Smart meter have been in South Africa since early in 1993. We have been exporting them to various other countries one of the biggest customers is India, Pakistan and other African countries and many are pre-paid meters, where you can buy electrcity on you phone, purchase tokens etc. Pre-paid meters are specifically targeted to people in lower income groups that has a budget and plan their electricity use and pre-purchase their tokens. That way you have massive savings because it is an expense before the fact
Most of the non-prepaid meters use power line comms used to communicate with the power utility that bills you on the readings made by the meter. Split meters where the actual meter is on the pole and the display unit in you home uses low power RF and also powerline comms.
The smart display is mainly for your own interest as the power utility reads the meter remotely at specified intervals and bills you accordingly. Smart meters according to law has an accuracy of one watt/hour and the power it takes to run is by law not measured for your account so the utility pays for that not the customer.
It is difficult to claim health risks connected to smart meters unless you stick your fingers into the power socket.
Most of the non-prepaid meters use power line comms used to communicate with the power utility that bills you on the readings made by the meter. Split meters where the actual meter is on the pole and the display unit in you home uses low power RF and also powerline comms.
The smart display is mainly for your own interest as the power utility reads the meter remotely at specified intervals and bills you accordingly. Smart meters according to law has an accuracy of one watt/hour and the power it takes to run is by law not measured for your account so the utility pays for that not the customer.
It is difficult to claim health risks connected to smart meters unless you stick your fingers into the power socket.
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> Home wi-fi is failing because too many people now have it.
This must be true many places.
I go to town and I can see 12-18 wi-fi.
My home wi-fi sometimes sucks and there's only me and a 0.5-bar neighbor 250 feet away. wi-fi trouble does not correlate with microwave oven, no baby-monitor here, the wireless backup camera gets power from the rear backup lights on the van. The only "large EMI" is a major buzz on the AM band due to crappy power lines. Maybe that carries into the GHz band, but I doubt it. We finally do have cell-phone but not strong.
I think junk gear drives good gear out of the market. Everybody complains, but everybody just buys what the store pushes.
This must be true many places.
I go to town and I can see 12-18 wi-fi.
My home wi-fi sometimes sucks and there's only me and a 0.5-bar neighbor 250 feet away. wi-fi trouble does not correlate with microwave oven, no baby-monitor here, the wireless backup camera gets power from the rear backup lights on the van. The only "large EMI" is a major buzz on the AM band due to crappy power lines. Maybe that carries into the GHz band, but I doubt it. We finally do have cell-phone but not strong.
I think junk gear drives good gear out of the market. Everybody complains, but everybody just buys what the store pushes.
Last year I was in a country ruled by a certain dictator where someone had the bright idea to use smart pre-paid meters for water usage. I stayed at a place where the owner was cut off many times during my stay as he was a commercial user and the tokens were clearly meant for residential users.
Massive savings, yeah.... many phone calls and much time loss. Expense after the fact
I learnt many curse words of the local language. Those bloody smart phones will haunt us more every year. Decided to quit using them only to discover I can't do my banking anymore without one.As a dutchie I really dislike the idea that people in trouble can be shut down from essential stuff in life. In the old days this was forbidden by law !
@ PRR: Maybe a firmware update of the router helps. I solved troubles a few times like this. It comes to my eye that many recent 300N products have frequent firmware updates as testing the product seems to be the task of the end user. It also is important to check the revision number of your router as many manufacturers make a product with different chipsets but with the same type number... Flashing the wrong firmware = time consuming trouble. I have updated thousands of devices with new firmware while many think "if it is not broken don't fix it" but that is old news these days as many products are simply not ready when they leave the factory. I got the nick name Flash Gordon by former colleagues because of my habit flashing/updating every device that was around
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Bring back all energy companies to state owned and sell energy at cost I say.
Lower prices, better continuity, more jobs, better maintenance, expense after use etc.
* Spoke to a (foreign) energy company guy recently who told me private users should be glad to be able to buy energy at all as for his company it was not too profitable. Clearly this guy had forgotten how those companies started.
Lower prices, better continuity, more jobs, better maintenance, expense after use etc.
* Spoke to a (foreign) energy company guy recently who told me private users should be glad to be able to buy energy at all as for his company it was not too profitable. Clearly this guy had forgotten how those companies started.
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Well we had energy companies here that were solely for service to the people. It is definitely not our system to always think of loss/profit and growth. Energy was not a question of making money. It can best be described as the Rhineland model versus the Anglosaxon model. Too bad the Anglosaxon model is winning because of aggressive buyouts of companies.
Today we have sold our energy companies to (mostly) foreign companies that think different so to speak.
Today we have sold our energy companies to (mostly) foreign companies that think different so to speak.
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Given the cost of new power stations you make more money by reducing consumption*. Bear in mind that in many countries smart meters are NOT a choice. The utilities are mandated. The choice is that we, the consumers can tell them to foxtrot oscar (With thanks to the Dutch for making a fuss about it).
* Yes I know generation, distribution and sales are seperate entities in many countries. But as I said earlier the entire business case in UK now is one less new nuke.
Forced upon us by the EU. Total scam only opening the market for even more foreign companies. This while many EU members still keep energy fully in state hands. Rules apparently are easy to bend. When just thinking strategically: what well-thinking country would sell one of its most important assets to another country ?
I would like to see calculations of that one less nuclear station. Chances are likely France is covering up for the peak power. Nuclear power !
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