Comments on: More Orwellian Twists: Not Being Home Means “Opting Out,” and How Your Home is Now a Wireless Facility…

By: April is Fight-the-Fees Month | Stop Smart Meters!

April is Fight-the-Fees Month | Stop Smart Meters! — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:38:42 +0000

[…] out fees are punitive, illegal, and extortionate. Sign the petition that demands they be dropped. Join hundreds of other […]

By: Dorothy Compton

Dorothy Compton — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:43:35 +0000

I am a Cancer patient alone with other health issues.
The smartmeter is not at my best interest and I do
not want it installed.

By: Redi Kilowatt

Redi Kilowatt — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:16:33 +0000

I had to go to Orchard Supply today (owned by Sears) to buy a Federal Pacific 20 amp double pole circuit breaker. It cost me $75 for a breaker that if was still made would cost about $4.
But now, Orchard sells appliances. Anytime I go to anywhere where they sell large appliances, I always look for advertising of the HAN monitoring chips allegedly being installed, with our federal stimulus money to promote the HAN marketing program.
Guess what, I have never seen even one major (and of course not any minor) appliances that feature the HAN monitoring chips.
The Home Area Network project was a complete failure. Google and Microsoft have bailed on the HAN development projects. The people are not interested in spending thousands of dollars on a monitoring system that transmits high frequency microwave at 2415 Mhz just to show the exact information that is on ALL appliance rating plates required to be installed by the manufacturers.
It was a big marketing scam that went clunk in a very big way.
It just goes to show that the government and corporations are super stupid, and most people are smart. It’s all about perception when it comes to marketing, and the marketeers botched this HAN project big time.
What pisses me off the most is all the ratepayers money wasted on PG&E advertising about the HAN’s, and all of our tax money thrown down a rat hole to install monitoring chips in major appliances that nobody wants to buy, and will never be on the market anyway. It’s disgusting, wasting money in times that so many people are having a hard time making ends meet.

By: Trapped by SCE

Trapped by SCE — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:13:50 +0000

Has anyone thought of asking what happens if you want to move to a new home in the future, and if that home has a smart meter on it, that you will be stuck having to accept the smart meter or not move (staying in your old “analog” equipped home, on the opt out list?) Also, if you’ve paid the opt out fee once and the monthly fee religiously but then decide to move, do you have to pay another “opt out fee” again for the new home?

I think this is how eventually the utilities will have all smart meters on homes because once you move they will switch them all out. The homes with a analog meter might be worth more to the new buyer and the realtors can add it as a “feature” of the new home. But will the utility leave the analog in place for the new owner or switch it out when you call for “turn on service” at the new home?

Right now I have a “delay list” analog and want to opt out when SCE allows but am I trapped forever to live in this house, neighborhood, city with my old analog? Will I only have the choice of moving to those cities that ban them (possibly too far from my job to be reasonable?) Also, has anyone asked what happens if you have the smart meter and get ill and have to be on some kind of machine to continue to live, will they come out and take the smart meter off your house because it interferes with your machine? Or, if you have your elderly parent move in so you can caretake them through their end of life and the smart meter is affecting their health?

Does the CPUC have any answers for any of these concerns?

By: Redi Kilowatt

Redi Kilowatt — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:21:26 +0000

In reply to Shane Gregory.

That is disgusting what Burbank Water and Power did, making the choice a one time deal only.
So far, up here in PG&E territory, I have not seen one word about the people who never opted in (like myself) to the radio meter program, if they can take their choice with them if they ever move in the future.
I am not planning on moving, but changes happen, and who knows what tomorrow may bring ? Does anyone out there know any details about retaining an analog meter in the future for PG&E customers ?
If I do decide to move in the future, I will make sure that there is no SmartMeter installed on my new place to live. If PG&E won’t remove the SmartMeters in the future, I WILL !
I know those SimpleSmartMeters only can report total electrical usage of the meter to the utility once every four hours, and that the utility can only tell how much electricity my house uses in one hour blocks, not minutes or seconds. And I know for a fact that no electric utility meter, either AMR or advanced will ever be able to discern what I am using the electricity for. And I also know that nobody can use a radio scanner or computer to intercept the billing data to the utility to see if I am home or not and burglarize my house, but I have a strong objection to time differential pricing schemes set to be tried out in 2014.
That is the main reason that I will never have a SimpleSmartMeter.
All this mandatory horsepucky about electric meters and medical insurance is a drag.
The medical insurance corporations think that they can mandate that everyone donate to their corporate welfare fund, but it is not a done deal yet.
I read an article that explained for the first time to me what the penalty will be for me, who refuses to pay for medical insurance.
The fines will start in 2016, and will be $695 per year. The IRS is in charge of the penalties but can’t prosecute “refusenicks” or place liens against them. It’s only enforcement option may be witholding any refunds due from the IRS.
This leaves medical insurance corporations who stand to make huge profits off of this “mandate” very worried that people (like myself) will instead shrug off the weak mandate.
You can rest assured that I will not give the IRS any extra money that needs to be refunded, and like I said, the Supreme Court has not yet made a decision if the insurance mandate is legal or not.

By: Shane Gregory

Shane Gregory — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:00:28 +0000

Burbank Water and Power has also instituted, with the blessings of the City Council, an opt out program that is equally heinous. The utility will allow a “universal” opt out — meaning anyone can opt out, but they must opt out within 60 days of March 6, 2011. Only 90 customers will be contacted to let them know about this “option” (the ones already on the delay list). It’s a one time only opt out, meaning that if those who do opt out ever move, they will NEVER be able to opt out again in their new residence. And, most perverse of all, the utility and the City Council will not let the citizens of Burbank know how much it will cost to opt out until March 20 — although the clock started on March 6.

Oh, and no analog meters of any kind will be permitted.

And they have the nerve to call themselves “the best of the best” utility company in the country.