The white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism." -Jonah Goldberg)
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To: Purdue77

My rental house has a radio head water meter, which can be read remotely. Before it was installed the tenants almost always had usage above the amount included in basic service without additional charge. Since the installation only the minimum has been billed with no overages. After seeing that for a few months I got in touch with the water department and asked them to check the meter, not wanting my tenants to suddenly get hit with a huge bill somewhere down the road.

The technician inspected the unit and said it was working properly. But the household consists of mom, dad and four daughters, and there is a washer. Sounds like something’s off. I’m wondering if the tenants have some sort of device like that described in the article...naah, they’re not that savvy.


10 posted on 04/09/2016 9:44:12 AM PDT by JimRed (Is it 1776 yet? TERM LIMITS, now and forever! Build the Wall, NOW!)
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To: Purdue77

On the days when your meter can be used as a meat slicer...

The proper application a of an external magnet makes for eddy current braking.

I made one for my bicycle rollers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_brake


11 posted on 04/09/2016 9:51:13 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (Looks like it's pretty hairy.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

that’s what I was thinking. Should be similar to braking system on exercise bike.


12 posted on 04/09/2016 9:56:54 AM PDT by Purdue77 ("Hillary for Prison, 2016.")
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To: Purdue77

Seems like you could modify it to make her pay more. Just for fun of course.


13 posted on 04/09/2016 9:58:01 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Purdue77

Two cases.

One was a magnet but no details other than a spokesperson says that the wireless transmitter may be sending out bogus data.

The other was a ‘precision dc power supply’. Who knows what was inside it.


14 posted on 04/09/2016 10:09:21 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: JimRed

Some of the new water meters being installed in many locations can run backwards at times. Not that the meter runs backwards, but the readings do.


15 posted on 04/09/2016 10:19:41 AM PDT by Beach333
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To: BraveMan; TexasGator

I see what you did there . . .


16 posted on 04/09/2016 10:56:13 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: TexasGator
According to the article, some winter months she has a transmitted usage of ZERO. However, the meter still records the actual usage and they have billed her for over $6k for that usage.

Many years ago, this neighbor would wait for the electrical meter to be read, then he would pull it out and put it in upside down and it would run backwards. Then after 10 days, put it back in right.

So in 10 more days it was back to where it was, then the really amount to be charged went on the meter.

He said he got his hands on some lead seals so the meter always looked like it was secure. Maybe he was just bragging.

17 posted on 04/09/2016 1:30:40 PM PDT by Dustoff45 (Make a new Declaration of Dependence on our constitution.)
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To: Purdue77
Seems like doublespeak from the PGW, but I'm always open to new things.

Sounds kind of speculative to me. A static magnetic field, like that created by a magnet isn't going to interfere with an RF transmitter.

At least one manufacturer of gas meter transmitters indicates that their product will detect magnetic tampering. Perhaps they use some kind of motion detection scheme based on magnetic coupling, since the fundamental metering strategy is to measure the motion of a bellows as gas flows through it, and that sensor can be confused by a strong magnetic field.

In my experience employees at gas utilities sometimes seem to have a narrow way of thinking. In the days of manual reading I once got a gas bill with an impossible amount of gas consumption, where one of the higher digits in the "reading" had changed, when lower digits hadn't. It appeared to me to be an obvious typo or reading error, so I called the gas company.

The guy they sent out read the meter and promptly announced that I must have set it back - since now the same digit was what it always had been in prior months. No amount of explaining how the math worked, or how the corrected reading made sense compared to our normal usage would change his opinion. It took a half a dozen phone calls and another visit by a gas company guy before they finally agreed with what was obvious in the first place.

Some of their arguments were laughable. When I tried to explain that it didn't make sense for our gas usage to have increased by a factor of 100 over one month they suggested we may have been taking longer showers.

PGW's explanation might come from the same set of talking points.

18 posted on 04/09/2016 1:49:26 PM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: Kid Shelleen

Check out smart meters and I think you will be very surprised at what they can do.


19 posted on 04/09/2016 1:55:49 PM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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To: freeandfreezing

As someone who worked for 30 years for a gas company, and who saw and heard customers pull off one outrage after another, all I can say is that most customers are as honest as they can get away with. That breeds contempt by many employees. You have no idea the scams customers pull. It tends to make most employees rather jaded.


20 posted on 04/09/2016 2:53:16 PM PDT by burghguy
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