New independent report suggests that living next to a 'smart' meter is comparable to living within 3-600 feet of a major cell phone tower
San Francisco- A study released today reports that wireless ‘smart’ meters being installed by PG&E and other utilities in California are likely to violate Federal Communications Commission (FCC) safety limits as they are being installed and operated. Further, the study found that excessively elevated radiofrequency radiation levels can be expected throughout homes and businesses where ‘smart’ meters have been installed, comparable to living within 200 – 600 feet of a major cell phone tower in many cases. Health risks have been associated in some published studies to levels commensurate with those of smart meters. The study, carried out by consulting firm Sage and Associates, finds that associated health impacts may include neurological symptoms such as headache, sleep disruption, restlessness, tremors, cognitive impairment, and tinnitus, as well as increased cancer risk and heart problems such as arrythmias, altered heart rhythms, and palpitations.[1] [2]
“This study represents an independent refutation of what PG&E and the other utilities claim are insignificant exposures to microwave radiation from their meters,” says Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters! “The reality is that ‘smart’ meters emit radiation of a power and frequency that has been linked with DNA disruption, pathological leakage of the blood-brain barrier (which can lead to neuron death), and many other health impacts. This report is the final straw- if the CPUC refuses to act, Governor Brown must order an immediate halt to installation and deactivation of installed meters pending open public hearings on how this debacle could have been approved in the first place.”
In other developments, Marin County on Tuesday became the 4th local government, and 2nd county in California to pass an ordinance specifically outlawing installation of ‘smart’ meters- in large part due to health and safety issues. This unanimous decision follows two successive Board of Supervisors meetings that were packed with outraged residents demanding that the County government pass legislation to protect human health. It also follows a blockade of ‘smart’ meter trucks in West Marin last week that resulted in the arrests of two mothers who blocked installation to protect the health of their children and community.
People across California have complained about ‘Smart’ meters since the beginning, including widespread reports of inflated bills, privacy and hacking of personal information, electrical interference with cordless phones, baby monitors, home security systems and critical care equipment, and tripping of ground fault interrupters and arc fault interrupters on electrical wiring that is needed to protect wiring from electrical surges.
In addition, there have been more than 2000 health complaints submitted to the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). ‘Smart’ Meters use microwave radiation (similar to a cell phone) to transmit customer data back to the utility, and are being installed just as the public learns of evidence that brain tumors and other health damage can be traced to similar wireless devices. The CPUC, who sanctioned PG&E’s $2.2 billion program to install 10 million new meters throughout California at the expense of ratepayers, has not allowed individuals to opt out even in cases of severe health impacts.
Nearly two dozen local governments* have called for a moratorium. The CPUC’s own Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) has also demanded public hearings be held to study potential health risks resulting from exposure to radiation from the meters.
The full report can be downloaded at: http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/
* California local governments demanding a moratorium include: the City and County of San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Marin County Board of Supervisors, Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, the cities of Sebastopol, Berkeley, San Rafael, Cotati, Fairfax, Santa Cruz, Piedmont, Scotts Valley, Capitola, Watsonville, Sausalito, San Anselmo, Belvedere, Monte Sereno, Novato, Morro Bay, San Clemente, Richmond, Ross, Bolinas, and Camp Meeker.
[1] Khurana VG Hardell L Everaert J Bortkiewicz A Carlberg M Ahonen M, 2010. Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. Int Journal of Occupational Environmental Health 2010;16:263–267
[2] Kundi M Hutter HP Mobile phone base stations—Effects on wellbeing and health. Pathophysiology 16 (2009) 123–135
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Obviously this website is not being run by Electrical Engineers, or you would know that any photons below the visible spectrum have less than the required gap energy to free the electrons in your atom to atom bonds. In other words: harmless.
People are concerned about UV because it is above the visible spectrum. Have you ever heard of someone being afraid of infrared light? No, because it is below the visible spectrum.
To the point, visible light is more dangerous than your smart meter.
For a long time, non-ionizing radiation was considered safe except for the thermal impacts (at high enough power levels of course you are heated up like a hot dog in a microwave). Now the scientific consensus is beginning to shift because of an increasing body of peer reviewed studies that show non-thermal biological impacts at very low levels. Henry Lai’s research in 1995/96 in particular is very worrying as it showed DNA breaks at low levels of radiation. Telecom industry tried unsuccessfully to have him discredited, as Devra Davis describes in her book Disconnect. Do try and educate yourself about the science before mindlessly parroting industry lies.
that was meant for the comment above yours
are you employed by pge?
First months bill was $28.00
Second months was $260.00
Third month was $1967.00
This is a small two bedroom house no a/c no washer dryer no swimming pool nothing to use lots of energy…these meters are definitely not smart they are very faulty and joe. Home owner should not have to have this meter if he / she doesn’t want it.
PG&E tricked me and obnoxious!!!
PG&E came to my house in the Castro, SF, CA today. Be aware, everyone in SF!
He said I will just lose an electricity for 5 to 10 seconds to update the meter. He did NOT say he was installing Smartmeter!!! He tricked me. He handed me a brochure. I went back inside and opened to see it… and Yes, it was about the Smartmeter!!! I went back outside, but it was too late. He installed it. I asked “Can I remove it whenever I want to?” He said, “NO.” We, consumers cannot choose to remove it from our house! That is crazy! I didn’t give him a permission to install it. PG&E guys are obnoxious, just like other big corporations! He is also getting high level of radiation installing it every day!!! I don’t want anymore radiation around me. A friend of mine who used to work at nuclear dept. of the university told me that DISHWASHERS release high level of radiation in household… I only use dishwasher a few times a year when I have a big party at home. I don’t use microwaves in general. Don’t use it to melt cheese. That’s worst…
Come to the protest tomorrow (Friday) at 77 Beale St. 1130-1pm and let PG&E know how you feel about this!!
People you are being killed quietely!
That’s ridiculous. Your computer emits more radiation than the smart meter. Your dishwasher friend was probably making fun of you. A baked potato “releases radiation.”
The ‘study’ referenced in this article says smart meters are dangerous if their emitted signals are amplified by 1000%-2000%.
Smart meters are helping reduce energy usage. They are net positive for human society. Stop the fear mongering.
Yeah and my computer is giving me a headache too! A 1000% amplification happens under widespread conditions of reflectivity. This is standard practice to include these calculations. Ms. Sage’s analysis suggests therefore that FCC violations of microwave intensity from smart meters are widespread. So how exactly- Mr. James- are “smart” meters a net positive for human society? Please back up your statement that they are helping to reduce energy usage.
Smart meters have a history of malfunction and many people have reported huge increases in their bills.
There is no net positive anywhere here.
I had no say and I want them off my house.
my electric bill went up from 115 dollars to 184.73 dollars ,i called and talked to a rep and i was told that december of 2010 was a cold month ,my question is what does dec 2010 have to do with oct 2011 and the flat rate bill was 115 dollars ummm wonder what my smart meter is telling me . more money maby?
There is no proof that it reduces energy use,but there is proof it increases your power bill. I have 2 sisters who live in different parts of califonia and both of thier power bills have increased.
SMUD was told not to install a smart meter on my house, but both SMUD and PG&E done so anyway. They have 30 days (until August 24th, 2011) to remove my smart meters or they will be destroyed as a hazard to my health and home.
It is a clear violation of my 4th Amendment right under the United States Constitution to be secure in my home, ” The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
I call upon my local law enforcement to assist me in upholding this law and right by supporting me and my fellow Sacramento citizens in forcing the removal of this hazard from our homes.
This is a clear threat by what is supposed to be a public utility. We, the public, had no say.
Remove them or destroy them.
I live in San Bernadino County, CA. Today a person came to my chained and locked gate and told me he was there to install a Smart Meter for SEC. I told him we did not want a Smart meter installed because of the health and privacy issues. He replied that the San Bernadino County Sheriff would come out with him and force me to let him install the Smart Meter, he said on my title/mortgage document that I signed when I bought the property that it gave SCE the right to install the meter and SCE had unlimited access to their meter. I told him I was not refusing him access to their existing analog meter, I was only refusing to let him install the Smart meter.
Could the sheriff force me to let them install the meter?
Don
Lady in Texas has her Sherriff on her side…he doesnt want one either. If you sound authoritative when you state that the smart meter is a surveillance device – because it is- it monitors your electricity use by minimal increments, and sends that info to the elect. co every 15 min. – you may get the Sherriff to side with YOU. I would look into the mortgage stuff just to verify yea or nea…and find out about how the easements work. Might even read your electric co agreement to see what it says the ‘installers’ can rightfully do. Overall, you just have to do your best to stand up for yourself and hope for the best. I would complain to your PUC in writing, tell them why you object- 4th Amendment rights under the Constitution! etc. Join up with this group- stopsmartmeters and go for helping eradicate this injustice! Good luck!
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I read that pingback about the power grid security. It is full of false information regarding the meters that PG&E is installing. It is sad, but I am starting to see carefully false wording in major electrical trade magazines also.
There have been no hacks on the power grid in this country, why, because our power grid is very old and even the grid operators don’t have control yet. They need to update it to make it “smart” before anyone can hack it.
And the meters are not the grid, they transmit customers total usage data only, there is no possible way that they can transmit individual appliance usage onto the radio network that is used for revenue collection, even if the customer spends thousands of dollars on a Home Area Network (that is still not working) or any other one of the many building automation systems that have been available for decades.
All the electric radio meters being installed right now are not interactive devices, they are one way only, sending customer usage data to the power company on a radio network. In the future, they hope to con customers into volunteering to allow the power companies to install so called “smart” thermostats, that will control compressor motors on residential air conditioning on or off ONLY ! That is the two way (interactive) feature that people are talking about, but it is not working now, so the meters are not interactive !
But there are pilot programs that have been going on for at least 10 years to control compressor motors. In North Carolina the local power company installed receivers on air conditioning units that take a command transmitted at about 30 watts at 155 Mhz VHF . This one way communication turns off the compressor motors on air conditioning units during hot days, it doesn’t even control the fans.
There are laws about food safety, so no refrigerators will EVER be controlled by the utility companies, there are also laws (OSHA) about working in hot temperatures, so no commercial or industrial air cooling units will EVER be controlled externally by any power company, and this goes without saying, of course there will never be any external controlling of any type of heat source in a residential dwelling by a power company.
I wish that some of these people writing about the power grid and the radio meters would do some research first, instead of parroting others false information.
I thought I looked up the specs on the meters PG&E are installing and it has a remote shut off inside, every one I’ve seen these companies install does so far, meaning they can cut your power off whenever from remote which is something they want badly, it gives them more control over you and you paying. Just because they say it’s not enabled doesn’t mean it is, the power company is famous for screwing up computer stuff and not understanding it at all.
And remote shut off means it is “interactive”, plus since it’s involved in a “mesh” network, then it does receive, and can act on commands from remote.
The power company in a lot of places has had a signal they send out to turn off people’s air conditioning, but people have to permit it and most times they get some sort of monthly discount. The power company can use that instead of rolling blackouts, they hope. So it is happening and the new smart meters will be a part of that, including what for now may be optional pool pump shut offs and other big appliances as time goes on.
With the remote power shut off of smart meters, it probably won’t be long before they try to justify using that to prevent rolling blackouts. The writing is on the wall. If they can do something like that you can bet they will.
There have been hacks on the power grid. A while back the power company computers got infected, I think it was at a nuke plant too.
“no possible way that they can transmit individual appliance usage onto the radio network that is used for revenue collection”
My friend has a smart meter and can tell easily on his internet accessible report when his water heater comes on, his spa, his microwave etc.. and he can tell the differences of which one is on. That can easily tell you if he is home or not. Even lights and TV show up, he sent me some of his reports.
And I agree, “I wish that some of these people writing about the power grid and the radio meters would do some research first”.
Any information about individual electrical appliance usage from certain new appliances that have been fitted with the monitoring chips goes to the customer owned automation system, and yes, if one buys the software, computer and in home display monitor, they can see what individual appliances are consuming, and yes, this information can be linked to the internet. The internet is not the power grid. This information is derived from customer owned appliances and systems, and that information is not sent to the utility company on their mesh or mobile phone radio networks, it is for the customers individual use and for them to make decisions as to when to operate them to reduce loads when the power company would like to ration power.
Remember the massive power outage last month ?
Power company officials blamed it on one man who was working in a substation in Yuma, AZ. They said he flipped the wrong switch that started the outage cascading all the way to California. The officials said that because there was no interoperability (antiquated controls), the outage could have been prevented and the power could have been shunted on other local lines to prevent the overloaded transmission lines if they had an updated power grid.
Also, one official said that since it was 109 degrees for a few weeks, that air conditioning loads contributed to the problem.
If we had an updated power grid, that would not have happened, but the new radio meters and thermostats did not prevent this catastrophic failure. The new meters sense power outages, but do not prevent them.
There are many different home automation systems on the market, all of them have remote dimming and on off control for lights and on-off for appliances. Each device has to have a module installed in an electrical box in place of a standard outlet, and those modules can be controlled by controllers installed in electrical switch boxes, and can be remotely controlled via telephone interfaces, broadband cable, ethernet cable and radio. This is nothing new at all. Now Google is working on developing their own automation system, with groovy features like a camera in the refrigerator so you can look in on the way home from work to see if your kids drank all your beer, and you can stop and get some more. Again, this is an internet based system, not a part of the national power grid.
All these automation systems have been marketed to mainly wealthy households, if have designed and installed many of them in high end single family detatched houses that are very spacious, they are very expensive. But now, the government and power companies are trying to market their own automation systems like they are something new, and can somehow save energy (ha-ha). They want to market these products to people who live in town homes, condos and apartments, typically very small cramped spaces, where most of the tenants are not overly wealthy (unless they live in a Manhatten apartment), where you have to be wealthy, and often that is the only choice for a place to live.
There is a lot of marketing hype and misleading information about what these new radio meters do, and believe me, if people are worried about freedom and privacy, the meters are the least of our worries.
I will get into all things that threaten our freedoms and privacy on another post, but here is a starter, the national medical records database.
Let me clarify, the friend I was talking about above has a smart meter, nothing else for monitoring his power usage. No special appliances or “monitoring chips”. Just a smart meter.
He “can tell easily on his internet accessible report when his water heater comes on, his spa, his microwave etc.. and he can tell the differences of which one is on. That can easily tell you if he is home or not. Even lights and TV show up, he sent me some of his reports.”
The “internet accessible report” comes from the power company’s web server, you have to log in, they have that set up for the customers so they can monitor their power usage. All the power companies will have that soon as part of the smart meter rollout.
And they tell everyone that they can use their smart meter information to tell what appliances are drawing what at what time so they can be “more green”. That was their big push and what the marketing hype people used to push these meters.
So yes, you can tell what is going on in someone’s house, you can get a very good idea of their life patterns and if someone else got that information from their database or directly from the meter BROADCAST they could plan when to rob you or who knows what else.
That’s also why marketing companies are drooling over this and have most likely offered big $$ sums to the power companies for “statistical” information, and one of the $$$ GREEDY reasons why they are pushing this so hard.
If you are a TV executive, wouldn’t it be good to know that in a particular town, 6 PM is when the most people are home watching TV? Could you charge more for advertising at those times? MILLIONS $$ more maybe?
I do agree that they won’t be able to just turn on and off your fridge without permission, but it is possible to do once you give permission because they offer some $$ incentive and also tell you how it’s all wonderful and safe, but then someone hacks the meters FROM REMOTE and all bets are off.
People don’t understand how dangerous these things really are because it’s new technology and the researchers are just now starting to mess with them. Do we have to wait till millions of people lose power all at once FOR DAYS because some 13 year old kid had nothing better to do, before anyone realizes how dangerous this really is?
Then everyone has to pay for the damages and also for “analog” meters to be put back, and purchased again because they threw the old ones away?
Everyone should read the story for ” ‘Smart’ Meters divulge TV viewing habits” which was posted on the right upper bar and stopsmartmeters twitter:
http://t.co/AOMIcvEo
It’s just another example of stuff that can happen with smart meters, a lot of things haven’t even been thought of yet.
I’m sorry, but I don’t believe one word about how your friend is able to tell which appliances are on and how much each one uses by logging on to PG&E’s web site. I think you are just parroting some false advertising for PG&E (do you work for them).
When PG&E and Silver Springs executives were grilled on Sept. 14 at the CPUC workshop, they admitted that the meters that are working transmit total usage data every 4 hours (6 times per day), and that that data is not real time usage, so how could your friend possibly go to a website and see his real time usage ?
I think your friend is living in a small apartment and can hear and see when his appliances are on.
Oh, and those Home Area Networks (that are not working yet) are separate from the new meters, and are not interactive with the meters.
The only thing that will ever be controlled by one way communications from the utility company’s radio networks through the new meter as an interface and then repeated on a powerline carrier (HomePlug for multi family buildings) and ZigBee for houses is the command to turn off compressor motors in air conditioning units for the people that choose to participate in the Smart thermostat program in certain residential buildings only.
The HAN’s are not interactive with the meters or the radio communications networks, and the only device that will EVER be remotely radio controlled by the power companies will be the compressor motors, NOTHING ELSE, not even the fans.
How do you expect people to “go green” and save power if they can’t tell what appliances are drawing what?
That was the big push. Remember? It would be useless otherwise.
You turn on your washing machine and then go check the web site and there’s your data within a few minutes.
The idiot “executives” probably don’t really know because they are generally not technical. He was probably giving a low number so everyone in the room would calm down, or so he thought.
Why don’t you find someone with a smart meter and web access to the data and have then send you a screen shot or something before you start “parroting some false advertising”. I don’t know why you think I am working for them, they would never say that your power usage might be monitored by others, or the meters are hackable, like I’ve been saying for months now.
ZigBee is two way, I’m not sure what you are talking about for one way communications, all this smart meter stuff is pretty much two way. And they are going to be able to turn your MAIN power off from remote for sure (disconnect for non payment or maybe just as a threat to pay or else) and that needs two way communication.
This is a waste of time.
ZigBee and HomePlug are two way, but not with the electric meter, the customer must purchase their own equipment , software, computer, to view individual appliances that have the one way chip that reports to the home computer. If a customer wants to control these appliances on or off (two way) they need to spend hundreds of dollars more for modules that are installed where these appliances are plugged in and can be remotely controlled by the computer system. These systems are not interactive with the meter interface or the radio revenue collection system, all the information and controls are the responsibility and property of the customer. If a customer chooses to have a smart thermostat, that thermostat will get one way on-off commands from the meter or what is in use and working now, get commands directly from a radio transmitter from the power company to control the compressor motors only. No other individual appliances will ever be controlled or monitored by the power company, only total electrical use can be monitored by the new meters, just like the old ones.
At that CPUC meeting on Sept. 14, the executives spilled the beans about many other things that have been falsely advertised in the past.
Like, the information that is transmitted every 4 hours over the radio network is stored for the month, and then a bill for the month is sent to the customer. The new “smart” meters are not time of use (TOU) meters, and that when the power company calculates price fixing and load demand trends, they do it weeks and sometimes months later.
Keep in mind that some of these videos being circulated are based on the European systems, they are completely different from the ones used here, and the power grid has already been updated to being “smart” in most of Europe, but that doesn’t mean that some of it is industry sponsored marketing hype either.
What the industry is banking on, is that most people don’t have a clue about automation systems, and will not question anything that the industry says and markets. It takes years to understand automation systems function and programming, there is no school that I know of that teaches automation, but there are some books that you might want to read on the subject if you are interested in writing about the systems.
Please do some research. It’s public knowledge for years now that the power companies are going to and DO ALREADY use these meters for time of use billing. I am amazed that you really think they won’t be doing this.
Maybe they have that “feature” disabled for now, but you can bet they will be enabling it soon. It’s not that hard to do when there’s already a microprocessor inside the meter and RE-PROGRAMMABLE MEMORY. They are not lying, they are not telling the whole truth.
It’s just like when they say they can turn off the transmitter, it’s still there but disabled. So if they do that would you be happy? Even though at sometime in the future they may make it “mandatory” that all meters must transmit?
You really need to go online and look at places where these meters have already been deployed for a while and see all the “features” they are offering, and how interactive it all is and how amazingly intrusive it all is. And I’m not talking about in another country. Florida is one example.
The power companies have also stated that in the near future you will be able to use your cell phone (via internet THROUGH THEIR WEB SERVERS) to turn on and off your appliances (which may include a spa, or even a coffee maker) from remote.
Since the entire system is two way it’s really not a stretch for any layman to see how they can easily work together, both the grid side and the Zigbe home network side.
Just because they are saying it’s not on now, you can bet in the near future they will be turning it all on!
I really don’t understand why you have a problem with all this, being as technical as you seem to be. Maybe you think the power company execs are all knowing and actually told you the WHOLE truth?
And I will say again, these meters DO NOT transmit only every 4 hours, NO WAY! That is a bunch of BS and anyone who has measured them with their RF meter can tell you that they don’t. I would take actual measurements over the word of some non technical company exec any day!
Why not go out and measure them yourself?
And what you are saying is that if there’s a power outage that the power company won’t know about it for 4 hours when the meter doesn’t transmit on schedule anymore? What good is that? Isn’t that one of the big “features” they were pushing these meters for?
People have opened these meters, people have hacked these meters and made the display show things they programmed them to show. They have detailed everything inside them to the chip level. They tell you the frequencies. You need to go read about all of that info and understand what they are really capable of doing before believing what some exec says coming from the same place that is forcing these down our throats .
Maybe you are starting to get it Jim, when you say, “what is this going green all about if you can’t find out how much each appliance uses ?”, and” what good is this power outage detection if it only works in 4 hour blocks of time ? ”
What I said is that the new radio transmitting electric meters are not time of use meters.
But there are Time Of Use (TOU) that have been available to residential customers for about 25 years. When they first started the program, PG&E charged a one time fee of $250 for the digital display meter made by Sangamo. TOU meters are still in use, I saw one last week. These TOU meters are not radio meters, the radio telemetry systems don’t support TOU meters, so they are all still read monthly by a meter reader.
What the executive from Silver Springs explained is that these radio meters are transmitting 24/7, most of that is for the meters to keep in sync and chat with each other, and only transmit total usage data once every 4 hours to the utility company on the radio networks. The radio transmissions are going on 24 hours a day, he did not deny that.
I don’t see why you have this block about controlling and monitoring appliances and devices remotely, there are many wired, powerline carrier and radio automation systems that have been used in residential, commercial and industrial automation systems for over 50 years.
These systems started out with a telephone interface modem in the in home controller, and now there are connected to a home computer with a serial bus, so yes, people have been able to call their home on any kind of phone, mobile or land line and monitor and control devices that are plugged in to modules that communicate with the controller.
And since these controllers are sometimes connected to a computer via the serial cable, the system can be operated remotely via the internet. This is nothing new at all, just because you don’t know about something does not mean that is does not exist.
So when you say things like,” in the future, people will be able to call the power company and to remotely monitor and control their home appliances via the power company servers”, that very well sums up your lack of knowledge about automation systems and lets on that you think it was the power companies who invented home automation.
Also, any device or appliance can be remotely controlled if it is plugged in to a control module and a part of an automation system. These systems are not paid for, installed or programmed by the by the power company, are very expensive and no automation system communicates with the power company radio networks through the new meters . Any communication of total electrical usage reported to the power company on their radio networks and viewed by the customer is sent back to the customer on the internet. No one will be able to view their electrical usage and billing unless they have a computer, monitor and internet connection, and guess what ? Many people do not own computers or have internet connections, so they will have to wait to get their monthly bill. Or they can take a minute and read their meter every hour if they really care about how much their home is using. Also all devices and appliances sold here in this country must have a rating plate that shows the current draw in amps and the operating voltage. E=IxR , Amps times volts = power in watts consumed. It’s elementary school stuff, not rocket science.
So what you are saying is that these smart meters IN THE USA can’t do time of use billing and also can’t turn on and off appliances from remote via the power company’s web servers?
“that very well sums up your lack of knowledge about automation systems and lets on that you think it was the power companies who invented home automation.” Back at you!
Please stop wasting my time.
Go to their site and DO SOME RESEARCH!!!!! They have videos and everything, they talk about how they are going to network with appliances and everything, they show you about how the reports will be detailed.
They also mention that all the programming in the meters are REMOTELY RE-PROGRAMMABLE !!! TWO WAY COMMUNICATION!! And the power company can change the interval of transmission whenever it wants!
http://www.silverspringnet.com/
And this is only one of the companies doing this! It’s not just California that’s got these problems! Just because it isn’t enabled now, it will be. And in many areas it already is!
“The Silver Spring CustomerIQ customer engagement platform features an interactive web portal that delivers near-real-time energy insights along with weekly email reports and messaging to in-home devices. Utilities can leverage CustomerIQ to provide their residential and commercial customers with a deeper understanding of their energy consumption patterns and costs. Armed with such information, consumers can shift or lower their energy usage, save money, and reduce their environmental impact.”
So you think 4 hours is “near-real-time energy insights” ? How do you define “real time” ?
And “messaging to in-home devices” is only a one way thing?
I spent enough time educating you. Please do your own research and stop confusing people on this. Maybe I should ask if you work for the power company, or one of the smart meter companies since you seem to know so much about installing meters.
This whole conversation has been a big waste of my time because you can’t seem to find google. Thanks.
I think RK is a troll for the fed, trying to advocate the agenda for Homeland Insecurity.. good luck RK tell your masters the people are hip to the robot computrized spy technoligies that strip us of our 4th amendment, tose of you with ears can hear… those of you who are not with us are against us, and you RK are just another puppet.
I live in Sacramento so I have SMUD for my electricity, I refused access when they came to change my meter as I was already made aware of smart meters. The installer’s comment to me was “well smud owns the meter.” I intend on sending them my certified letter denying them access to my home, I have blocked access to my meter but my husband says that since they own the meter they can just disconnect our electricity if they want to if we don’t let them change our meter. Is this a possibility? Can they do this?
@Lynn NO ONE in California has been disconnected for refusing a ‘smart’ meter. NO ONE.
Do not give in to utility threats. The CPUC has clearly ruled that CA utilities must offer opt-out. This issue is IN PROGRESS, that is to say, there is no ruling regarding the specifics of opt-out—but you have the right to refuse in the meantime. You are right to defend your analog meter. Many have regretted failing to do so.
If you wish to have the threats you have been subjected to publicized, please contact us at info@stopsmartmeters.org.
I believe they are slowly installing these in florida. There is a little known and so far only somewhat documented illness known as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome. There is more research and support for the existance of this health problem in Europe than there is the US. Folks with this illness report pain, light sensitivity, depression, rashes and other health problems that goes away when they remove themselves from electromagnetic fields such as those generated by every device around them that uses electricity or microwave and even radio emissions. The human body can only take a certain amount of radiation per square inch, while the emissions of your toaster, computer, electronics in your car, wireless access points etc. are very small on their own, as an aggregate it may become too much for some people. The most written about examples of this syndrome, and I’ve even witnessed it myself in a friend, are from those that get an MRI. In case you don’t know how an MRI works, your body’s magnetic field is flipped by forcing your electrons rotational axis to change. The MRI machine makes an image from the screams of your electrons as they pop back into proper rotation. People have reported pain, bruising, serious headaches and depression from an MRI. Nicola Tessla himself had symptoms of this disorder in his late years, he worked with magnetic fields most of his life. I do believe that there is something to claims of illness caused by magnetic fields and I also believe that the exposure threshhold may be different for everyone. The utilities are trying to save money on meter readers but if bills are truly increasing I daresay they’re also playing games with meter software in order to increase profits. We had issues in parts of Tampa last year when people were suddenly getting multi thousand dollar water bills after electronic meters were put in use. I think people have every right to object to these and also to the concept of electronic stock tags that may not be properly deactivated on items you purchase in the store.
As of this month’s billing from PG&E, I am NOT being charged ANYTHING other than my electric usage. I have had my analog meter locked up since last fall when they were sending out Wellington to swap out to smartmeters.
There has also been NO attempts to try to swap out again, bill me more, intimidate with threatening power turn-offs or anything…crickets.
It is impossible for them to turn me off without turning off everyone connected to the same transformer…the only way PG&E can cut anyone off is to pull your meter…if its locked up…you’re safe.
That is why I come to this site to be on top of what they are doing…so far, WE WON.
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