Wind turbines used to absorb a power surplus?

[Rod Speed]

Most smartmeters use the cellphone networks.

[micky]

There was, a few years ago, also a lot ofadverse publicity, but iirc it was nonsense about radiation (even though the transmission is only for a few seconds once a month, far less than loads of other things.) So in many or all places they made smart meters optional but if you didnt' get one, they charge extra, to pay for the guy to come and read the meter. I don't rmemeber any percentages.

Otherwise, billing and payment is the same in any given area. Maybe it varies in different parts of the country but I can't imagine how.

[rbowman]

I don't think the meter is smart. It's definitely not digital.

[SteveW]

<Snip>

That still won't end the problem of those on pre-payment meters having to meet their peak (winter) costs up-front, while those of us on monthly Direct Debits can average the cost out over the whole year.

[SteveW]

Mine had new tails too, despite their being nothing wrong with the old ones. When the previous dumb meter was changed the previous year, they added blue and brown identifiers to the ends of the existing grey sheathed cables. Apparently that is no longer good enough and when they later changed it to a Smart-meter, they had to change them to new blue and brown sheathed cables.

My suppliers doesn't arrange to fit an isolator either - that's an extra £130 if you want one!!!

[alan_m]

Zero extra cost to me for fitting the switch.

[alan_m]

It will not end the problem with the ongoing debt either as pre-payment customers may have the same tariffs for 1kWh after July but the pre payment will also need to cover x% of the ongoing debt.

[alan_m]

You just need to point out that most peoples Wi-fi will operate at the dangerous 5GHz.

The 5G mobile phone (cell phone) masts causing Covid. Here in the UK the government took the opportunity to insert a tracking device under the skin with every Covid vaccination.

[SteveW]

Although that would be true of those on a credit meter too.

[SteveW]

I depends where you are and who you are with. They definitely wanted to charge to fit one for me.

I ended up fitting one myself. As the existing consumer unit and the new switch are both plastic cased and the whole lot is in a brick cupboard with wooden back board and doors, there is nothing metallic to accidentally short to, other than the earth connection at the diagonally opposite corner of the cupboard. I thus felt reasonably safe, wearing thick rubber gloves, moving the existing tails, live, into the switch and adding new tails from switch to CU, before they came to change the meter.

[Sylvia Else]

I don't think the OP intended to suggest that this was used as a way to store energy, just as a way to get rid of it.

Sylvia.

[Commander Kinsey]

I wonder if we covered the world in wind farms, would we use up some wind and the weather would be nicer?

[alan_m]

You just end up with a more turbulent wind stream

[micky]

Pointing things out doesn't work here. :-(

[John Larkin]

And the breeze would cool us all off and stop global warming.

[John Larkin]

Electrolyze water. Or churn masses of ice cream.

[micky]

Darn. You had me excited there. I was going to run an extension cord from Australia to Maryland.

[John Larkin]

We know some people who live in Inverness, who didn't have fast internet. A group of neighbors bought a cheap microwave link and piped in from a friend across Tomales Bay. It's astounding what a Gbit microwave link costs nowadays.

[John Larkin]

We got this from our utility. They alerted us to a suspected water leak, which was real.

That graph is after the leak was fixed. They seem to read the meters often and have algorithms to flag unusual patterns.

[Sam Plusnet]

Steam ships that used poor quality coal paid for it with greatly increased maintenance costs, and significantly reduced performance.