On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:55:10 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jun 19, 8:45*am, "The Henchman" wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote in message

m...

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.

With these smart meters and the proper thermostats, the power company in my
area (Ontario Canada) will give you rebates if you let them cycle down from
their office your air conditioner during peak demand periods.

It would seem you need more than just a smart meter to be able to do
this. Here in NJ they've been doing this for 25+ years, using just an
RF controlled device on the AC unit, no smart meter.

Yes, Baltimroe too, but last summer they wanted to come out and change
the control unit on the AC.

I had signed up for this again, and the guy arrived and handed me the
brochure and went to work, and this time he drilled 2 holes in my
brick wall, in the mortar at least, and installed it.

After he left I read the brochure and it said he could have mounted it
to the AC if I requested that, but it was too late. I was really
annoyed.

Now they're offerring setback thermostats too, but I've had one for 26
years. If it's connected to varying electric rates, I don't think
they said that.

*There are
times where our power company actually has to import power from the US (ohio
and michigan) in summer. *We use a lot of nuclear power here and Ohio uses a
lot of coal, but Ohio's pollution comes and hangs out over Ontario. * So It
makes some sense to set-up the meter to avoid importing power during peak
times although I would never sign up for this program, I hope others do.

Also these new meters charge different electrical rates during low demand
periods so if you run your dryer or dishwasher after say 10pm you will pay
50% less for the energy used during this period.