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Smart Meters ...... Big Brother be watching from your electric meter!

Big Dog

Large Member
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Not if I can help it!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JNFr_j6kdI"]Smart Meters - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uyt55mieYw"]Smart meters - Obama - YouTube[/ame]
 

Cowboy

Wait for it.
GOLD Site Supporter
No shit. :angry3: Both of our meters are still the old dial style and I read them myself and send the readings in 80% of the time cuz I dont even like them coming on my property. The other 20% of the time they send a supervisor out to read it to make sure its correct, even then he has to call me before walking onto the property.

I aint heard of this crap yet but it dont surprise me. I dont understand about the letter he talks about in the drop down box but I would sure like to have a copy in case they try to pull that bullshit on me. :doh:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Something tells me that will take some time to make it out to the rural areas. At least I hope so.

Honestly I'm seriously looking at putting up a combination of solar panels and a windmill. Probably piss my neighbors off having a windmill next door but I am giving it all very serious consideration, trying to figure out how to make it make sense. That will take me off the grid and then screw them all!
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
As an electrician for over 40 years I get asked questions about these meters all the time. For me, I don't have a problem with them. I hear the big brother arguments about them but I thing the benefits are going to outweigh the negatives.

Isolating local outages due to a cut out or two opening from a tree or branch will speed up restoration of power. The line crew will have a real good idea where the trouble spot is before they leave the yard.

Being able to much much better offer and promote off peak rates. This potentially huge for us up here as we can get various rates from Hydro Quebec and pick the best time to save money to charge the electric car (I do not own one) or to dry all those sheets and linen for my wife's business. :smile:

Yes they will now be able to isolate my usage better knowing how much I run the dryer, electric range or whatever if they care. The computers on the new cars will tell the dealer much more about our driving habits we probably care to have them know as well.


Pros & cons each way.
:smile::wink:
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Interesting. Good additional info TR. :thumb: You are sure right about the car computers. If you have onstar it's even worse. :eek:
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Something tells me that will take some time to make it out to the rural areas. At least I hope so.

Honestly I'm seriously looking at putting up a combination of solar panels and a windmill. Probably piss my neighbors off having a windmill next door but I am giving it all very serious consideration, trying to figure out how to make it make sense. That will take me off the grid and then screw them all!

It's a bold step being off the grid but of course it certainly can be done. Very expensive even if you do the work yourself. Materials are outrageous these days as we all know.

I know for us I prefer to just have an emergency set up here where I can run power at a reduced rate in an emergency for an extended period of time. We rarely have those long outages they have in southern New England because we keep our right of ways trimmed and try not to hug those branches and limbs like the flatlanders do. LOL.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Our utilities are underground here. We still have power failures!?!

We have a large generator, powered by natural gas, that will run most of the house, well pump, appliances, etc without much trouble, I'm simply trying to figure out a way to make wind/solar make sense. If I can do that, then off the grid I go.
 

Enceladus

Member
Site Supporter
I recently moved from the country to the city, (Country defined as no cable or DSL) but the rural water was read by a guy driving down the road with out getting out of his truck. While all of this is more efficient, it does have its down sides, like red light and speed cameras, soon big brother will be watching, monitoring, etc.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Pretty rural at my garage. They installed one last month. I'm not doing anything illegal and I'm not paranoid enough to think they would bother to check on my habits. As mentioned, your new car is giving out more personal info.

I feel bad for all the meter readers who lost thier jobs. I was kind of hoping to be a meter-reader when I have to go back to work in my old age.
 
I live off of the grid and have for 15 years now. It is considerably more expensive, time consuming and is a general pain in the butt. If and when they ever run power up my way I will eagerly stand by the road with my own smart meter if necessary. The limitations/expenses to generating your own electricity cannot be fully appreciated until you have journeyed down that road.

I get into this discussion all the time with folks who complain about the rising cost of their utilities and think living off of the grid is the way to go. Once we compare their yearly costs with just my fuel cost, then they start to see the light.:whistling: Then I add in the cost of the generator, oil, inverter, batteries, parts and the time I spend operating and maintaining the system and divide the whole sum by the limitations of what tools or appliances I can run and the package looks less and less attractive.

As far as the smart meters go, all they are doing is giving real time power use data and then transmitting that data wirelessly. Big deal. The guy in the first video blows it way out of proportion and is almost as ignorant as the guy in the second video. Ok he is not even close to being as ignorant as the second guy but you get my drift. The power companies and law enforcement have been using meter information for many many years to catch pot growers and other law breakers so no new news there.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
I live off of the grid and have for 15 years now. It is considerably more expensive, time consuming and is a general pain in the butt. If and when they ever run power up my way I will eagerly stand by the road with my own smart meter if necessary. The limitations/expenses to generating your own electricity cannot be fully appreciated until you have journeyed down that road.

I get into this discussion all the time with folks who complain about the rising cost of their utilities and think living off of the grid is the way to go. Once we compare their yearly costs with just my fuel cost, then they start to see the light.:whistling: Then I add in the cost of the generator, oil, inverter, batteries, parts and the time I spend operating and maintaining the system and divide the whole sum by the limitations of what tools or appliances I can run and the package looks less and less attractive.

As far as the smart meters go, all they are doing is giving real time power use data and then transmitting that data wirelessly. Big deal. The guy in the first video blows it way out of proportion and is almost as ignorant as the guy in the second video. Ok he is not even close to being as ignorant as the second guy but you get my drift. The power companies and law enforcement have been using meter information for many many years to catch pot growers and other law breakers so no new news there.

Yup, I've run across more than a few setups similar to yours. Most are up in the mountains quite a hike away from the grid. As you say quite a bit of maintenance. I have always been intrigued by them, but that is the tinkerer in me. As for those guys in the video, they just don't get it and never will. LOL.
 

squerly

Supported Ben Carson
GOLD Site Supporter
Once we compare their yearly costs with just my fuel cost, then they start to see the light.:whistling: Then I add in the cost of the generator, oil, inverter, batteries, parts and the time I spend operating and maintaining the system and divide the whole sum by the limitations of what tools or appliances I can run and the package looks less and less attractive.
I have grid power, but I like to tinker with solar too. I use it in one of my shops as well as to run dawn to dusk lights in areas where I don't have power. Also down at my front gate where I need power to run an assortment of emergency and motion lights as well as to operate the automatic gate. I can attest to the cost of this stuff and it's not for the faint of heart!
 
Solar and wind generators are defiantly a good source of alternative power. They can get expensive and take a while to pay for themselves but technology is getting better all the time too. There are many businesses and homes that use solar to supplement their grid power and can even sell the power back to the utility during peak generation. Now that is smart!
Many inverter/power stations have a "smart meter" built into them and some can download data to your computer so you can track the usage. Phantom loads are unnecessary and expensive drains to the system and can easily be found with the proper meter and good record keeping.
With todays energy needs and increasing costs, smart meters could be used to create a much more efficient grid. Of course if the government gets involved it will probably result in spending a dollar to save a dime.
 

grizzer

New member
Rural has had meter readers for well over a decade. my particular one is called a turtle in that is sends data 24/7 back over the power wires taking about 45 mins to send a complete profile.

The peak power units for AC and thermal mass heat operate on a UHF frequency that transmits off & on signals.

The biggest driver of increasing power costs is LEGISLATION.
 

SShepherd

New member
I almost sent our meter reader to "heavenly glory" about 3 years ago....

I'm not paranoid, I just don't think people need to know what I'm doing all the time.
 
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