Electric Meter

HeyBub · 2010-06-19T01:05:45+00:00

Power company came out today and replaced the old mechanical meter with the new fancy-schmancy one. Chatting up the meter-man, I learned: 1. The old meters are going to be junked. Not sold to Mexico or Lithuania like the 'phone company did with their mechanical central office stuff. We're talking, oh, one million meters in a city of 5.5 million. That's a pretty big pile. 2. His quota is 60-100 meters swapped out per day. 3. One purpose is to allow the meter to be read from the street. 4. It is alleged I can check my meter on the 'net. We'll see.

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Robert Green 16 years ago

I've lived in houses in Maryland (built 1971) that have had the meters inside (Mom HATED that) and in olders houses (built 1941) that have all 3 meters (water, gas, electric) on the outside. Once I lived in a place (D.C.) that had no electric meter at all. The previous occupants had done their own hookup to the pole and since it was a second floor apartment, no one ever caught on while I lived there. I learned later that the utilities can bill you for usage anyway based on estimated use if the meter is bad or missing entirely.

I imagine the big push is because of liability issues first and workforce reduction second. It's just another mechanism that causes jobs to evaporate. I'll be interested in seeing if employment rates ever really recover in the US. I don't see how that will occur given that all the current trends are working against it.

I was pleased to read that for the first time, US cars are getting higher marks for initial quality than foreign ones.

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"For the first time ever, J.D. Power and Associates has rated U.S.-brand vehicles higher than import brands in its prestigious annual Initial Quality Study. The study - now in its 24th year - is taken as the standard by which foreign and domestic cars are judged in the auto industry and is frequently cited in ads."

It only took half a century for us to catch up. There's still hope left.

I'll bet Toyota's runaway cars had something to do with it. BP's troubles seem to have helped take the heat off Toyoto. I shudder to think what will take the heat off BP in the same way.

-- Bobby G.

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Robert Green 16 years ago

I think there are officially more than two genders now. I suspect that's why many are living solo - can't find a matching gender to hook up with.

-- Bobby G.

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Robert Green 16 years ago

Kewl. Unlike the Kill O Watt, it won't lose the accumulated readings if the power fails. I think I'll go look for one on Ebay.

-- Bobby G.

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mm 16 years ago

A couple days ago, the Public Service Commission in Maryland refused some electric company permission to put in meters that would enalbe billing by time-of-day.

The electric co. spokesman said that each homeowner would save 1400 over the life of, or some period of time, and the meters were only 200 dollar so it was a good deal. So I guess the customer would have to pay the 200. That must be why the PSC said no.

We do have electronic meters that be read from their office, but I can see how this would have to be fancier.

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Tekkie® 16 years ago

The Daring Dufas posted for all of us...

The utilities report excessive usage to the police who then check for pot growing which uses a lot of power.

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Sam E 16 years ago

BTW, "gender" is a characteristic of language, and IIRC, some have as many as seven.

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Doug Miller 16 years ago

You're thinking of cases (e.g. nominative, predicative, possessive, etc.). Russian, Latin, and Polish have seven cases, German four, English three.

No language I'm aware of has more than three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

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HeyBub 16 years ago

You haven't been studying U.S. bureaucratize.

We have (at least) male, female, gay, lesbian, and various incarnations of "transgender."

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Sam E 16 years ago

I forgot where I first heard about that, but searching the internet quickly found Polish at

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.

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terry 16 years ago

Cheaper, late night pricing could be nice!

Couple of minor points; our meter reader says he's supposed, at the moment to be able to sit in his car out in thstreet and read meter remotely. Doesn't always work and he has to walk to nearer the meter!

Secondly; sending the info via the electric power lines is being banned in some countries because it can cause serious interference to radio communications. The effect will vary from area to area depending on the amount of radio broadcasting, off the air TV etc. But some years ago a Civil Defense exercise in Austria had to be cancelled because 'Power Line carrier/digital' signals disrupted the radio signals to ambulances! For meters the alternatives may be the inter- net or your phone line (if you still have one!).

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Doug Miller 16 years ago

It's incorrect in at least one major respect: there are *not* seven genders in Polish as claimed. Only three. The masculine gender is further subdivided, making distinctions between persons and animate and inanimate objects, making five gender "classes" in all, but only three genders -- not seven.

The article also refers to Polish pronunciation as "very difficult"; I disagree. Polish pronunciation and spelling follow regular rules, and I found it much easier to learn to pronounce Polish correctly than French.

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