Paul Drahn wrote:
On 4/15/2012 8:33 AM, Way Back Jack wrote:
in terms of energy savings, privacy, fire risk, and, most importantly,
health ramifications. Thank You.
First, let me say my electronic assembly service company built several
thousand printed circuit boards a few years ago that were used in a
smart meter demonstration in Tacoma, WA. I can assure everyone there is
no capability in any so-called smart meter to remotely shut off your
electricity. In Oregon, that would in fact be illegal. To disconnect a
customer's power, a service person must first determine there is no
medical reason for service to be uninterrupted at that location. then
they can pull the meter.

Second, I own an old farm house, started in 1924, that I had converted
to heat pump with electric furnace back up. This entailed replacing the
pole transformer and all to wiring to and including the first breaker box.

The old mechanical meter had been mounted decades ago and had to have
the stainless locking ring ripped off to remove the meter. A new
smart-meter was installed as part of the new wiring.

Due to not understanding the new programmable thermostat, the renter
experienced enormous power bills. The power company insisted the meter
was reading correctly and read the meter remotely from Salt Lake City
during tests with the tenant. They even sent a service person to remove
and physically test the meter.

Finally I was at my wits end and got the electrician to meet me at the
house. He used his clamp-on meter to check his wiring and all was ok. We
discovered the problem was the thermostat would kick in the backup
heating anytime there was a 2 degree difference in temperature. The
thermostat was set to 65 at night and 72 during the day. When set to
constant 72, no backup ever came on. Problem solved!

While discussing the problem with the electrician, he told me a secret:

The old mechanical meter only read the power usage from one leg of the
240 volt line. Power usage at 120 volts on the other leg got by free. In
addition, he said electricians would sometimes swap the metered legs so
the excess usage of 120 volt appliances would not be read by the meter.
This is why some people are able to use the 120 volt space heaters in
certain rooms of their house with no increase in electrical usage/bill.

The new smart meter actually measures the power usage in both legs and
determines the actual total power being used. This is why some customers
see a big increase in their electric bill when the old mechanical meter
is replaced with a smart-meter.

The meter reader uses a hand held transceiver to interrogate the smart
meter. That is the only time the meter will ever transmit on it's
VHF/UHF frequency.

When the meter is remotely read, as mine was, a very low frequency is
used, somewhere in the 300-400 KHz area. The power levels and
frequencies are so low they could never cause medical problems. If they
did, your standard broadcast stations would not be useable.

I hope this story helps you understand a little more about electric
meters. It will probably stir up more criticism, as well.

Paul in Central Oregon

My old water meter was kinda like that, it only measured cold water
not hot. The new meter measures them both and my water bill went up.