Sounds like your power company uses the "Necessary Pole Management" system. When the pole falls over, they replace it.
In my neighborhood, Houston, we had a hurricane four years ago (Hurricane Yikes). The electrical distribution system was so dilapidated that four million people were without power for up to ten days! Since then, the local power distribution company has been beavering away to upgrade and rigorously maintain the system. It seems like once a month, some tree-trimming truck comes by whacks the bejesus out of everthing taller than a rose bush.
FPL got pretty aggressive about replacing bad poles after Charley and Wilma. As a temporary fix they drive a piece of guard rail metal next to the pole and strap it in. Eventually they come by with a new pole.
Maybe in an apartment building basement he can do that.
I live in a townhouse, and even here I think 3 minutes is unlikely, even wiithout goofing off. At my house he'd have to move things out of his way, garbage cans, etc, then squeeze past the motorcycle (1 or
2 minutes) then remove the old one (1 minute) and put in the new one (1 minute) , then go back to the truck to get another meter (2 minutes, 3 if has to unlock/lock the truck) then go to the next house
1 minute. And he will probably relax for 30 seconds between meters.
So I think we're talking 6 to 9 minutes/meter. Not much more for single family houses in small to modertate sized lots, except he has longer to walk to the truck and has to move it more often.
i live in a town of 32 square miles with about 2600 residences of all kinds (houses, ranches, apartments, businesses). it used to take about 8 days by a few people to read all the water meters manually. the town replaced them all with remote read meters (radio based), and it can be done in about 1 day by 1 person just by driving down the street.
most of the remote read electric meters being discussed here are readable without ANY labor costs, as they can be polled from the utility computers directly.
And if the utility gets home owners to foot the entire bill for the meters, computers and software, then in this equation we have customers forking over $500 over the lifespan of the meter just so the utility can save $100 in meter-reading costs over the same period.
If you obstruct a meter here you get a nasty note on your door, threatening to disconnect the power. Meter readers are usually college kids and I think they get paid by the route so they move right along. The meter swappers were contractors too so they were not screwing around either.
It is probably different in a mobbed up northern union state but the meter reader union probably stops the remote readers anyway.
Here are some numbers for my jurisdiction (Ontario, Canada):
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The startup costs for TOU meters are pegged at $240 / $250 per customer, and:
"In addition to these considerations, it is estimated that it will cost about $3.00 per customer per month for the incremental costs of the billing. Province wide this would be about $12.9M."
If you are not seeing any additional line-item charges on your electricity bill, and if any of your existing line-item charges (delivery, infrastructure, etc) haven't been increased, then you can be sure that the TOU rates you're paying were juggled so that the utility is recouping an additional few dollars per month for all costs associated with the TOU meter (cost of meter, installation, cost of installing / operating communications network, cost of billing software).
"The EDA believes that distributors should be properly compensated for the premature retirement of existing meters."
In other words, someone is going to pay for the "loss-of-value" when an existing (but working) analog meter is replaced by a TOU meter.
"The EDA opposes the creation of additional variance accounts to implement this initiative."
They don't want customers to see exactly what the smart meter is costing them?
"The EDA believes that the capital cost of the smart meters and associated systems should be allowed to be fully recovered within a timeframe that recognizes the rapid change in technology and in accordance with proper business principles and be placed in the rate base."
But they still want utility companies to fully recover the costs of smart-meter implimentation, and naturally this will have to come from customers - and in a timely (rapid) manner.
This document:
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claims that analog meters have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years, while smart TOU meters have a lifespan of 10 to 20 years.
This industry PR document:
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specifies a 20-year lifespan for the "Edison SmartConnect" meter.
This appears to be a professional study of smart-meter implimentation in
5 areas around the world:
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============ Smart Meters do not necessarily bring environmental benefits. Like many new technologies, their rollout requires replacing an entire, fully functional, existing system. Their lifespan is expected to be short, at only 15 to 20 years (rather than over 30 years for traditional meters) and they use electricity to run ? which requires extra generation to supply.
The overreaching conclusion of the study is that the policies governing smart meters, are decisive in limiting or maximizing the positive impacts of this technology. Smart Meters (AMI) are measuring devices which send consumption information to the utility using communication technology at pre-programmed intervals. They will also include more advanced features such as outage information, two-way communication capabilities, a remote on/off switch etc.
A fully functional AMI meter, such as those being rolled out in Australia and California, will have approximately 30 separate functionalities. Most of these functionalities will primarily benefit the utility unless expressly employed toward end-consumer programmes with the support of regulation and supportive market structures.
Main Conclusions of the Report
1) As a technology, (without appropriate regulation) smart meters provide more benefits to the utilities than to the end consumers.
2) Smart Meters do not benefit the environment without proper regulation.
3) Smart Meter enabled programmes can provide substantial, long term societal and environmental benefits if they are placed in their correct position; namely as a platform for efficiency programmes supported through appropriate regulation and market structures.
4) There are basic conflicts of interest caused when a utility which earns off of electricity sales, is asked to lower those sales through helping consumers lower consumption. Regulation and polity can overcome this barrier if it takes it into consideration.
5) If the correct structures are in place, and efficiency measures are rewarded, utilities and private companies tend to exceed the minimal requirements set by regulators in their drive to maximize the benefits of the new market structures.
6) Smart Meters and the communication technology required for energy efficiency programmes are expensive ? at least ?200 per household. They are therefore not necessarily appropriate tools for developing nations, or those were household consumption is low.
7) Regulators should calculate the impact of smart meter rollout, dynamic pricing structures and new tariffs on vulnerable consumers.
8) Regulators and utilities should take into account that an increase in costs for consumers should be included only with a method for controlling those costs, through easily accessible feedback information. Accurate monthly billing has not been found satisfactory enough by residential consumers or consumer interest groups. ==================
Well, I'm not a welfare queen, or a queen of any sort, or even femaile, but I've neglected to pay my bill. Once the power was disconnected in the afternoon and I had paid the billl soon after. By
5:30 I became convinced that the work day was over and I wouldn't be reconnected until the next day. So I cut the seal on meter, took out the meter, and removed the plastic covers on the 2 or 3 big prongs in the back of the meter, and recconnected myself.
I was surprised when the Electric Co. guy showed up an hour or two later. I told him someone else had come and reconnected it, and he left.
That sounded perfectly reasonable when I said it, but I eventually concluded that he his job was disconnecting and reconnecting, and for any location on a given day, only one person had that job. One guy per region. The fact that he was working to 7:30 or so is what convinced me. So he knew he was the only one who would come and no one else had come, but he didn't let on. He also knew I had paid what I owed.
I knew it would be easy to reconnect, because the first time I was disconnected, I found the plactic prong covers on the ground weeks afterwards, and figured out what they were.
When I get a smart meter, I won't be able to do that anymore. ;-(
Sjouke Burry wrote the following on 5/18/2012 8:19 PM (ET):
How would he/she know you are home or away? Does the meter stop running when you leave the house? I would think it would be easier for them to check the present occupancy of the home when they are standing at the meter.
willshak wrote in news:mvOdnYnHuM5 _aSvSnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:
email.me:
occupancy
When you are out, consumption of power kind of drops off. when you are sleeping, the same. When you are on vacation, it drops off for several days. With some nice plotting software it will make the change in load pattern obvious, the units proposed in the Netherlands have a 15 minute sample rate. Talk about big brother watching you.
Sjouke Burry wrote in news:XnsA05817B9EF72Bsjoukeburrysoesterbe@213.75.12.10:
to answer the original question,"smart meters" are electric meters for homes that monitor your power usage continuously and keep record of how much power is used at what times of the day and night,periodically read remotely by the power company.
So they have a detailed record of YOUR lifestyle,when you do things that use power. you may not like that data being accumulated and available to gov't officials.(and maybe private companies too. It's data that is worth something,thus salable.) they may also have the capability to remotely CONTROL(shut off) some of your home's appliances to aid the power company in load managment.
You may not like the power company turning off your AC,water heater,or washer-dryer at peak demand times.
I'm not sure if these will also turn off electric car chargers.
and you won't KNOW when these items are off....there will not be any announcement when it occurs.
Very good question. Maybe they don't trust the electronics.
I just got an email today from BGE and it says the smart meterrs will be installed within 3 years. Maybe when that happens I should write down whatever is on the metal seal, so I can tell if they've removed it again. I dont think I'll need the disconnect you wanted, however.
At night I leave a light on when I go out. If I'm home, I play the radio, maybe 10 watts. Sometimes the TV -- isn't that 50 watts for a
12" color tv.
If I'm sleeping at home, I'm home.
That assumes anyone would want to do that for me. A burglar would be better off going to a fancier n'hood. And I'll have my own burglar alarm up and running again soon. That only uses about 10 watts iirc, so he won't know until he sets it off.
I've never seen anything in widespread use that couldn't be hacked. It just means you'll have to know something about smart meters and how they work rather than how to use a pair of pliers.
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