Now you be very careful and afeared of that new smart meter;!

[tony sayer]

Its out to fry yer brains;!!

[Bob Eager]

Yes, I've come across a few people telling me this!

[alan_m]

The have a linked video showing how smart meter pulses effect the heart!

or maybe..... how the pulses from a smart meter placed 1m away from the leads going to someone hooked up to a sensitive EKG machine can also be picked up by the machine?

[Brian Gaff]

Is this the old problem of RF from mobile devices again, but from a smart meter? There are ham radio operators all over the world chuckling. To be honest if you were daft enough to stand in line with a radar scanner then I'd expect issues, but in this case... really? if it puts out that much power then think of the cost to the suppliers of all that electricity they would be using in every house? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I think really people making stuff like pacemakers should have tested this sort of thing well in advance and yes, many ecg machines, as their inputs are high impedance will pick up pulses of rf if close enough. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield]

alan_m brought next idea :

That last seems the much more likely..

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff submitted this idea :

I don't believe there is a problem from the RF, but the RF and power used is a very short and intermitant pulse of energy and energy used. Remember, the gas meter uses a tiny battery to power the transmission and that has to last for many years.

[Andy Burns]

Well, it's the problem of nutters who fear any RF, at any power level, at any distance ...

[The Nomad]

& use their mobile (or wifi linked iThing) to tell everyone about it

Avpx

[alan_m]

Consider if the EKG equipment is picking up the same magnitude of energy from the heart as from a smart meter there must be a much bigger risk when in close proximity to someone else. A night in bed with your partner could be fatal!

[spuorgelgoog]

I don't know how long pacemakers last but some people must have quite old ones which predate smart meters.

Owain

[Andrew]

Mobile phones modulate their output power to the lowest level needed for communication. I believe this is why you should not use your phone in a plane, because it tries maximum power.

Do smart meters carry out this same process ?.

[Robin]

Pacemakers usually need a new battery within 10 years or less. And pacemakers are designed to cope with radio waves within intermational standards from things like mobile phones and home networks. The same standards smart meters are designed to meet. And smart meters are tested just like other stuff by the HPA. So can we move on to - say - the disgusting failure to address the health risk from the noise generated by mechanical meters?

[Huge]

*applause*

[Andy Burns]

Smart meters will use off-the-shelf transceiver modules (zigbee, wireless-mbus, sigfox, etc) which will use ISM frequencies at permitted power levels, if your stairlift can't cope with sharing the bandwidth with other devices, it's the stairlift's fault ...

[S Viemeister]

How long have smart meters been around?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew explained on 31/03/2018 :

Yes, exactly the same as a mobile phone would, but then not many people sit with a meter next to their brain all day and RF's effect follows the inverse square law.

Those most vocal at complaining about mobile masts, are often the ones who make a lot of use of their mobiles. RF output from a phone is not much less than that from a mast, but they are quite happy to put the mobile next to their brain. The more masts there are, the less power the phone needs to use to communicate with it, the lower the risk - yet they complain about the health risks of living near a mast.

[alan_m]

11 years in the UK

10 years ago the USA had 2 million smart meters installed and currently has 70+ million.

[Andy Burns]

I understand the smart meters in the USA work differently, i.e. they have street/neighbourhood level mesh networking to allow them to be read without using mobile phone networks ...

[Bob Eager]

OTOH, that could explain the election of Trump.