"[NAPERVILLE, IL] Two vocal opponents of Naperville?s initiative to install wireless electric meters on homes were arrested this afternoon after interfering with the installation process... Police are accompanying crews this week as they install smart meters at homes that previously sent away installers."
I live in Naperville. I have met Jennifer Stahl one time when I picked up something she was recycling. She seems normal enuf, but there is a lot the press has missed.
First, most of the objectors don'tr understand radio waves. They organize their protests about radio waves using their cellphones. We had had wireless water meters for 10+ years, nobady seems to know or care.
Second, the objectors are worried about privacy. These claims are legitimate. The City claimed the system was safe/unhackable. Then, a couple of months ago, the City of Naperville, which runs the electric distribution department, was hacked and their entire e-mail and other internal systems were shut down while they spent $100,000 for a consultant to fix the system (for now). So the claims are legitimate. But, unless they are growing Pot under grow lights at 3 am, who cares if the City knows when you use electricity and when you do not?
Stay tuned. this is going to be fun to watch!!!
I have one installed at a vacation cabin and I can log onto the system from my residence, which is about 150 miles away, and download the power useage in 15 minute increments for any period of interest. It is very comforting to be at my residence and know for a fact that no one is using electricity at the other place, and that I have remembered to unplug the fridge, turn off the air, and turn off the hot water heater...... since it would be a real pain to make a trip there just to throw a couple switches and I would worry until I went back... The power company charges an extra $2 or $3 a month for the "advanced meter" and I have no choice about it, but I also have no objection.
Speaking for myself, NOT. I agree with you... I don't care if someone knows when I use, do not use electricity. I saw this video earlier today.
I have nothing against smart meters, in fact I want on because the power company is able to offer Time based rates. I use most power in the evening not during the day so I should be able to enjoy a cost savings.
So the question is.... to the folks out there that now have smart meters...
Is your power company offering you TIME OF DAY DISCOUNT RATES...
That's what is supposed to be the benefit for us little guys...
Mark
In other words, you will never be able to hide out at your cabin without The Secret Police knowing where you are. Darn, when you decide to join the Resistance, you'll have to go off grid. ^_^
TDD
On Friday 25 January 2013 01:01 The Daring Dufas wrote in alt.home.repair:
Ah - but he can pull some serious misdirection now. All he needs is a diesel genny.
He should use the grid as normal when he visits to establish a pattern.
if he needs to "hide" he simply does not use the grid, but runs up the genny
- and of course leaves his mobiles on and on charge at home.
The spooks are now "sure" that he cannot be in his cabin. They might wonder, if they cannot get a positive obo on him back in the city, but the misdirection could buy him a few days or even weeks, depending on how hard they are looking...
If he didn't have a smart meter, and they wanted to watch him, they might well stake the place out or put some other monitoring in that he doesn't know about.
Well, they might anyway, but given the smart meter, they might not - and the PP at least knows about that. You get the idea anyway...
That's why GPS jammers are so useful when you hop in your car so your smart phone can't tattle on you. One fellow found a tracker under his car's bumper but instead of destroying it, he stuck it on a long haul truck. ^_^
TDD
On Friday 25 January 2013 10:36 The Daring Dufas wrote in alt.home.repair:
Would have been really funny if he was in a position to stick it on a fishing boat :)
I thoroughly believe that the citizenry should use technology to defeat the technology of government and commercial snoops. I spent so many years scrambling information on me that was in government and private databases that I had trouble convincing a credit card company that I actually existed. It is fun to exercise your right to privacy and watch the confusion on the dossier collectors faces when they try to pin you down or categorize you. I use private mail box services and don't get mail or packages where I live, VoIP and prepaid cellphones pinned to my private mailbox for an address. Privacy is something you have to work hard for and guard it jealously if you want to keep it. ^_^
TDD
The citizens of Naperville have got several valid points.
Privacy..(yet another added risk..)
RF emissions.. (I've seen 900mhz cell phones cause RF burns.. ) Noteable increases in cell phone linked Brain tumors.. There is more too this issue which is yet to be documented.. Prior studies done by cell phone industry don't cut it(bogus testing conditions), haven't been updated for newer tech.(higher frequencies, exotic modulation). SM have a fairly high transmit duty cycle, since most of these meters are set up in ad-hoc mode, and often relay/forward data between hundreds/thousands of other customer meters every few minutes. Reliability/Safety/Tort.. (Power CO can remotely shutdown/turnon customer's power without leaving a trace). It's only a mater of time before any encryption protocal deployed is compromised [Just like WEP, WPA. WPA2(have all been cracked)], and other people will have this capability. Fraud/Tort.. Smart meters can/are being programmed @ the manufacturer to deliberately over charge a large number customers. It is well known that customers with PV panels have been double charged for the energy they supplied to the grid. Note: This also affects other non-RE customers to a lessor degree(reactive loads are being mismeasured/double charged).
Naperville's bullshit policy of charging 24.95 a month to read a non-smart meter is bogus.. Let the homeowner read his/her meter each month, and submit the data on a web page.. Every year or two.. the power co can confirm it..simple,easy, cheap..
P.S. I also refused the installation of one these Bogus smart meters. But I did my homework, and talked to GE's field engineering rep about the capibilities and ordering options of the meters being installed.
Thank god.. I don't live in Naperville, or I would be dragiing these City officials into court myself.
power without
people will have
officials into
I can see hackers selling low power jammers for the darn things and one could be hidden in the wall near the meter. As long as you don't touch or physically damage the meter there isn't much the snoops can do. Of course, I would have a motion detector to turn the jammer off whenever anyone came around the meter to investigate. ^_^
TDD
power without
people will have
officials into
Put a cell phone 1/4 inch from head and you get a power level depending on your tower strength. Put it 12 inches away, and it's down 100 times less. Two feet 400 times less. Four feet 1600 times less.
Greg
power without
people will have
officials into
Not really... The peak field reading drop off is a function of 1/2 wavelength(15.6cm @900mhz), propogation speed through various mediums, and antenna configuration(some where between inverse squared, and inverse cubed.).
power without
people will have
officials into
Not really... The peak field reading drop off is a function of 1/2 wavelength(16.6cm @900mhz), propogation speed through various mediums, and antenna configuration(some where between inverse squared, and inverse cubed.).
I've worked with RF from 100KHz to GHz for near 50 years. I defy you to produce sufficient power to induce a RF burn with < 0.6 watt input (RF output is down by 50%+)
Cites?
Have you read those studies? Much less reviewed the reputations of the folk running them or the protocols set up for them? Hint I attended the hearings in Washington and visited some of the research as it was being conducted.
In part true but to what end? Unless the do-bad has a personal hard on for the home owner what could be accomplished other than turning off the power? Which depending on how the system was configured could be automatically switched back on in short order?
Could be but the first time a utility or the manufacturer is caught at that game ... FILM AT 6 & 11 and every 1/2 hour for the rest of the week.
Any PV system connected to the grid MUST HAVE UTILITY approval and inspection (I've done a few). If not as soon as it's found out the service is cut and WILL NOT BE RESTORED until there is a proctor scope examination of the electrical system on the entire property. Fees and fines must be paid in advance.
Power meters do not read power factor/phase change they ONLY read true power delivered. Power factor changes are only applied to large industry customers and this to the extent that the charges are interned to educate the user to address and adjust the power factor losses up the line. (The process is taugh in Power 101 levels of EE classes at every decent engineering school)
Power meters are directional. Long time back a bunch of rural stump jumpers figured that out and went to flipping the meters. Got away with it until one or two forgot to switch them back before the meter reader showed up. They also firuged out that a Dasey BB gun could shoot a small hole in the glass cover that they could stick a straw though to stop the meter. The result was one hell of a hard (BB proff) glass cover over the meter.
Likely a tariff item and just as likely to be continued until the users contact the regulators. Expect a lot of wild a** justification claims on the part of the utility for the need for those fees.
Want a real case of the GoGoLaRough (red a**) take a look at your phone and cable bill. Then follow the various fees. More than a few have no basis in law, tarriff or logic save in the mind of some creative manager in the provider company.
Did the rep mention the potential vulnerability of the meters to electronic tampering to make them useless? Yes they are and to be honest the industry has not quite gotten a handle on that problem (see stump jumpers above) saving grace is none of the end users have (yet) figured it out either.
You'd be out on your butt and the court house steps by summery. That is on the assumption you could find a qualified lawyer to take the case.
To have any potential of a physical impact the device needs to be within the near field of the RF. At 800 MHz that is on the order of 2.5 cm.
Ah, the inverse square law tweaked -- love it.
Tomsic
I got an antenna on my water meter inside the house in my laundry. They installed that couple years ago. New meter said to sense low flow much better. How common is this ?
Greg
In your laundry room? Not common at all. I believe it's unique (perhaps even very unique). ;-)
A water meter with an antenna? Very common. "Smart meters" are used nationwide. I had one in my previous house, though I haven't a clue where it was. Never looked. I probably have one in this house, too, though I don't care where it is. Paying people to read meters is expensive.
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