Arrested Over A "Smart Meter"
 

Saw this today. Is it worth getting arrested over?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/24/woman-arrested-while-refusing-smart-meter-installation-on-her-property-tells-us-her-story/

What I have heard is the effects the smart meters until the occupants of the house or houses.

One site lists the effects of smart meters:

http://stopsmartmeters.org/why-stop-smart-meters/

It is a hot issue here in California for sure. I have opted out (which is an option we have) of the program but it is due to my concern that the Smart Meter is unable to go backwards, something that is essential for me because I have a solar PV system that produces more energy than I use, and the meter must run backwards. If it doesn't run backwards I won't get full credit for the energy my system produces. The RF exposure is a drop in the bucket considering all of the exposure we have from all of the devices we use and live around daily (like the laptop with the wireless connection that I am typing on right now.)

I want to pose one question to anyone concerned about bills going up after getting these meters.

How old was the analog meter that was there previously?

I know for a fact that a lot of analog meters are upwards of 50 years old. I worked for the electric company here for 6 years, 2.5 of which were actually installing these meters. The old meters never get tested during their lifespan for accuracy. They are completely mechanical. What happens to mechanical devices that are 50 years old? Do they run like they did when they were brand new?

Just my $0.02 for what it worth. I no longer work for the company, due to the installation project of 3.4 million meters being finished. They let all of the installers go, as well as the few meter readers that were left. Too many people to place into positions that weren't there.

Hey Viking, do you know who your meter was made by? Is it a Landis&Gyr meter? They do actually make meters that measure what gets put back into the grid from those like yourself with solar systems.

From what I read in the Bakersfield area they did temporarily install some meters in series, both analog and Smart Meter, and found that they did not read the same usage over the same time but the utility blew it off. I will see if I can find the story as it is a couple of years old. There was also a case where a guy in one house was being charged for the usage in another house in the vicinity. Apparently the meter installer had swapped the meters and the RF communications had no way of telling which one was where. The homeowner was paying the bill for a multi-family dwelling which had a significantly higher rate of usage. again, I will have to dig up the story.

That has happened here a couple of times. If that happens, it's always best to call the electric company to verify what meter you are supposed to have. Every meter has its own ID number.

Mine is a GE KVC2S, it is a bi-directional meter, not a Smart Meter. It must be read manually. In California we can opt out of a Smart Meter, it costs $75 and we have to pay $6 a month to have it read.

AFAIK, there are no Smart Meters that are bi-directional. There is also the problem that a Smart Meter cannot differentiate between what is consumed and what is produced on the customer's side of the meter. One of the purported advantages of the Smart Meter is that it "allows" the customer to see when their usage is highest so that they can adjust their habits to use more energy when the demand is lower. With us, we work from home so our usage is not typical, also we use more energy during the day when most other people are at work, which is also the time when our solar PV system is typically generating the most energy.

Oh, and our old analog meter (which also cannot run backwards) was installed when we re-built the house in 1991 after the old house was destroyed in the 1989 earthquake, so it was not that old.

Here is something on the opt-out program available in CA: http://turn.org/issues/energy/item/446-opting-out-of-smart-meters.html