On Wed, 30 May 2012 08:02:45 -0400, Home Guy wrote:

"T. Keating" wrote:

3a) Many of these new smart meters are programmed to read high
with certain loads.

Are you saying that smart-meters don't measure inductive, reactive or
non-linear loads correctly - such that they err on the side of the
utility company?

Yup..


They don't give credit for power returned to the grid.

What returned power?

Certain motorised devices also act as generators and return a
percentage of that energy back to grid in backside(90-180, 270-360
degrees) of each AC -phase.

Instead of getting a credit for that returned energy, you get double
billed. (According the GE engineers).


If you're referring to power generated by the customer (solar, wind,
etc) then (a) very few home-owners have a co-gen installation, and (b)
those that do are paid by the utility for any power they generate
through special feed-in tarrif programs and would have a separate meter
installed to measure the feed-in amount.

From what I've heard, talking to smart meter installers, they don't
change out the meter for net-metering customers who've signed
agreements.


(other technical reasons - unverified but possibly true)

Beyond those possible technical reasons, smart-meters represesnt a false
economy because their installed cost far outweighs any benefit to the
residential user in terms of the possible savings they might achieve in
time-shifting their electricity usage to reduce peak-load demand for the
utility.

That I would agree on. I've been reading my meter daily for last 6
years, so I really don't need the online featues and the loss of
privacy.