- Is it true that you bill goes up after getting a “smart” meter?
- My bills have shot up since the installation of the “smart” meter. My utility tells me it’s my fault.
- Why is my bill higher now with a “smart” meter?
- What can I do to bring down my utility bill?
____________________________________ BACK TO FAQ INDEX
Q: Is it true that your bill goes up after getting a “smart” meter?
Many people have experienced hikes in their utility bill after a “smart” meter was installed. A recent survey published on EMFSafetyNetwork.org documented how many people have received higher bills—over one third of those surveyed. Here’s another account of the overbilling issues. Here’s another article.
Q: My bills have shot up since the installation of the “smart” meter. My utility tells me it’s because I am using more electricity. But we’ve lived in the same house for many years, and our usage is very stable. I think they’re wrong. What can I do?
Document your usage from the past to show how unusual the bills are after installation of the “smart” meter. Ask for an energy audit from your utility to help demonstrate how the new meter is not reflecting your actual usage. Consider enlisting the help of an electrician to help you trace the source of the higher bills to the meter. They have devices to measure usages, so that you have another source of data to counter the utility’s assertion that there is nothing wrong with their meter.
Q: Why is my bill higher now with a “smart” meter?
Overbilling that occurs after “smart” meter installation is an unsolved mystery. Utilities will tell you that you are using more, or that it’s been an unusually hot (or cold) month—whatever it is, according to them, the problem is NOT with their brand new, untested, strange RF-emitting device (which itself uses electricity- that you pay for!). The problem must be YOU, they say.
We have only heard of a very few cases of a utility refunding money due to overbilling. Two scientists in California worked hard for a long time, and got $1400 for their trouble—no damages were awarded to them by the CPUC. The utilities have little reason to care about you getting overbilled with lax oversight like that and no threat of fines or punishment for them.
So, we don’t know why it happens, but clearly higher bills are one of the things some customers suffer after installation. A recent poll revealed that about one third of people who had “smart” meters installed had experienced bill increases and one quarter of those had had bills doubled, tripled, or more.
Document your historical usage, and then call, email and write letters to your utility. It’s clear that some meters are defective, and they seem in no rush to ferret out which ones. Make them demonstrate that your meter is not to blame. Call local media that deal with consumer issues, such as consumer hotlines of local TV stations.
Q: What can I do to bring down my utility bill?
If you’ve addressed the above possibility that it is your “smart” meter itself that is to blame, you can think about ways to cut your usage. Saving energy is not a difficult thing to learn, and certainly doesn’t require a ‘smart’ meter, special software, or hourly data! It does need some awareness and willingness to change. Learn to read your meter.
The no-tech way to do it: read the tag or sticker on appliances to find out what the electrical usage draw is. Look for how many watts a device uses. For example, your blowdryer (a big draw) might say “1600W” on the side, your crock-pot (a low draw) might say “150W” on the bottom. Cut down your use of high-draw appliances. Electric clothes dryers and air conditioners are two big energy-hogs. Line-drying clothes is one easy way to shave off a chunk of your electric bill.
Some appliances require a little multiplication. Your vacuum cleaner or dishwasher might only give other numbers, because their draw is variable during usage. Find the V or volts, and the A or amps. Multiply these to get an approximation of the watts. My vacuum, for instance, says 120V and 12.0A. That makes 1440watts, also a big draw. Knowing which items in your house draw a lot of electricity and which don’t, you can change or reduce your own usage. When you go to replace an appliance, look for the “Energy Star” rating to see how efficient it is. Choosing a smaller fridge or a HE (high efficiency) washer are two changes that can help when it’s time to replace your old ones.
Although there has been a big push by utilities and governments to use compact fluorescent bulbs, these have serious health and environmental risks of their own- they contain mercury and other toxic substances and emit high levels of electromagnetic radiation. We recommend LED bulbs if you can afford them, or use incandescent bulbs, turn them off when you leave the room, and go to sleep with the sun!
A higher tech way to do it: Get a “Kill-A-Watt” device. You can directly see how much an appliance is using. Further up the tech spectrum is software that monitors various aspects of home energy usage.
Saving on your gas bill is usually simpler. The appliances using gas are often fewer in number—perhaps just the water heater, central heating, and the stove. Turn the water heater temperature down (but keep above 60 degrees Celsius / 140 degrees Fahrenheit to protect against risk of Legionnaire’s disease). Insulate if you haven’t already. Get a free energy audit from your utility if they offer it (just don’t let them slap on a “smart” meter while they’re in your home). And install a programmable central heating thermostat ($35)—but don’t get the sort with a wireless transmitter inside! This type of thermostat automatically turns down your heat during certain hours, so you don’t have to remember to.
All these low-tech and no-tech ways to save energy show up the “smart” meter for what it really is—a way for your utility to fire meter readers and to squeeze more money out of you—NOT a way to cut down on energy usage. The ‘smart’ meter program is costing ratepayers billions of dollars—if just a tiny fraction of that had gone toward customer education and efficiency improvements, there would be REAL energy savings, and REAL cuts in climate pollution!
“Smart” Meters do not allow for fair commerce or trust.
The “smart” meter internal program and calibration settings can be changed from remote at any time and in milliseconds. No one would ever know.
This is not fair commerce for either party. The power company could easily raise the calibration settings and no one would ever know since they are the only ones who can come and check the meter. Any inspection of the internal program would only be done by them too.
The incentive to do that is millions of dollars per month more for a very small change in the calibration settings of millions of meters.
Also, a “hacker” could easily change the calibration settings to make the meter read less kilowatt hours. The loss to the power company would be offset by other customers through rate increases since power generation needs would not go down.
Mechanical meters are fair to both parties because it can be seen through the glass that there are no tricks going on, and the spinning dial indicator can be used to quickly check the meter readings against a small load.
In a “hacking” or reprogrammed situation, the digital LCD display could be made to show anything the programmer wanted to show, so the normal homeowner couldn’t easily tell what the immediate power usage billed for really is. It may also fool power company employees.
“Smart” Meters are a dumb idea.
“The motor drives a train of gears that count the number of revolutions of the disc.”
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=42743.0
The first post on this page may confirm what I was thinking.
Any gear train has an amount of friction and sort of a flywheel effect. The conservation of energy principal. The gear train will sort of resist a quick change in speed. Assuming the original response on this page is correct, a very quick sample rate will record instantaneous peak demand. No flywheel inertia, no resistance. A rule of thumb for motors during the brief time it takes for them to come up to speed is 2-4 times the current times voltage (watts). This is a simplified version of how it works, there are other factors pertaining to this, and this is just an estimate. A short spaced sample period at a fast rate will record this peak consumption or peak demand. The old mechanical meters will not record some of this.
A motor is also a generator putting electricity back toward the meter creating something caused inductance. This is not a good thing, someone more knowledgeable than myself may explain it in another post. This is called “back EMF”. It is added to the name plate rating on the motor. The back emf fights the motor and is part of total inefficiency (“drag on”) of the motor. No motor in the real world is %100 efficient:
watts used to overcome bearing resistance + back emf (measured in watts) divided into name plate energy in watts = % efficiency
In my part of the world peak demand is done for a portion of an hour and is a more expensive industrial rate because the electric companies must have larger transformers and wires to accommodate the peaks. (peak demand)
Bottom line, the utility is right. You are now paying for all of the KWH going through a smart meter, not just what the old meter COULD measure. What this boils down to is a back door rate increase that doesn’t meet the definition of an increase because your cost per KWH has not changed, the method (%) of measured has.
I am not 100% correct on all of this. Just the generalities are mentioned. Like I said before, someone else could explain this stuff more clearly.
Best to all,
The Grinch
You are on to something here. My March 2, 2013 post, below, expands on this idea of how the installation of smart meters constitutes a rate increase.
My plan is to measure the metering difference and get some solid data to prove or disprove this theory.
I am looking for an old analog meter so I can install it for 24 hours, carefully record useage down to the minute (i.e. “12:00pm, turned on plazma tv. 2:15pm, turned of plazma tv”, etc.). Then re-install the smart meter and repeat the logged useage.
Getting data that proves our strong suspitions about smart meter measurement “errors” is the first step to affecting real change.
Yes, you’ve hit a nerve! Smart Meters appear to be measuring the full AC Wave and not just the Impedance part of the wave like our yesteryear classic meters, in other words, were paying for something we’re not getting!
We should only be paying for said Impedance part of the wave which is (to put it in layman’s terms) the calculative usable part which is the average between the Resistive & Reactive part of the full AC Wave, appliances only use the impedance part of the wave as this the only usable part. Smart Meters are fraudulent!
Colin
My wife noticed while most people are at work our smart thermostat would randomly decrease the temperature on our ac. She checked the programmed schedule and it did not match the temperature set on the thermostat. My area just had a mass lawsuit against the power company for unusualy high bills. Could the utilities be changing the thermostat by one or two degrees to increase usage during high demand periods to increase profits? This could be done when they expect no one to notice while they are at work or it be such a small change that no one noticed.
Dustin, where are you located? I am in Dubuque Iowa and we just received our July bill and most doubled, tripled or quadrupled. I put a post on FB and have 1200 replies so far. I would like to know how the lawsuit went and what data we need to start recording. Any help would be great! Tammy
The new SmartMeters are consuming energy that the customer pays for to transmit 24/7, even though they only report total usage every 4 hours in compressed packets.
Even if one turns off all loads that the meter feeds, the meter will still consume electricity.
The new digital meters are more sensitive than the old analog ones were, and there are many appliances and devices that consume energy even when turned off but plugged in.
I have found this to be true even with modern appliances that have the energy star logo on them.
With the analog meters, it used to take a certain amount of current being drawn to make the motor (dials) spin, so yes it’s true, people were getting miniscule amounts of power for free. The new digital meters sense every milliwatt of energy being used, both by the meter’s transmitter and customer appliances and devices, so naturally, the customers electric bill will increase.
Another tip is to unplug certain appliances when not in use, no, I am not talking about refrigerators, but television sets.
I unplug my television whenever I am not watching it. I notice that when I plug it back in, there is an arc at the receptacle when the TV is off. That means that the TV is drawing current even when it is not on. Also, I read that cable and satellite TV signal decoder boxes with DVRs use a lot of power even when turned off. I don’t have a DVR cable box, but I tried unplugging it anyway to save energy. What happens is that the program guide is upgraded constantly even when turned off, so if one unplugs it, the program guide must be reloaded and the list repopulated, that can take a few minutes, so I leave the decoder box plugged in, but always unplug the TV when not in use.
Fortunately for me, I don’t have a new meter, and I have no intention of letting PG&E install one either, but every little bit of conserving energy helps on the yearly electricity costs.
“so yes it’s true, people were getting miniscule amounts of power for free” You think the power companies were not aware of this? Of course they were and it was calculated into their pricing.
PG&E has admitted to me that there is no being able to read previous usage up to the day before on the internet, that was a feature that was advertised as a way for customers to somehow save energy ?
And those HAN in-home display monitors are entirely purchased by the customer, and cannot read total real-time electrical use, only the use of special chipped appliances, and all that information from the HAN systems is not transmitted to the utility, it stays in the customers system, and is another feature advertised that is somehow supposed to save customers energy, even though it has nothing at all to do with the utility billing system, radio network or power grid.
So, now that PG&E has cleared that up, it’s time to disclose what the automated meter reading project is all about.
The primary objective is to eliminate the meter readers, saving PG&E $800 million over a 10 year period, but 2 other important features are to eliminate sending out a technician to dis-connect service for non-payment of bills (this is not really important).
But another wonderful feature is the mandatory time differential pricing that will happen in about 2 years.
PG&E will have the ability to calculate kilowatt hours used hour by hour for the month billing cycle.
They plan on a rate schedule that will vary during peak hours ( I believe it is 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm. During that period, the central office will have the option to charge a
premium rate if they chose to. Look out !, it’s going to be a whopper, could be $1 per KwH. The objective is to force people to not use energy during those periods. Those periods are when PG&E has overloaded circuits and transformers exploding. They pray that people will not use energy during that time because it will be so expensive, and that they won’t have to build more power plants to feed the new load of 10 million meters transmitting 24 hours per day. Fat Chance PG&E.
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Here is how to decrease your billing rate. This was discussed at an electrical trade seminar about 15 years ago, and mentioned about 3 years ago in”Electrical Contractor” magazine. We all just looked at each other when the electric company was pitching this idea. He said they were going to run a pilot trial in one of the southern states. This great idea was not very well accepted by us. Now I understand, first get the the billing up to a level that you have to agree to the billing plan, or reduce consumption by not using your air conditioners “. etc.. They called it “Smart House technology.” I think it has not happened yet because no one wants their stove talking to Ready Kilowatt.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/02/column-wynn-meters-eu-idUSL5E8M1CME20121102?feedType=RSS&feedName=cyclicalConsumerGoodsSector
Fri Nov 2, 2012 9:46am EDT
By Gerard Wynn
Nov 2 (Reuters) – The reluctance of utilities and makers of appliances and intelligent meters to develop demand response systems undermines a core motive in a massive smart meter rollout in Europe.
It is a great idea: when everyone rushes to turn on the kettle at half-time in a football final the utility can remotely turn off non-urgent services like air conditioning to avoid a demand surge and so save firing up another power plant.
Demand response is one of the most obvious examples of a system which helps avoid building new power plants and boosts energy efficiency.
At the household level, the user agrees to pay a reduced tariff (called dynamic pricing) in exchange for allowing the utility remotely to control more energy-intensive appliances, including, in future, charging of electric vehicle batteries. Such a system depends on the rollout of smart meters which allow two-way communication between the appliance and utility.
It was part of the motive for an EU mandate to roll out smart meters to most energy consumers by 2020. But smart, wireless-enabled home appliances barely exist, except as additional features in the most expensive products, meaning the meters will have nothing to communicate with.
As the smart appliance internet page of U.S.-based GE says: “Smart Appliances / Demand Response info coming soon.” As it happens there are enough benefits of smart meters, but demand response will not be one of them for a decade or so.
That raises questions over the value for money of a massive rollout programme whose costs will be passed to consumers, and means putting back in the box one of the few energy efficiency measures to grab the public imagination…………more
While you are strictly speaking about European ideas, here in the US we have been utilizing demand response meters for decades. They are not what you call SmartMeters.
Demand response is for large C&I customers, like sewer and water treatment plants commercial and government radio transmitters , manufacturing facilities, cyrogenic and other pharmaceutical facilities, data centers and on and on.
Demand response is when a customer uses a large amount of electricity, they spread it out over periods that are non peak pricing. Demand response does not save any energy at all, it just bills use at lower non peak times.
As for your appliances being controlled, if you can call a compressor motor on a residential air conditioning unit an appliance, those are sometimes controlled by the utilities via a completely separate VHF radio signal from the utility that is one way only. It is sometimes called a Smart Thermostat program, but it has nothing at all to do with the E1 SmartMeters.
And the only other thing that could be construed to be an appliance is an electric vehicle charger. There are plans to in the very distant future to use E9 electric meters to record charger usage between the hours of 12:00 am to 7:00 am and receive a discount rate (for vehicle chargers only- nothing else can be connected to an E9 meter).
And you’re right, there are no other large or small appliances that will ever be monitored or controlled by any utility anywhere.
Again, the intent is to grab the public’s imagination.
Hey Redi … assuming our dear ‘UTILITIES’ are checking us out as we speak here, is it possible that if enough of us were to replace ‘utility owned’ meters w/our own ‘personally bought’ meters, giving them back their’s (BTW, who sells quality ‘analog’ meters to the general public?), would:
1. cause the utility to be more reluctant to ‘changing out’ w/a SmartMeter?
2. cause the utility to be more reluctant to ‘cut power’ on a ‘massive’ basis?
3. cause the utility to have to revert back to conventional ‘meter reading’ since
meter reading is & forever has been included in our monthly billings?
All this info properly deducted has got my meter spinning in my head. I now have found the solution. Not cheap up front but very smart and pays off. I am installing Solar and wind, NOT for the Off grid or grid tied uses. Mine will be solar and wind into deep cycle batteries with a catch! I will disconnect my home from the utility and run a big battery charger that will only function to keep the batteries up for all my uses which solar and wind fail to do.
The hassle with wind and solar is “what do you do if you run low on power and/or what do you do with excess power” No one has even considered severing the main from the meter to the house and only running a battery charger in Off Peak hours to supplement a lower cost solar and wind set up.
The utility only sees one energy user, the charger, in my case a 100 amp charger which uses under 10 amps of juice but keeps my batteries hot and all my normal stuff running full blast!
this “off the grid” idea is totally illegal in most municipalities. State regulators have allowed laws that force you to connect solar and wind generation to the grid. You will not have an occupancy permit in your town unless you are legally connected to the grid
There is nothing wrong with smart meters. I have a smart meter and still paying the same and less some months. I do not work for BC Hydro. Live a newer condo near downtown Vancouver.
BC Hydro installed a SmartMeter at our house a long time ago, but I believe it is not being remotely read yet. Every once in a while I see the little door to the meter on the side of the house slightly ajar – a sign that a person actually read the meter. The last time I saw that coincides with the reading date indicated on our latest bill dated 13 Dec 2013. Our average consumption has also not changed from previous years. I am curious to see if I will notice any increased bills when the Smartmeter is fully functioning.
I have an energy saving device, it’s called an ax. Here’s what you do: Step 1: Pick up ax and go outside. Step two: Find “SmartMeter” and unload on it with 2-3 full swings (accuracy not critical). Step 3: Go inside, light a candle, and pour yourself a cocktail. I want too, but here’s my question: From a legal precedent standpoint, isn’t SMUD, or any other vendor selling a metered product, obligated to measure the amount of product sold equally from the day the service was first sold through say, forever? Ok, so what if the “SmartMeters” are more accurate, and it turns out we’ve been “under measured” all along. I say “too bad”! SMUD has had thirty years to adjust rates so that the money they get covers the cost of supplying electricity to the homes in their district. This cost-to-revenue relationship has set useage/measurement/billing precedent, and the fair market value of a kilowatt-hour of electricity–regardless of how it’s measured. It’s time to either re-calibrate the new meters, or lower the rates so that a kilowatt-hour measured before SmartMeters equals a kilowatt hour measured after SmartMeters. I don’t care about RF exposure nearly as much as I do about my electric bill going from $50-$60 per month in winter, to over $190, and then being told by SMUD that I must have more cellphone chargers plugged in than I did before. On top of all that, everyone now pays a $12 per month fee (up from $10 per month last year) for someting called “Infrastructure Surcharge”. They’re sticking it to us and charging us for the stick. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my ax and go outside. To chop wood for the fireplace, of course.
Thank you! So many comments and you’re the only person seeming to make any sense! That’s just my opinion. . .
im reading a lot about getting small amounts of free power and that the smart meters are just more accurate compared to the old meters. surely the power companies already knew all this and would not be running at a loss for so many years. so we the consumer were in fact paying for this. you would think that we would have had maybe a 1 or 2 year period of no increases but greed has taken over. well it was always there its just gotten worse. i have been in my same house for 3 years. first bill $357 same time the year after $562, this year same time of the year but with the smart meter $806. interesting thing is that i have cut down on high usage appliances over these years. plasma tv GONE. led replacement. old light globes GONE, energy “saver” globes installed. fridge and freezer adjusted from super cold to just acceptable. Appliances that are not used much have been unplugged. it seems such a waste of time trying to change when every last person is either out to rob you blind or just give you crap products or service. next step is buy a clip on energy meter reader, check all my individual wires at the fuse box then each individual item. then be just as pissed off because by then my next bill will be $1000 or more. might be cheaper to run my house off a diesel generator but i would still have the ongoing cost of this new flash fancy piece of crap meter to deal with. just another one of those things thats making me lose faith in the government more and more. RANT COMPLETE
All those meters are called “smart” because they contain an microchip which is programed to add an extra amount of energy,about 20-40%,to a really consumed one.
“Digital” design,means no mechanical disc,so it can show any numbers.
Nobody knows how is made that program, except the designers.
More than that, SM emanate an strong amount of electromagnetic radiation,witch presses on mind of population and keep them dumb and sic.
Lot a tricks on gas measurement;
First of all, they pump/mix a lot of atmosphere air in natural gas lines.But we pay like for gas!
Same thing with an ethanol percentage in gasoline.If it’s allowed to add 10%- they pump 35% and more.
All this is Luciferian cabal agenda.
That anti human race works with no shame to increase subjugation of entire globe population and many other worlds.
Smart meter on business jumped our average/monthly kw from 530 to 940 aprox.
in terms of money it increased from 2700 to 5100 aprox.
no changes in equipment. Will find out upon pge investigation what they come up with for explanantion.
Any methods to run parallel meter or way to verify if their meter is recording accurate will be highly appreciated.
I was wondering if anyone has had a problem with the smart switch shutting down your air conditioning unit. It has happened to me twice. The heating and air conditioning repair man said it’s the smart switch that is shutting it down. When he by passed it, the air was working fine. I have a new air conditioning unit as well. Now, I want that smart switch taken off and I’m getting the run around.
BGE swapped a Smart Meter for a Smart Meter when I installed solar panels. They used an estimated reading on the old meter, and billed me for over 1,500 kwh that I did not use. I know because I wrote down my meter reading daily for almost two months before the solar panel installation. According to the PSC, BGE is required to take a photograph of meters when they are removed. I am looking forward to seeing that photograph!!
I will keep this site apprised of my progress with BGE. So far we have been in dispute for five months, including a 57 minute phone call with the billing department. The PSC is waiting for a response from BGE on my complaint.
I have complained for years that my bills have escalated since Smart meters were installed — not to prevent expense of readers because we mailed in our monthly reading. Then my fridge began running 24/7 and the fan burned out — and my bill spiked. I finally unplugged the malfunctioning big fridge and hooked up a 4.4cf estimated to consume less than 20 KWH/mo for my usage. Unplugging the 24/7 big fridge barely moved my consumption number. So I found a publication by Duke Energy that tells what appliances consume per time and their wattage. My tv viewing runs 13 KWH per month. All my lights are CFL and I only use them in the room I’m in. My “vampire” appliances — microwave, computer system and tvs – entire system — are on surge strips which I use to shut everything off. I estimate (on high side) 5 KWH/mo for lighting & misc. — eg clock radio at 5 watts runs 1.6 KWH per month. So, pissed as I was that unplugging the big fridge did nothing, I turned off my hot water tank, took tepid showers, and I did my cooking on my propane camp stove. My bill barely budged.
Now, some of you will croak at my consumption, but my bill this month should not have exceeded 40 KWH. It came in at 115 — and I have screamed all the way to the governor. The PSC hung up on me. The electric co just ignores me and continues their LYING consumption numbers. I am in AR.
I write this to tell you that they do indeed LIE and they turn appliances ON — which INCREASES our consumption — and burns them out. Now my 4.4 cf has bouts of 24/7 also.
What I want to know here is if there are any attorneys who are engaged in this fight. I have been documenting this process. Initially, I realized that they weren’t putting a decimal point in the meter reading, hence it was being read at 10-fold actual consumption. But now it has changed. Also, I noted my neighbors getting screwed for 1500 KWH — or 1.5 MILLION watts, and this month, for the first time, their bill is more than $100 less than what they have been charged monthly. I have calculated their consumption and it is no where near 1500 KWH, but they used to heat kennels, and their number never came down after they stopped doing that. I saw a prior year consumption number used on my bill after I had shut everything off. Related to NOTHING.
It appears now that the meter is actually reading per how they are billing. I told them I want a new fridge.
If there’s an attorney out there, keep that in mind!
I am pretty pissed that they can hold us hostage like this, and proving their error accomplishes nothing.
Will someone out there either be an actively engaged attorney who can help, or someone who can forward information on where to continue pursuing these thieves.
Thank you.
08-08-18 Well Raz it has been appx. 4 yrs. since your post…Did any of your problems get resolved or just a general run-a-round from the utility company or the PUC. Hope you found a decent attorney….Unfortunately it appears to be a controlled monopoly with the PUC getting their pockets stuffed.
Lie, lie & lie again”*
* Corpogreed workin’₱remi$è;
“…we will know we are successful when everything the public believes is not true”.
– William Casey CíÀ Ðirector 1981~1987
Btw~✓ .¿’. Frankenstein say, “Smart meter very dumb!”
~~update 1-8-2024
Asplund kept tree lines under side clear and clean since way back in the previous century until a decade ago when new little nerdy nickel counters came of age and climbed corpnasty ladders.
Well, the trees grew & finally broke the bottom leg of our backyard “right of way” eminent domain for utility companies(baby grandchild of Railroad Robber Barrons) 3 wire (120volt- neutral – 120volt) system.
Sammy Smart Meter had no idea, I had to call it in after the latest storm.
Hours on the phone ☎( seemed like anyway dealing with computer menus, I especially like the ones who finally say “good-by” & hang up on you! ! aahhh!
Eventually, I got a call center in Guatemala( yes, I ask where he was, always do) and reported the outage.
I live in prince edward Island I had a smart meter installed in September 2014 and since than my bill has doubled , The city of summerside keeps saying that the meter is right I havent changed anything In my home to use more power . But my bill is saying I used double the amont of klwh and then some.
I had a service upgrade to 200 amp service upon advise from a building inspector when I bought this house in 2011. In feb of 2013 I finished the service upgrade and new sub panel on the interior. To do this they had to disconnect the main drop to my house and then reinstall it in the new by code breaker box for the main feed. When the power was restored I began being double billed. When I got that first bill I couldn’t believe that I was using that kind of power since nothing had changed in my house in the 2 years that I had owned it. When I spoke with customer service they said it was perfectly normal and normal for the size of my house 2000 sq ft. So I compiled my total PGE bills from 2012 and my bills from 2013 and yup! right there on the day in February when we switched over it shows a doubling of my energy. I have called PGE customer service many times and just get the blow off. Im considering solar and thought Id do some searching to see if others are having problems like mine. Also I have had 5 licensed electrician out here to try to figure out my increase. They all say”its your smart meter”
you guys seriously are missing the big picture. US, Canada, UK, and who knows how many more countries there are….all have beem forced by their govt to replace all meters with remote controlled smart meters. You think its your teeny tiny couple.of dollars theyre after? or this peak load time nonsense (i liv in hot ass vegas and have never heard of such lunacy..)? ITS CONTROL THEY WANT! REMOTE KILL SWITCHES FOLKS! they can put us into darkness, cause r food to spoil, turn our air systems off…. make us vulnerable at their command. Take us back to primal conditions. The damn things.hav their own wifi connection. which.is.shared with your famcy $4000 flat screen TV, Tablet/laptop/phone & othr such devices which.have surveillance capabilities…front facing cameras etc…funny how the big ” digital switch” happened but i still nneed rabbit ears to get a channel… the.convertor boxes for older TVs are a wifi connection. theyre in r homes 24/7. and they can.shut us down whenever they choose
Someone please suggest a device that can test the new meters…I know I’m not doubling my usage
Check this out- there are also whole house monitors available
http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html
But you should not have a smart meter on your home for many other reasons besides $$$
My bill almost doubled since a smart meter was installed two months ago. I rarely had a bill over $190. Last month was $242 amd this month was $323 despite tha fact that no one has been home during the day to use electricity and I assigned a lights out time in the house to try and bring the bill down , as well as limiting use of electronics. Thats 3 hours right there saved a day times 30. Thats 90 hours less and not including the fact that the house has been empty morethis month and the bill still went up? I do not believe for one minute that my bill should have gone up when less electricity was used. According to the smart meter I have used more electricity and is just not true. I made sure we used less overall.
So my question is this, if the power company installs a smart meter
Can a electrician install a old meter after this has been done?
Because we never approved this?
That’s the ticket! https://stopsmartmeters.org/frequently-asked-questions/changing-a-meter/
After almost a year of ridiculously inflated – almost double – electricity bills (during which I tested every appliance in my house and even had independent contractors come to my house to figure out where the electricity usage was coming from) I finally had NVEnergy replace my meter. I went to their facility to watch them test the old smart meter. It passed. BUT ever since the new smart went in my bills have gone back down.
Their smart meter passed but it was obviously defective! I’m asking them to refund $1700 of over-charges along with some extra for my time, the independent contractors, and the fact that we kept our temperature at 80 all summer because I couldn’t figure out why our bills were so high. STUPID “smart” meters!
I think the smart meters may well test within what is deemed the normal parameters but still produce inflated utility usage readings if their
smart microchips are programmed to do so. You must be a millionaire to
do so much. For almost everyone else there is not recourse for past overbilling
but the potential that something may trigger a microchip program that just happens to cause inflated utility usage readings resulting in overbilling is itself
a wise reason to opt-out of wifi smart meter technology and get the reliable analog meter. It is entirely possible that a continuous inflated utility usage
reading is the norm. The apparent successful suppression of all such information by the CPUC and associated utilities can be inferred from the
relevant released emails discussed in the March 2015 article by Sandi Maurer
“The Structure Report”. Where is there documentation of official acts of due diligence on the part of the CPUC upon learning of the propensity for the wifi smart meter microchips proclivities for multiple modes of inflating utility usage readings? Is it possible SCE has not had similar problems? They certainly have similar levels of complaints of overbilling that was likely a
comparatively very rare event with analog meters. But be aware of this: if you complain about over billing you can not prevail unless you can prove the wifi smart meter inflated usage readings causing inflated bills. And no one is going to tinker with the proprietary microchip technology and try to figure out just what exactly is programmed into those darn sophisticated lil buggers. Five years of collecting putative overbilling revenue is a powerful incentive to keep
all nasty smart meter revelations under wraps. The emails that spilled the beans were never meant to see the light of day and were not even relating to the specific crony ex parte matter being addressed by the judge who ordered the PGE 65000 emails released. At last an answer to how it is that so many
people experience overbilling from the novel microchip meter devices; or at least claim to; the over billing is probably almost never admitted to, verified or validated by the CPUC/utility cabal.
They changed us to a smart meter”because of my dogs” last year. I’ve lived here 11 yrs and have always had them. They used binoculars to read the meter each month no problem. I have severe allergies and asthma problems especially in winter so 11 yrs ago we removed our central heat and air. First bills for summer and winter were under 100$(we use wood burning stove BTW). 2nd year they replaced meter citing that it was defective(determined by the large difference between my bills and my neighbors) and my bills doubled. Electric company said I must have a large appliance going bad. Two other meter changes for same reason. In intervening years same result. Went from 45-55$ June bills to 150-200$ June bills between 2004 &2012. 2012 resided home and put in energy efficient windows then they put in smart meter. Nov. 2014 bill 115$ Dec. 2014 bill 230$ Jan. 2015 bill 254$ Feb. 2015 bill 205$. When I called I’m told it’s winter and it’s been really cold. Told Westar rep. don’t have electric heat system. Asked if I closed heat vents when using wood stove. When I asked what that had to do with it she tells me it’s like having a window open. I asked again what does that have to do with anything she says that will still make my the most at kick on and off. I said “hello,what part of I have no central hv/vac system therefore no thermostat do you not understand”. She says oh ya you did say that, well you need to hire an electrician to come in and find the energy drain. Makes no sense my bills should stay level all year with no major usage swings except in summer when I use window a/c for 100+ degree days. Yet between us Oct. & July my bills fluctuate between 100-300$ per month. If I had something causing a drain on my electric it should be all the time not just some months. We are both physically unable to work so we’re home most of the time our routines that would effect our usages don’t vary much from day to day so it can’t be explained like people who work and are gone most of every day and home more on weekends. Bought brand new energy star fridge and stove spring 2014 also have he washer/dryer set too. Have led or fluorescent bulbs also. Yet my usage hasn’t dropped but an infinitesimally small amount. When I complained to Kansas corporation commission they say reviewing my bills shows no increase in my usage so there is no impropriety yet that can’t explain why my bills are still high even though I’ve made all these changes and efforts to reduce my bills. Since I have found out that a good portion of the commission board members are Westar administrative employees with a few state people whose jobs are controlled by politicians who entertain or work with Westar lobbyists at the state level and I’m sure also donate to their re-election campaigns which is why they get every rate hike they ask for in spite of consumer objections. We in southern Kansas also pay higher rates even though most of the power plants are here and the north pays less even though it costs more to transmit it to them from here,so we aren’t just paying for our usage we get to pay for theirs too as part of the higher rates.
I have a solar system on my house for over 5 years. My usage and production have been almost the exact same year to year……and then the smart meter was installed. I knew something was very wrong when im getting a 70.00 bill during a time of year when my bills have been ZERO for the past 5 years. I found this website and I drafted a letter to APS to request my old meter be reinstalled. To my surprise, APS came and reinstalled the old meter, and all of a sudden im generating more power like before.
Thank you for the information on this website, it has saved me money, and proven that smart meters are only smart at ripping you off.
Thank you for your post, I’m writing my letter to APS right now.
We have had solar for years now and ever since our power company has installed the “smart meter” we have noticed a HUGE gap in what our inverter produces and what our power company’s “smart meter” records. We are missing over 860kwh over the last few months……We are watching #’s diligently and our gut feeling is that they are ripping us off.
I am seeing the same problem with duke energy in FL…is there anyway to resolve this my production was off over 700 kwh this ,onth and 500 kwh last month ….I am not happy but dont know what to do…
I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and I have been living here for over 14 years and my light bill is now more than tripled. I called the light company to get someone out here to read the meter because I haven’t used any more electricity and one of the bedrooms I never use so it’s nothing plugged up in there. The technician came out and said he thinks my air conditioner is pulling to much power so we stopped using them and my bill is still high. I’m on a fixed income and it’s been very stressful trying to get the money to pay this bill and you have to have lights and they know this. I think they are a bunch of crooks, anyway to get more money in their pockets and they don’t care what they have to do to get it, even if it means sticking it to the little guy.
Today I turned every circuit breaker off, except for my PV system. The inverter displays AC watts and my assumption is that this is what is being put back into the grid. I’ve sent an email to SunPower to confirm this. My smart meter reads about 100 watts less than my inverter. Tomorrow morning I’ll do the same thing only I will turn off the inverter too and see what the smart meter reads…better be zero or near zero! 2.4 Kw-hr every day since the smart meter was installed is a lot over billing if this is true. I’m in San Diego by the way, SDGE territory.
So what did your meter read?
After installing SmartMeter by ComEd in northwest of Chicago in January of 2016, the bills went up by 400-500%, from about steady $80 per month, to about $400, while the practical usage remained normal, but reported usage increased.
Check out this you tube video, Gerard Morin explains how the analog meters work and explains why the bill from a smart meter results in an increase power bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHfgfTeGyG0
This smart meter is a scammer meter. The smart meter was installed in our house by SCE without our permission. Since then our electric usage went up. Our house has an area of 3684 sqf. with 2 centralize aircon and one very small air conditioner unit. We are only three in the house and we are all in one bedroom because my daughter is disabled, and during summer we use our small air conditioner unit, with energy saver that automatically stops running, 24/7 always set at 82 -83 degrees fahrenheits. We very seldom use our centralize air conditioner units. Everytime we use even one of our centralize air conditioner unit, our electric at the time of usage always spike to more than 6 kilowatts per hour from our regular consumption of about 1 kilowatts per hour. We believe that our experience is also happening to thousands of energy consumers. Obviously, the Smart Meter is a scammer brought to us by SCE, and SCE is the one GREATLY being benefited by the scam. THERE SHOULD BE A CIVIL CLASS ACTION AGAINST SCE, and Criminal Court action should also be filed against them.
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What would you rather have?..a meter reader come on to your property to manualy read your power meter and probably NOT get a read due to hazards( dogs etc..) Or have the “smart” meter which will “GUARANTEE” a read every time.
Graham, TX So we were hit on water again! More than double last month which was $100 more than prior months!!! This is our usage history for 2015 up to current. So they say all meters reflected accurate usage as of last month’s bill… we got lots of rain hence lots less watering and my bill doubles!!!! We went from $65 in June to $167 in July to $350 in August with all that rain?!
So I just called the water dept. They say my tripled usage was accurate from July 15th thru Aug 15.They say I must have had a “water party” on July 29th which consumed 5,000 gallons that day! How do you start a class action suit??? This is ridiculous!
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I got rid of my smart meter from pge and my bills are half of what they were before. They charge me $5 extra a month but well worth it. KEEP FIGHTING and those meters are not used in high income communities ((MARIN COUNTY, STINSON BEACH, etc)) here California for some reason. Get rid of that smart meter, ASAP
We had a ‘smart’ meter installed last summer. I find it extremely interesting that there is energy being used even tho the power is turned off.
Here is recent study : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/hardware/millions-of-smart-meters-may-over-inflate-readings-by-up-to-600-percent/
While you are strictly speaking about European ideas, here in the US we have been utilizing demand response meters for decades. They are not what you call SmartMeters.
Demand response is for large C&I customers, like sewer and water treatment plants commercial and government radio transmitters , manufacturing facilities, cyrogenic and other pharmaceutical facilities, data centers and on and on.
Demand response is when a customer uses a large amount of electricity, they spread it out over periods that are non peak pricing. Demand response does not save any energy at all, it just bills use at lower non peak times.
As for your appliances being controlled, if you can call a compressor motor on a residential air conditioning unit an appliance, those are sometimes controlled by the utilities via a completely separate VHF radio signal from the utility that is one way only. It is sometimes called a Smart Thermostat program, but it has nothing at all to do with the E1 SmartMeters.
And the only other thing that could be construed to be an appliance is an electric vehicle charger. There are plans to in the very distant future to use E9 electric meters to record charger usage between the hours of 12:00 am to 7:00 am and receive a discount rate (for vehicle chargers only- nothing else can be connected to an E9 meter).
I’m the only one in my home I have a refridgerator and do laundry twice a week, don’t watch much tv, plug in my lap top when the battery goes low then I unplug it don’t have it plugged in during the night I have a wood stove no blower on it, and oxygen when I go to bed, and lights are normally off and I use them low energy bulbs, so what the hell is going on my bill doubled I use to only pay between 45-60 a month now its almost `100 a month , I’m mad mad as hell, I even turned my breaker box off 10 times last month for 24 hours each time and my bill was still high, something don’t add, I see you got distribution charges and all these new charges for taxing on the bills , that was never there before, so now what they gonna say oh we have this tax and that tax, well I’m about to be come like in the old days and shut off the breaker box an tell consumers where they can put their energy if they don’t fix this , ripping people off, I don’t mind paying for my usage but it shouldn’t be over 50 a month not for a single person, who don’t have much running, in there home, and don’t tell me it is my water pump or water heater cause I can say your full of shit, cause its new,
I also have a Smart Meter and my bill last month was $1100 dollars from normal of $175 this time of year. I have no stove, washer or dryer. Live in one room of my home and only have bathroom light and bedroom light, TV and to small space heater. Ok don’t have things going 24/7 either. They refuse to change out my meter! Also had high ringing in my ears and my body feels like hot prickly all when I’m in my room with electrical being on outside wall with smart meter. Help!!
I had my ‘smart’ meter installed day before. The time clock on the meter is off by 55 mins. It reads 7:05PM when it is actually 8PM. On the first day we started using the heavy appliances at 8:05PM normal time but then the clock on the meter still read 7:10 so i guess we got charged at insane rates.
This is FirstEnergy in NJ.
The electricity grid is full of harmonics. It varies according to location.
The smart meter charges the consumer for the consumption of 50/60Hz energy.
The smart meter also charges for the harmonics and there could be any number of them at any given time.
What we are talking about here is massive fraud.
Reactive power is also being added on.
The sources of the harmonics largely began in the electronics era of the 60’s and include variable speed drives, LED lighting and wind turbines.
Wind turbines do not produce 50/60Hz energy and they should all be shut down another fraud.
Reactive power is produced by electric motors.
Many in the industry know harmonics are being added on and that the consumer is being gouged, ripped off.
We need a massive class action
I moved into a townhouse in Las Vegas in May with billing cycles that run from the 10th to the 10th. This place has gas for the hot water, heat, stove and clothes dryer. I had a bill of $494 for the two cycles from June 10 through August 10. According to NVenergy I use more than double the most I have ever used in my life (I am 60). I have not even moved my stored household goods down from Oregon yet, the only items using power are this laptop the refrigerator and the A/C. One of the first things I did after moving in was get LED bulbs in to replace the fluorescents which I really hate, they give me a headache. They also make food appear gross.
So when I got a $300 bill for July 10 – August 10 I called to demand my meter be checked, the phone operator (reading a script) assured me that smart meters are NOT fallible so it must be me. That just pissed me off so I filed a compalint with the Nevada PUC. The very next day the power company had a tech here to look at the meter.
He left without discussing it with me, and today I went out and saw there was a new meter. My electric account online now says with 9 days left in this billing cycle my power consumption is expected to be $70 for the month.
So, from $300 to $70, meaning they were over billing me by more than 400%. And you pay taxes on that over billing as well.
The article says that it is rare to get a refund on over billing, well you have not met me. I am not going to allow them to steal my money, I am a disabled vet on a fixed income and I can raise a stink when I need to like nobody you know. I am thinking they will give me a refund just to get rid of me and I will file suit if need be.
I might not be that angry had I not been treated like a child that is too stupid to know when I am being cheated. All they had to do was treat me fairly and I would have let it go. Now, no way, we are getting milked for every dime by corporate America with the collusion of corrupt Washington. Time to fight back!
You are a very lucky man. Most customers have to pay for the bills regardless it is right or wrong. I wish they, the California, SCE will treat me the same way they been treating you… wish you the best
I recently had a NC Duke Energy Smart Meter installed (without my knowledge or warning) on 1/8/19. From that day forward I’ve had wi-fi issues on a daily basis.
I’m not sure of the health impact, but I have noticed a bit of brain fog and slight headaches (in the front of my head) since it was installed.
I am going to opt-out and pay Duke Energy’s extortion fees ($150 and $12 per month) to go back to my analog meter.
There’s nothing smart about that meter, it’s simply a way for Duke to price gouge customers and cut labor costs, pure and simple. I will likely go solar in the next year to minimize my dependence on Duke Energy. Very unhappy customer!
OMG, we are having the same exact issues in Maine! Our local news checked into it last year and aired consumer concerns which started a huge outpouring of complaints from overcharged users. An investigation was launched (by the company..so the fox was truly guarding the henhouse here) Naturally, no problems were found, all in perfect working order according to CMP. It’s disgusting, and from the sounds of it a Nationwide scam.
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Aps sent me 12000.00 bill stating there was an error for 5 years on there end . The Have mailed me a box with each month for the past five years billing all based on a smart meter reading they want me to pay the 12,000 in full or they’re going to turn my power off help what can I do
Central maine power came out to switch from analog meter to smart meter on house I’ve been in for 8 years! My bill avaeraged about $250 month sometimes as much as $350! The first bill I got was for $1800 partial month with smart meter then the following month it s I think $2,900!!!! I complained to maine public utilities commission about the issue but nothing ever came of it and my bill when I moved out several months later was over $10,000 told CMP to GFYS and no way their meter was correct! They said they looked into it and there was a problem with meter! They said it was with the old meter! If I was running that much electricity through a 80 amp service place would burn to ground so how am I useing $3000 month I’m electricity in a 1200 sqft home! No electric heat no electric hot water heater all propane amd the light bulbs everyone in world uses are less than 15 watts!!!! Notice our electricity usage is maybe 20 percent of why it used to be when we were all useing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs and high drain appliances some peoples bill have gone up 50 percent 100 percent some cases 300 percent ! The utility company’s know dam well these meters are wrong and the old analog meters were more accurate and could t be manipulated in any way! Power companies can program. These thing they can erase and enter different numbers in to hide their crimes!
So now I can’t get power in my name and it’s destroyed my credit but I’m not paying the crook utility company all that money! One months bill is more then what I was paying all year!
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Make sure your mechanical meter or your smart meter is properly grounded or else it will give you a high false reading ,a homeowner talking from experience.Before the smart. Meter was installed the electric company checked my mechanical meter and I had everything shut off in the house except refrigerator and small deep freeze and they told me that I still had something in the house using high energy usage.Years latter when they changed to smart meter I was always seeing a blinking red light at night from the meter ,that means high energy usage.My o2 man checked my ground at my house their was none,we went outside and my ground rod right in front of the smart meter was four and a half feet above ground level,he told me that is your problem.I had my son drive the ground rod below ground level reattach ground wire from meter to the rod .The next night I turned everything in the house on went out to the meter it was blinking amber and my bill has gone down by at least half.
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When I was conned in to having smart meters thinking I would only gain more access to use history and save having to read the meters in a remote landlord basement meter room each month as a tech minded person it never occurred to me it could cost me more money.
But this is what is happening on my gas supply as whilst the new Honeywell Elster Smart electricity meter seems to probably be recording around the same consumption as its Landis & Gyr mechanical predecessor that I took a photo of before its demise (a very old name in meters it seems, unlike Honeywell Elster) the same is not true of the new Honeywell Elster smart gas meter that for the same consumption pattern seems to be recording between 50% and 80% more than its predecessor UGI METERS LTD 1990 (A HANSON COMPANY) gas meter predecessor did.
But now all I can do is watch the higher readings clock up and shortly the smart gas meter is going to be changed again for a Dual Band version and Dual Band Comms Hub so that I can actually manage to see what it is clocking up on the In Home Display which is not currently in reliable range of it.
As I am now in touch with the “Product Owner” of smart meter tech at the meter installer company (Smart Meter Systems) I’m going to try to insist that the new gas meter is a Landis & Gyr one as I know they make smart gas meters and seem to be an older and trustier name than Honeywell Elster are. Of course its tempting to believe that the installer messed up and the new meter is leaking out gas but surely I should be abe to smell that, especially in a poorly ventilated basement room.
It seems to me if the system was fair they would leave the old removed dumb mechanical meters with you and if you had any objection to how the smart meters are behaving then you should have the right within say 1 year or 2 years to have the dumb mechanical meters reinstalled or particularly instructive would be installing them in parallel with the new supposedly better smart meter.
Instead they just put in this gas meter that records way more in and you are stuck with it. And at 58 I am getting older and starting to feel the cold more (and will a lot more in coming years) so either I pay way more or I sit here and die of hypothermia in mid winter.
The thing is that my old gas consumption amount of 13,000 Kw per years was at the higher end of what you would expect for a 2 bed apartment so why should it now be 50% to 100% more in a year than that. It is difficult to tell how much more because I only have a month’s gas consumption to go on and gas consumption is highly seasonal and also somewhat variable from year to year, much more than electricity use is unless you use electricity to heat your home (which I don’t as it only does appliances and lighting).
The suggestions here that you now have to use way less energy to cope with having had faster reading smart meters installed seem to me totally ridiculous and unreasonable.
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Has anyone noticed that when the old analog meters were used the actual meter readings were on your bill, so you could look at your meter and compare the readings.The new PGE bills (El Dorado hills, Ca) does not give meter readings just daily usage and then total KWh used. If you want to compare KWh you must read your meter on the day data is compiled for each month and subtract last from current (PGE states from month/day to month/day) I believe that data you read should match their KWh shown on your bill, not caring about anything but total usage.
Mine shows +27 – 32 % above what I read.
Just Food for thought, I found interesting,
I am having several neighbors read their meters daily and recording KWh readings ( can now also calculate daily usage) to compare total usage to see what they are using compared to bills, again not concerned about time of day usage just daily,monthly to see how numbers add up.
The utilities are using every trick in the book to maximize their profits. Consider this: We have taken many measures to conserve energy and reduce the load on the utilities, thus lowering the amount of “product” they produce. We see a temporary reduction in our energy bills but the rates keep rising. The energy retailers are inventing new algorithms everyday and using incrementalism to extract every penny possible from a slowly awaking public.
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It’s disgusting my electric bill was always around 250 300 a month this was back in 2012 and smart meter went on house and my bill went up to 2800 a month and I contacte maine public utilities about central maine power installing defective meter and refused to Pay bill!! My electric bill when I moved out several months later was over $10,000 and I still can’t get power in my name because of that defective meter! Lived in that house for 8 years and bill was never over 350! Central maine power said there was a problem with the old meter so that’s why they replaced it and they replaced it with a smart meter! Think they programmed to rip all of us off! Anyone notice our power consumption is about 20 percent of what it used to be but yet our power bills have doubled tripled and in my case gone up 1000-2500 percent! We’re all being fleeced by utility companies local government and federal government!! Pissed off!! I’m going off grid solar central maine power can kiss my A$$
I’m my state the electric company is owned by a company based in Spain!!! We had to pay for the smart meters we had to pay for their equipment upgrades and anytime there’s a storm we have to pay for all the repairs while they keep making record profits for their investors!! They don’t have any skin in the game! It’s a monopoly and no matter what they never ever lose! They get permission from our local state government to rape us increase rates upgrade equipment ! This is why a lot of people up here want to take control of it because we’re paying some of the highest rates in country while transmission power lines stripping our north woods of thousands of acres of virgin land to transmit cheaper power to Massachusetts and further south! I’m so happy iberdola I’m Spain able to rob Mainers to make record profits and reap huge payoffs for their investors! Wait and see because most Mainers getting sick of being a victim to their fraud and will be taken from them. Scary thing is them it’s under state control and their all crooks as well their track record proves that
I live in NE Texas. Owned a 3000 s.f. home for 22 years that used a visually read analog meter. At some point SWEPCO added a transmitter so the reading could be taken by a passing company vehicle. Never had a problem with billing since both methods accurately recorded my usage when high and low. Sold the house in 2017 and ended up living in a RV trailer at a friend’s place out in the country in April of 2018. He lived in a new tiny house (10×24 storage shed) that used a smart meter installed by our rural electric co-op. He got a prepaid account since those don’t charge a fee for turning the power off and back on when the account runs of of money. Since we used fairly new energy efficient appliances, our usage was low so got used to paying from $50 to $120 per month. Stayed that way for two years before our usage began increasing for some reason and started to vary wildly for a few days before going back to normal. Has become worse recently showing $14 usage for a day when nobody was home then tapering down to $12, $10, $8 and $6 before leveling out at $3.25 for the next week before spiking again. My idiot buddy refused to ask the c-op to test the meter so I need to get the account in my name to do that myself now that he’s back in prison for several years. Was told I would get a new account number so wouldn’t be able to access our past usage records of our current account. I did keep a daily log of our past usage along with notes about the weather and who was present each day so can use that since my bank statements will back up the payments made on the account. I did get his GF to hire a licensed electrician to inspect the wiring so will have his receipt in hand saying it’s OK.
We live in a heavily wooded and humid area near a lake so suspect the trees are hindering the low freaquency radio signals sending in the usage readings and have become more erratic due to oxidation on the module contacts. The electric utilities are supposed to check their smart meters as soon as they start sending in unusually high or low readings so will find out if the co-op ever bothered to do that to ours. I sure they did then kept quiet about it since money kept being placed on the account without anyone asking questions about increased usage.
We’ve lived in our house for 20 months (it had a “smart” meter from the beginning). For the past couple of months the utilization jumped 74% and 61%, despite the fact that we haven’t done anything different and we have the same appliances. Also, back in Aug we were gone for 3 weeks and the utilization was only 25% lower.
Does anyone know how the electric company plays with the meter to show this increased utilization? Lately we’ve noticed that it takes much longer to boil water or bake a cake in the oven.
I’m trying to find out which meter brands and models are associated with overbilling. Different models use different sensor technologies, some of which are prone to errors from interference or nonlinear loads.
If your meter caused your bill to go up dramatically (like double or more) please post the make and model or a photo of the meter. This applies to any digital meter, not just smart meters.
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I am totally frustrated. In 2006 moved to a rental, when electric was turned on a smart meter was installed. Had mechanical meter at previous dwelling. When first moved in did not have cook stove, water heater or well pump. Within six months acquired and installed these appliances all the rest of my appliances I had at previous rental. Started out with a very small garden and by third year had the largest garden I would ever have at this place. There was NO central heating and air, used wood stove and fans for heat in winter and open windows and fans for cooling in summer and this never changed. Actually, by year two all electricity using items were in place, oh by the way I do a lot of canning June thru’ September, also butcher, make cheese, etc.
By year three I noticed that every electric bill stated that I used more electric this month than I had used this month last year. I found it odd as I am very routine in my activities, but didn’t pay much attention as was only a few cents difference and I was busy with other things.
However, in 2011, year 5, I did not have a garden period. Ergo, no canning from June to September and yet according to the power company, I used more electricity this month than I had used this month last year. How Absurd!! By 2013 I decided that I needed to keep track of my electric consumption for myself. Ran into problems immediately as LCD display didn’t always display and I wasn’t able to always read meter when needed to. I did determine that what the usage on the meter said is what the power company bill said also.
Anyhooo, gave up that project until I received the December bill for 2014. I popped me cork when I got a bill for$120 when my bill normally ran $70. By this time I had learned that I could get a hourly, daily readout of my electric usage so I went and got one for December 2014. Come to find out the electric company said that I had used double and triple my daily usage from December 21 thru’ the 26. OK, OK think Christmas lights, Christmas parties, Christmas baking, Christmas dinner, Christmas late nights wrapping presents and listening to music watching Christmas tree light blinking. Sounds about right don’t it? There’s only on problem with this……
I DON’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM!!!
I took the readout down to the power company and asked for an explanation as to why my electric usage was so much greater over a holiday that I didn’t celebrate. The response was “if the power company says you used it, then you used it”. Oh WOW that really explained things, it also Burned My Beans!!
I went home and developed a spreadsheet hourly, daily log that corresponded exactly to their hourly daily log. I and my husband at the time wrote the time down in the correct hour block every time we turned something on or off even if it was just a few minutes. Eventually, I even wrote the temperature of the stove eyes and oven, whether I used a hot or cold clothes wash, etc… I also started pulling a 60 day daily log from the power company every month when I paid the bill.
It amazes me how little correlation there is between their log and my log! There are also totally wrong usages such as in January 2018 had a really cold snap for two weeks. Of course, my usage doubled and tripled again despite the fact that I still had only wood heat. Another interesting event that would happen is that in the wee hours of the morning while I was in my bed sleeping and all daytime/nighttime lights and appliances turned off, Golly Gee Whiz anytime between 0100 and 0400, random hours and random days I would use, according to the power company, up to 2KW in that one wee morning hour.
Another thing of interest to me was that as SOON as I started pulling their daily logs, I no longer was using more electricity this month than I did this month last year. Astonishing!! If fact my electricity usage actually decreased a tiny bit!! The power company man congratulated me on my electric conservation efforts. Imagine that! I did not change one iota of usage in my lifestyle.
This is my speculation. If the company can read your meter from the central office (co), can check the line for trouble from the co, can turn your meter on or off from the co, then there has to be software in that smart meter. AAAAAAND, if there is software/programing in that smart meter than programing can be written to advance, retard or incrementally change the amount of usage on that meter.
This would be fraud and I have six years of hourly, daily data to prove this and can’t find a lawyer or even a government official who is interested in pursuing this fraud. My power company is a corporation in Virginia that operates in Virginia and Tennessee. I dwell in Tennessee.
If there is anyone who knows of a competent lawyer who even might be interested in this type of case, they can respond to:
pvecvictim@protonmail.com
Thanks much