Sedona AZ (December 30, 2012) – Smart Meters. Have you heard about them? What do they do? Why are we being asked to allow them to be installed at our homes and work place?. What benefit do they provide? Are there any risks involved with Smart Meters? Where did they come from? Why should we care?
These are a few of the concerns many are asking expressing as the Smart Meter proliferates our daily life. There are too many unanswered questions to address in one story, so we will begin the unraveling process one step at a time. Baby steps, they say.
Firstly, what is the technology that drives Smart Meters? In the Verde Valley every home or building that uses electricity you will find a meter that reads the amount of electricity you have used in a certain period of time. Your friendly meter reader (my favorite reader always had treats for my dog) will come to your home or business each month and “reads” your meter to assess how much electricity you used in the past period. You would then get a bill in the mail for the electricity you consumed. Seems pretty simple. The Smart meter will replace that old meter (called an analogue meter) by taking readings of your electric consumption and transmit that information using RF (radio Frequency) every 10 minutes or so. This information monitors your consumption minute by minute to the electric company. The issues that are raised are:
Why is this important?
Will my monthly bill increase?
What about those meter readers?
Are they safe?
We don’t know why this is important. The obvious answer would be so the power company can monitor your usage. And why is monitoring important? There are stories out there that say if the power company sees increases in your usage, you must be doing something illegal. There is a new generation of “Smart” appliances that transmit usage via RF through your Smart Meter. Why is it important how many loads of laundry you do in a day?
RF (Radio Frequency) energy can be harmful. The unanswered question is how much is harmful? Do the Smart Meters push us over the safe limit? From the FCC.gov website:
“Biological effects can result from exposure to RF energy. Biological effects that result from heating of tissue by RF energy are often referred to as “thermal” effects. It has been known for many years that exposure to very high levels of RF radiation can be harmful due to the ability of RF energy to heat biological tissue rapidly. This is the principle by which microwave ovens cook food. Exposure to very high RF intensities can result in heating of biological tissue and an increase in body temperature. Tissue damage in humans could occur during exposure to high RF levels because of the body’s inability to cope with or dissipate the excessive heat that could be generated. Two areas of the body, the eyes and the testes, are particularly vulnerable to RF heating because of the relative lack of available blood flow to dissipate the excess heat load.”
Your monthly bill will absolutely increase. Those pesky analogue meters are not as accurate as digital meters. Your meter reader has to visually view each meter and the little numbered dials are averaged. Digital meters are exact. No margin of error. Average readings are sloppy and err to the customer’s favor. Ask anyone who has a Smart Meter. Your monthly bill will increase.
Smart Meters are the result of Stimulus Money. Smart Meters are manufactured in China (with stimulus dollars) and the meter readers are no longer needed. The end result is a new technology, shipped overseas for manufacture, which lays off workers in the US and benefits the electric companies.
Smart Meters are not UL (Underwriters Laboratories) approved. They are proven to cause fires in certain applications.
57 Cities in California have banned Smart Meters.
The big issue is this: what are we being forced to install these meters when there is any doubt about their safety or financial repercussions?
Some people are refusing the Smart Meters. This is called opting out . Only thing is that opting out will add to your monthly bill. The Arizona Corporation Commission is considering legislation that will allow you to opt out…for a fee.
Any plan that says you have a cloud with silver lining is only preparing you for the coming storm. Get your umbrellas ready.
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4 Comments
Excellent overview. Thank you very much for publishing this information. Here is some additional information that our neighbors may find helpful in understanding the breadth and scope of this issue.
1. In actuality, our electric consumption has decreased and is expected to do so over the next 8 years, or so (www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=6570 and . One reason given in the radio broadcast is due to the advent of digital technology which is almost exclusively in use now
2. Utility bills increase because the ‘smart’ meter; is designed to communicate 24/7 with all of the other wireless devices, such as your cell phone, IPAD, IPOD, cell towers, routers, relays, etc., and not just at intervals . During a California PUC smart meter workshop before a Judge, a smart meter manufacturer said that signals can travel between meters for 1,200 feet, unobstructed https://eon3emfblog.net/cpuc-smart-meter-opt-out-workshop-in-6-parts/).
3. There is no Federal mandate requiring that consumers be coerced or forced into accepting these meters; only Congressional Acts, which is one of the reasons that “opt-out” is not appropriate, in terms of the intent of the law. The second reason is that there is no escaping the range of frequencies because even if your neighbor “opts-out” you cannot escape the frequencies and the utility company could still put a meter outside your bedroom window on a pole.
It is not called a ‘smart’ grid, or mesh for no reason; all WiFi devices are designed to work together within that framework.
4. About the data the utility companies want to collect::
a. No data is secure and any system can be hacked. While privacy may not be an issue for one person, it most certainly is for business entities who are dealing with “confidential,” or “proprietary.” etc. information. The largest hacking took place at the end of October when seventy-five percent of the State of South Carolina’s citizens’ records in its Department of Revenue were hacked by the Soviet Union. Citizens’ personal information along with their tax returns, credit card numbers, etc. were stolen (http:rt.com/usa/news/hacker-south-carolina-social-security-credit-400/).
The State of South Carolina has had to spend billions of dollars purchasing individual insurance policies to cover all of these citizens for the rest of their lives. If hackers could break into the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and take that information and have those people vulnerable for life, do you think a power company, once that information is taken is ever even going to admit to it, let alone put a life long insurance policy on you?
b. The profitable industry these days is the sale of “big” data. That is the data that large groups of consumers’ produce. This is the ‘new’ commodity. The essential reason utility companies want to use these devices is to create a new revenue stream from selling our collective data and eliminating all of the labor and machine-related costs.
I am a recently retired electrical engineer. I am very unhappy about this biased, “conspiracy theory” type fear based presentation. Admittedly, I did not watch the hour long video, but there was no balance to this presentation.
We seriously need a smart grid to help reduce power consumption and efficiency in our system. This is a first and local step to accomplish this. The power companies will collect data about one’s power usage. So what? That is the idea. Why generate peak power when it is not needed or bring extra energy on line if not needed. Minute by minute. It isn’t cheap to bring a power plant on line for a few minutes. And then storms cause havoc with distribution. The RF energy is less than 1 % going through your head using a cell phone! OK, so no proof exists that this energy is safe. Nobody has documented cell phone damage either.
Come on. Where is the balanced reporting!
With all due respect Ross Hendrix, you need to do your research I have tacked for the past year and a half.
https://www.pge.com/myhome/edusafety/systemworks/rf/facts/
The signal from a SmartMeter™ typically lasts between 2 and 20 milliseconds. These intermittent signals total, on average, 45 seconds per day. For the other 23 hours and 59 minutes of the day, the meter is not transmitting any RF.
Sooooo…….
A millisecond (from milli- and second; abbreviation: ms) is a thousandth (1/1,000) of a second.[1] Its symbol is ms.
45,000 milliseconds a day divided by 2 to 20 milliseconds per signal equals 2,250 to 22,500 intermittent signals per day through your electical wiring. Like a little internal cell tower. Little doses of RF. Unproven technology. No thanks.