NotMe wrote:

Cost of smart meters in this area are an add on, monthly, line item
fee to the customer bill.

See?

I told you so.

I told you people that these new smart-meters are costing home-owners an
extra $250 - $500 over the course of the life of the meter, while
conveying a $100 benefit in manpower cost-reduction to the utilities.
That's why it's a false economy.

If given the choice, I'd gladly make a one-time $100 payment to my
utility to pay for meter-reading for the next 10 years if it meant that
they didn't tack on an extra $5 a month for the "privledge" or "benefit"
of a smart meter.

No real savings because the other meters (gas and water) are still
read manually.

It's coming.

Mark my words - smart gas meters are coming. And they'll spin some
crock-of-**** argument for the need for time-of-use metering for natural
gas as the reason why it's needed for the residential market, when they
(just like the electric utilities) just want to reduce their
meter-reading costs - and not much else.

I also expect the fee to remain long after the cost of the meter
is recoverd.

Smart meters are more expensive - and have about half the life of
conventional analog wheel meters.

But those pesky software companies will charge utilites a fortune for
"needed" updates for the billing software for these smart meters. It's
a cash-cow for them too.