One of my friends sends me an email about a local state rep who is preseinting to the Md. Public Service Commission a "case" to allow people to reject smart meters. Nowhere does it say what kind of meter, and I'm thinking it might means taximeter or galvanometer, but I guess it means electric meters. Or gas meters?
Is there any reason to reject one?
BTW, the state rep also has a 2-hour show each week on the local wacko radio station.
There are at least three schools of thought
#3 is probably driving the other two.
I suppose the electric company would charge you some extra fee because someone would have to come and read it.
Agree-- but you missed #4 - they are new so they must be evil.
I was surprised that I didn't notice when they replaced my 30yr old electric meter that I didn't notice a spike.
My water went up a bit when they replaced that 40+ yr old one-- but not enough to worry about.
Jim
One of the features of smart meters is they are remotely read.
My thoughts too.
Same here, our old meter was around 30 years old when they replaced it with a smart meter maybe two years ago. There was no difference in the bill.
actually its a spying thing, they can pick up conversations in the home, and send it back over the power line. thank terrorists:)
The often-stated case for smart meters (for electricity) is that they allow for time-of-use billing.
In other words, the cost of electricity changes during the course of a day, and smart meters allow utility companies to more equitably charge individual home owers for the electricity they use.
But this represents a false economy when applied on such a small scale as the individual home.
The REAL unspoken reason for smart meters is that they save manpower costs (meter-reading costs) for electric utilities.
The main problem is this:
Over the life of the meter, the meter will save the utility company maybe $100 in meter-reading and other costs (remote turn on/off, etc). However, this is offset by the up-front cost of buying the meter, installing the network, billing software, etc. This cost (say, $500 over the life of the meter) will be borne by the home owner through additional monthly fees.
The real savings (manpower mostly) will be enjoyed by the utility (say, $100) at the expense of the home owner - a much larger expense (say, $500) than the utility will gain.
Ordinarily, such a bargain in the commercial / retail marketplace is more equitable.
For example, a consumer might pay a higher annual cost for one credit-card over another, where the benefits of the card are perceived to be worth the extra cost.
Utility companies want smart meters because they reduce their meter-reading costs, plus they can do more with the meters (remote disconnect/reconnect, offer pre-paid electicity service, etc).
The time-of-use aspect of billing for residential electricity is bogus.
Electric utilities that supply a given residential customer base always recoup what they spend to buy electricity by charging the customer base accordingly. There is no need to figure out, on a house-by-house basis, who used how many kwh during 9-am to 5-pm (or what-ever). A total kwh reading per month is sufficient. The differences in use patterns between houses do not amount to anything worthy of spending $500 to $1000 for a new meter and related billing infrastructure.
Again, time-of-use electricity billing for residential customers represents a false economy, when the cost of the metering systems and software are taken into account.
If those costs are borne mainly or exclusively by the home owner, then only the utility company wins - and the home owner can never realistically change their life-style to the point where they time-shift enough of their electricity use to recoup the extra new costs of paying for the meter that is imposed on them by the utility.
Maybe reprogram your TV remote, too?
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actually its a spying thing, they can pick up conversations in the home, and send it back over the power line. thank terrorists:)
Among other concerns, they will be used to implement "time of day" and "demand" price structuring, increasing the cost of residential electicity. A lot of "greens" are solidly behind this technology as a way to jack up prices in an effort to reduce electricity usage (and reduce what they see as the cause of global warming/climate change).
We actually have a fellow in the current election for electric board commisioner who is running on that exact platform.
Jon
again, you're mostly wrong
in the case where the home is generating power during the day, it is critical to know which way power is going when.
in the case where you have a very new energy efficient home, it is critical to know the difference in power being used between other nearby homes when.
I know maths is hard, but let's see if we can figure this out:
Let's assume a manual meter-read can read, oh, one meter every three minutes.
At $20/hr, all things considered, it costs the power company about $1/month to read your meter.
A "smart" meter costs about $200 and about $40 worth of labor to install it.
So, then, for all that, the power company will recoup the expense for buying and installing the meter in 240 months, about 20 years.
Obviously the power company can't make economic sense with this scenario. I guess that's why they're charging me a few bucks per month for this shiny new meter.
Aside: The power distribution company DID come out and test the pole in my backyard recently. They dug an access hole about 18" deep around it and bored out a
1/2" plug of wood. I don't know what they did with the plug - maybe sent it to a lab for testing - but they did nail an aluminum plate about the size of a fifty-cent piece to the pole with the test date on it.The power company employee did say he thought the pole in my yard was okay - it was one of the older ones pressure treated with creosote. It should last sixty years he opined. He further said the newer poles, those treated with eco-friendly materials (like extract of arugula), rot out in about a week.
I think $100/mo is fair.
I don't buy your estimated price of $200.
No - that's why they have added either completely new line-items on your bill, or have increased existing ones.
And now tell me how that's working out for the customer.
(stuff about a pole)
What's that got to do with this discussion?
Well, thanks all. Although money is a problem for her -- iirc she told me they raised her health insurance premium a lot while cutting benefits -- I didn 't think her objection was just to the money. I don't know if they have said how much money they'll be charging, if any.
I think it's on Saturday night, and when I'm not doing anything else, there is certainly nothing else on tv or the radio, so maybe I'll isten to see if he's a wacko too.
Late at night the station has George Nuri (sp?) for 3 or 4 hours, who often doesn't say much, but his callers are sure wackos.
How is that going to be $40? If it took 3 minutes to read the meter, it was about a minute longer to replace it. The guy had the power off for about 10 seconds and it took another 10 seconds to wrap the ring around it and clip on the seal. He was doing them 4 at a time (each trip from the truck) I bet they do 16-20 an hour.
I was in the garage at the time and I tripped the main for him but he said he does them hot all of the time, usually without even telling the homeowner he was there.
utility companies are required by law in many areas to replace meters every X years....
i they have to replace them anyway a smart meter is likely a good choice.
i know a retired meter manager from duquesne light and will ask him some questions the next time i see him.
he has a retirement business building meter testers
-snip-
Not in my neck of the woods he can't-- and I'm just in the burbs. In rural areas he might drive 5 minutes between meters.
$20/hr? I'll bet it is closer to $100 "all things considered" -- oh, and don't forget the other $100 for the truck he's driving.
There are a ton of 'hidden costs' buried in my electric bill-- but the meter isn't one of them.
-snip- Never heard of that one. I'll bet in NY, some guy would come out and eyeball it from the street and tell you to replace it.
Jim
So, how much do YOU think they cost?
"Various kinds of smart meters are available and in use around the country. Depending on its capabilities, a smart meter - at a cost of about $200 per home - also can play a role in how much information about energy use is made available to customers and how much money can be saved."
My apologies. Nothing if all we're discussing are meters; that's why I prefaced the observation with "Aside". Next time I'll use "OT" instead of "Aside" so you won't nearly twitch to death.
I asked the meter replacement man how many a day he does. He said "about
40." If the company absorbs about $30/hr for his labor ($240/day), that's six bucks. Then there is the cost for the truck, paperwork, disposing of the old meter, and other incidentals. My guess of $40 may be high, but not unreasonably so.Besides, $40 in the original computation made the numbers come out more easily than if I had used $7.53.
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