https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/smart-meters.html
Why Stop Smart Meters? | Stop Smart Meters!
How Smart Are Smart Meters? | PBS NewsHour
Are these devices going to actually do any good? Or is it just invasion of privacy and or a health risk?
Thoughts?
Why Stop Smart Meters? | Stop Smart Meters!
How Smart Are Smart Meters? | PBS NewsHour
Are these devices going to actually do any good? Or is it just invasion of privacy and or a health risk?
Thoughts?
> Are these devices going to actually do any good? Or is it just invasion of privacy and or a health risk?
_I_ love them.
I do not think they are a health issue. Certainly the "smart" power is far tinier than the RAW power I need to run my lights and sound.
I *never* see a meter-reader. (Once, just after I bought the house.) Yet yesterday's consumption was available on the website. (Until the company was bought and the website fouled-up.) I assume the data is transmitted somewhere somehow, similar to cellphones. For system reasons, the meter can't be transmitting all the time.
No monthly "snoop". Not that I care: those old readers musta seen stranger things than my house.
Also it *appears* that the electric company now knows the full extent of power outages in a very few minutes.
_I_ love them.
I do not think they are a health issue. Certainly the "smart" power is far tinier than the RAW power I need to run my lights and sound.
I *never* see a meter-reader. (Once, just after I bought the house.) Yet yesterday's consumption was available on the website. (Until the company was bought and the website fouled-up.) I assume the data is transmitted somewhere somehow, similar to cellphones. For system reasons, the meter can't be transmitting all the time.
No monthly "snoop". Not that I care: those old readers musta seen stranger things than my house.
Also it *appears* that the electric company now knows the full extent of power outages in a very few minutes.
I have no knowledge at all of the US system but if they do it like it is done here chances are likely that the new kWh meters can't count back. The mechanical ones can rev CCW so when energy is fed back to the grid (if you have solar panels and an inverter) the meter was distracting instead of adding. Of course this also meant that self produced energy was worth just as much as the bought energy 
Corporations don't want that, stock holders and foreign company owners must see high profits and the money should flow through a diode in their direction Thank you globalisation. Stock holders have another idea when "green" is mentioned. The complete solar panel industry and way of execution is just a large money making scheme.
* Here no one sees any positive thing in these so companies try to make them popular by offering smart thermostats for house heating that also can be connected to the smart kWh meter. This way just one smart room thermostat gives insight in natural gas and electricity usage on a nice display. One then also connects to the web and can compare ones own energy usage with other houses in the neighbourhood, try to lower energy usage (futile). All added features that a person with more than 2 brain cells can do without. If one refuses the smart kWh meter the company can not do a thing. Especially farmers with roofs full of mechanical meters are quite stubborn.
Corporations don't want that, stock holders and foreign company owners must see high profits and the money should flow through a diode in their direction
Thank you globalisation. Stock holders have another idea when "green" is mentioned. The complete solar panel industry and way of execution is just a large money making scheme. * Here no one sees any positive thing in these so companies try to make them popular by offering smart thermostats for house heating that also can be connected to the smart kWh meter. This way just one smart room thermostat gives insight in natural gas and electricity usage on a nice display. One then also connects to the web and can compare ones own energy usage with other houses in the neighbourhood, try to lower energy usage (futile). All added features that a person with more than 2 brain cells can do without. If one refuses the smart kWh meter the company can not do a thing. Especially farmers with roofs full of mechanical meters are quite stubborn.
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Here a counter reason to NOT want them is the security which seems to be outdated and easy to manipulate. It also is costcutting as the former meter checker now is jobless.
I hope anyone sees that the supposed negative effects of the smart kWh meters sending RF/radio waves is just a smoke curtain to cover up their real drawbacks. It makes no sense to start about this while everyone has a smart phone, wireless router etc. and uses those every day.
One can expect anything from companies that exist in a symbiotic relationship with those regulating it
I hope anyone sees that the supposed negative effects of the smart kWh meters sending RF/radio waves is just a smoke curtain to cover up their real drawbacks. It makes no sense to start about this while everyone has a smart phone, wireless router etc. and uses those every day.
One can expect anything from companies that exist in a symbiotic relationship with those regulating it
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Electricity companies like smart meters because they pave the way for variable tariffs, so the generation costs (which vary from hour to hour) can be passed on to the customer. In extreme cases it makes it easier to shed load, either deliberately or accidentally. They also mean that all the meter readers can be sacked.
Politicians like smart meters because they believe that they can convince people that they will lead to cheaper power. They won't - well, not enough of a saving to pay for the meters.
My guess is that the main fans of smart meters are the people who make smart meters, and the 'consultants' who have managed to convince everyone else that they are a good thing.
The consumer is paying for the smart meters in his electricity bill whether he has one or not. In the UK the consumer can choose whether to have a smart meter or not, but he cannot choose whether to pay for it or not.
I have a smart meter, because the house I moved into already had one. It gives misleading information: what it describes as 'previous 12 months power' is actually 'previous 11 whole calendar months plus current month to date'. Similarly, 'previous 7 days' is actually 'previous 6 days plus current day usage'.
My concern about smart meters is how much interference they create, and how much interference they can cope with - I am a radio ham, although currently inactive. Those making a fuss about health are just being silly.
Politicians like smart meters because they believe that they can convince people that they will lead to cheaper power. They won't - well, not enough of a saving to pay for the meters.
My guess is that the main fans of smart meters are the people who make smart meters, and the 'consultants' who have managed to convince everyone else that they are a good thing.
The consumer is paying for the smart meters in his electricity bill whether he has one or not. In the UK the consumer can choose whether to have a smart meter or not, but he cannot choose whether to pay for it or not.
I have a smart meter, because the house I moved into already had one. It gives misleading information: what it describes as 'previous 12 months power' is actually 'previous 11 whole calendar months plus current month to date'. Similarly, 'previous 7 days' is actually 'previous 6 days plus current day usage'.
My concern about smart meters is how much interference they create, and how much interference they can cope with - I am a radio ham, although currently inactive. Those making a fuss about health are just being silly.
Actually for the UK its far more basic than that. We need to cut electricity consumption by a few percent to avoid brown outs as we are short generating capacity. That is the entire value of smart meters. It just took a decade for them to admit it.
Whether it will achieve that is of course up to end users.
Whether it will achieve that is of course up to end users.
From what I have read there is no data to support the initial claim of 4% energy savings. Also as mentioned most people with a smart meter notice an increase in their bill, not a decrease.
I don't know about health risks unless maybe someone is in close proximity to a whole bank of them.
I do worry about RF pollution if every house is fitted with them.
I also see people's claims that the SMPS in these are polluting the grid.
I am sure the reasons they are being installed are for the companies making them to cash in for the time being and as mentioned not have to pay someone to go out and read the meter so it kills seomes job just like the self checkout at stores.
I am still trying to read and sort through data to determine what is going on.
All good posts so far!!
I don't know about health risks unless maybe someone is in close proximity to a whole bank of them.
I do worry about RF pollution if every house is fitted with them.
I also see people's claims that the SMPS in these are polluting the grid.
I am sure the reasons they are being installed are for the companies making them to cash in for the time being and as mentioned not have to pay someone to go out and read the meter so it kills seomes job just like the self checkout at stores.
I am still trying to read and sort through data to determine what is going on.
All good posts so far!!
Since when are the households really relevant ? The large industrial companies take the bulk of energy. I think it is good to design and think green but see a lot of energy being wasted in useless old fashioned industrial processes. The smallest user pays the most even when fitting silly 1 Watt LEDs in every room. The main portion of the bill is not actual usage but the delivery costs. So changing to very little energy usage seems counterproductive in a way Foreign companies enter the market and ask licenses for 160 MW and don't even pay taxes here.
The anglosaxon way of dealing with these matters is to always think of costs and profits. In the past we had the thinking that energy and water were services to our people but somewhere in between the same thinking came to here just as those companies. Before that energy delivery as a service, continuity, "Break even" and creating jobs was all that counted. Now it is just as few jobs as possible and as much profit as possible flowing to the already rich ones. We now stop delivering natural gas as main source of energy for heating (this while we have one of the largest natural gas fields worldwide) as export is more profitable.
Energy is the future milk cow as no one can do without. One can sell the car and avoid telephone bills but one can not live without energy. If I follow the current way of thinking then one must bleed to receive energy.
Foreign companies enter the market and ask licenses for 160 MW and don't even pay taxes here.The anglosaxon way of dealing with these matters is to always think of costs and profits. In the past we had the thinking that energy and water were services to our people but somewhere in between the same thinking came to here just as those companies. Before that energy delivery as a service, continuity, "Break even" and creating jobs was all that counted. Now it is just as few jobs as possible and as much profit as possible flowing to the already rich ones. We now stop delivering natural gas as main source of energy for heating (this while we have one of the largest natural gas fields worldwide) as export is more profitable.
Energy is the future milk cow as no one can do without. One can sell the car and avoid telephone bills but one can not live without energy. If I follow the current way of thinking then one must bleed to receive energy.
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Large users can (and often are) incentivised to take power when there is an excess and can be asked to load dump. Domestic users are harder. We used to have a think called 'economy 7' which charged up storage heaters and heated the water tank overnight when excess capacity was available controlled off a subcarrier on LW radio (radio 4). The replacement for this is horrendously complex.
10 years ago the big worry was electric cars and melting the aluminium under the road.
Note: following statement is not political, just engineering view. Stop subsidising wind and solar. Build a suitable baseload of nuclear and then there is not a problem. When a GW level storage medium that isn't a lake comes along we will be even better off.
10 years ago the big worry was electric cars and melting the aluminium under the road.
Note: following statement is not political, just engineering view. Stop subsidising wind and solar. Build a suitable baseload of nuclear and then there is not a problem. When a GW level storage medium that isn't a lake comes along we will be even better off.
+1
Like you I know too much. A solar panel will never gain back the energy it costs to produce it in its entire life. It also costs a lot of water. It is just business, making money and stock holders. Some switch over to electrical heating as solar panels are subsidized while natural gas is way greener.
Wind energy is the best joke in years. Low efficiency and high maintenance costs. The common layman thinks they are a solution but they are not. They are symbolic.
I don't understand what you mean with the aluminium thing and GW.
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the under road wiring which ISTR is 440V is Al. If everyone buys a tesla and puts it on to charge at night, the wiring melts!
GW wise, there are only a couple of high energy storage facilities in UK. The famous one is Dinorwig in Wales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station. This can eat or dump around 1.7GW (and jumpstart the grid if it all goes pear shaped). We have run out of mountains suitable for hollowing out in UK, so waiting for some awesome battery to come along. And have been waiting for about 30 years
GW wise, there are only a couple of high energy storage facilities in UK. The famous one is Dinorwig in Wales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station. This can eat or dump around 1.7GW (and jumpstart the grid if it all goes pear shaped). We have run out of mountains suitable for hollowing out in UK, so waiting for some awesome battery to come along. And have been waiting for about 30 years
the under road wiring which ISTR is 440V is Al. If everyone buys a tesla and puts it on to charge at night, the wiring melts!
GW wise, there are only a couple of high energy storage facilities in UK. The famous one is Dinorwig in Wales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station. This can eat or dump around 1.7GW (and jumpstart the grid if it all goes pear shaped). We have run out of mountains suitable for hollowing out in UK, so waiting for some awesome battery to come along. And have been waiting for about 30 years
Different country different challenges it seems. We have quite extreme high speed electric charging stations (finding the true numbers is hard but I recall 500V at 175A max !!) along main roads but too light copper wiring at common households. So slow all night charging at home. The Outlander is subsidized and therefor THE car to lease for companies but most use it on petrol and then it uses a liter per 8 km
Peak shaving here is done by having large companies that own large generators feeding the grid (remote controlled).
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