But, that does not mean that the SmartMeters and their radio SmartGrid are a good thing, they just compound the problems.
Yes, you said it yourself……

Actually, there are other problems with the SmartMeter/SmartGrid that are much worse, like how we have been ripped off to fund this garbage program, and all the corporate horsepucky about how the program saves energy. It’s all pure bunk.

…..Thank you Redi Whip for saying what needs to be said about a whole lot of programs—-Tech Boondoggles are all the rage this century and lots of them have made our lives measurably worse, for example, the migration of customer service to telephone trees.
Course it helps make life better for the people who make money by cutting services, or selling something that will sound fancy on the quarterly press release, or what have you.

But this smart grid thing which was sold to our decision makers without our even knowing about it is a real gnarly one because it proposes to connect all these other tech toys. All without a single safety study or public hearing!

I think “Freedom” in this country mostly means we have Freedom from Information.

Surely we should get information about things we have our children use. But we are not getting it. Everyone should read about George Carlo’s studies and ponder why we never heard about them in the 90’s or up til recently.

at least we’ve got the net and each other. cheers!

Jill,
I am not going to waste my time with that link since you described some of the content, but I am curious what the “PSC” stands for, might it be the Pseudo Science Corporation ?

Redi, give SJ some respect. There are corporate types who are waiting for RFID to come down in price so they can use them in all sorts of ways to generate marketable data. Stuff that sounds like semiparanoid sci-fi is just shy of what business can actually imagine, in their ethics-free think-tanks, for exploiting the ever-cheaper world of wireless. Newer RFID can be read at 40 feet under non-optimal circumstances. That’s a truck outside your house, not a satellite, admittedly, but I don’t think SJ is way off base.

The wireless feature of this device briefly sends out an update every hour or whatever… to the cell networks I presume. Well so does my cell phone, and all the time, sometimes while right next to my head. The meter is mounted on the side of my house… I do not keep my head next to it. No cell networks have signals in this area, so this wouldn’t happen for me anyway… the meter on my house is read wirelessly by a vehicle that drives down the street once a month, the reasoning being it is faster than parking and walking up to each meter one by one.

Seriously you’re claiming that it’ll monitor, turn off or control devices all throughout the house? Unless a device is specifically designed to interface with the meter, I’d really like to know how that would happen. And, if such a device is ever put out there for purchase, no way am I buying it. The thermostat for my furnace is a simple mechanical dial with no electronics that simply closes a low-voltage circuit when the furnace needs to come on. Or, I can just use the pellet stove… good luck controlling dumping bags of pellets into my stove. I could go on and on, but no way am I getting any device that communicates with a smart meter.

The main problem I see here is additional info out there about my overall usage patterns (they’d have no per-device knowledge), which I’d prefer they not know about. Plus I suspect they could remotely shut down my usage if they think it is “too high”. If they do that, so be it… I want to be off grid anyway.

Here is the link to quick view (sorry it’s long):

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UUvj5VraNC4J:www.erranet.org/index.php?name%3DOE-eLibrary%26file%3Ddownload%26id%3D7377%26keret%3DN%26showheader%3DN+Regulatory+Aspects+of+Smart+Metering:+United+States+Experience,+Joint+Licensing/Competition&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjvEK0WpKr5nA5Ii5uRV-QnIIvT11LfV1CCL4b5oRbhMpoWDRF47klQrCCT7WFKmm6dAvhInsQJQ-Kf5mz6zU7Mi5gapNEnAdSprFN7JyMWsDfHz8P2OhaSYKNbdhbM-nPnzZKn&sig=AHIEtbQVajHgfr4K7dJl6TUjJvoiKfwnSQ

Redi,
I did not write it. Ms. Diane Ranthum of the PSC of Wisconsin wrote it for the document I cite for a regulatory meeting in 2011.