On Jun 19, 12:03*am, Bob wrote:
On 6/18/2010 18:05, HeyBub wrote:

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.

There's not much of a market for such labor-intensive stuff.

2. His quota is 60-100 meters swapped out per day.

Yup. *Just break the seal, take the old meter reading, pop out the old
meter, pop the new one in, seal it, and scan the bar code. *Service is
interrupted just long enough to cause refrigerators to overload.

3. One purpose is to allow the meter to be read from the street.

Or by radio or carrier-current. *That's the primary motivator for changing
them. *Service can also be controlled remotely -- they can easily cut
you off for non-payment.

4. It is alleged I can check my meter on the 'net. We'll see.

True, depending on the utility. *It also allows for time-of-day pricing..
* See http://www.pge.com/smartmeter for the spin from a utility that
has been the source of considerable public criticism over smart meter
implementation.

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!).