32 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Conspiracy theorists may say - "The utility companies will spy on me!
They'll know when I'm asleep!
(Compared to seeing the lights off in your house from the sidewalk?)

"The radio waves will give me cancer!"
(If you're never going to wear your tin hats, why did you buy them in the first place?)

They're there to prevent overloads, brown-outs and black outs, but these nut-jobs
say it's all a government conspiracy.
Source

Your thoughts?

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Oh lord!  I live in smart meter country on the West Coast.  As far as I know, no one thinks the government is spying on them or taking away their constitutional rights by smart meter.  Some do think they are getting sick from the smart meter, which doesn't make any sense either.

We've had our smart meter 3-4 years.  Our electricity rates have actually gone down since it was installed, so we've got no complaints.

Is there something in the water in Texas that makes them think these odd conspiracy theories?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

FamilyTreeClimber, on 27 August 2012 - 06:55 PM, said:

Is there something in the water in Texas that makes them think these odd conspiracy theories?

Probably decades of oil drilling and gas fracking fluids that contain over 600 chemicals, have tainted the water
causing brain damage.

And of course, that old mindset of "you're not from around here, are you?" paranoia is alive and well too.

[kalasin]

I was more concerned with the fact that they installed a smart reader, raised my rates, and then laid off all the meter readers.  Clearly I fail as a conspiracy theorist :)  My rates are actually going down (slightly) after all the backlash regarding the layoffs.

[Sandra Piddock]

It's the old mentality of anything different must be bad, and they only make changes to take more money off us or to find out more about us. Even if the smart meters actually save money. Put that mentality with a gun and 'Houston, we have a problem.'

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I asked for a smart meter, but I can't have one. I don't have central heat and air. Phooey.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Shortpoet, that's strange.  We got a Smart Meter at my previous house.  We didn't have a choice.  We don't have central heat and air either.  Maybe it has to do with the company that serves your power needs.

There may be truth to the chemicals from fracking causing paranoia.  I'd believe that before I believe that the government is spying on me through my smart meter.  What are they going to do when they put them on the water meter?  I heard that those are coming to California in the next year or two.

Kalasin, what you had were legitimate concerns based on logic.  These people are coming up with off the wall stuff.

I was always skeptical that they could read our meter.  They'd either have to climb the fence or ask for access.  Less than once a year would a PG&E employee ask to come in the yard to read the meter.

[kalasin]

We don't have electric heat; it's gas.  

I just got my electric bill adjustment.  After the smart meter/layoff drama, the "adjustment" to lower the price was somewhere around 1.6%

[FlanneryCam]

I'm not being pushed to a smart meter yet in my neck of the woods. :) I'm not paranoid or anything. But I do see why people worry a little: some people more than others (grow ops! Clearly they don't want a smart meter!). But the electricty (or whatever) company knows how much you use anyway. What's any different than them knowing when you're using electricity? That I really don't get.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Flannery, One of the points of the SmartMeter is to give you control of over your energy usage.  It isn't just for the company's benefit.  You can log into a website and see your usage.  You can compare days and times.  The idea is to make you more conscious about how much you use by giving you a tool to actually see that usage.

Of course, it also allows them to get readings without meter readers.  But, I swear ours couldn't see our meter anyway.  Not unless they hopped the fence.  I think nowadays most meters are outside the backyard fence, but in the 50s and 60s they were behind the fence (at least in California).

Some people have complained their bills went up after Smart Meter.  Ours went down.  It is possible in some cases the Smart Meters aren't accurate.  I think in some cases the meter reader wasn't getting a good reading.

Next will be the water meters in our area.  It will be interesting if we see a change in our usage numbers when that is installed.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Xcel energy keeps sending me the fliers, and I keep asking, but they keep saying no because all I have is
an evap cooler and a wall heater.
I'm not "high tech" enough for it.
Poo on them.
My bills are low and my meter reader is cute!

[FamilyTreeClimber]

Shortpoet, it really surprises me they won't install one because you have a wall heater.  That's what I had at my previous house.  We didn't have a centralized heating/cooling system.  We did not have a choice about the Smart Meter.  They were installed on every house in my neighborhood.  Most were older houses and had the same set up.  I guess each company is different.

So, you've seen your meter reader?  We only glanced one once every six months or so.  We thought they were mythological creatures.  :D

[StevesWeb]

As the owner of a solar photovoltaic system I have a special appreciation for our Southern California Edison smart meter because of one really great trick it does, counting the power we put on the grid during the day.  In fact I like our smart meter so much there are photos of it online.


SoCalEd lets us view our daily energy usage on their website so we can see hour by hour bar charts, this helps find power greedy devices that are opportunities for power savings.

As far as the nutters who fear the RF energy from smart meters will harm them are concerned, I'll save it for another thread.  With fifty years experience tinkering with electronic devices I know very well how foolish those concerns are.

And if your government wanted to spy on you they would not need to touch your home electrical wiring to do so.  There are some legitimate reasons for people to consider privacy issues vis a vis governments, this is not one of them.

It is very easy to get false ideas into a meat-based computing system like a human brain, much harder to get them out.  Can you say "birther"?

Of course it is our weaknesses that make us so charming.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

That looks about the same as the one that PG&E installed on our meters.  I don't even notice it, just like I don't notice the meters.  It boggles my mind that anyone thinks it's a device to spy on them.  Maybe it's just as StevesWeb said.  It's the human brain. It can dream up all sorts of things.  Some of them are harmless and even useful and others just plain crazy.

I guess some day I should login to our account to see what all the fancy charts are about.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

FamilyTreeClimber, on 12 October 2012 - 02:08 PM, said:

That looks about the same as the one that PG&E installed on our meters.  I don't even notice it, just like I don't notice the meters.  It boggles my mind that anyone thinks it's a device to spy on them.  Maybe it's just as StevesWeb said.  It's the human brain. It can dream up all sorts of things.  Some of them are harmless and even useful and others just plain crazy.

I guess some day I should login to our account to see what all the fancy charts are about.

Oh, I don't know. I've seen a group of ants whispering in the corner recently. Luckily, they were all democrats,
so I left them alone.
But they could have been spying on me if one of them was a republican cia agent.

[R. Paradon]

I want to add something intelligent to this discussion but my mind is running around in circles. I'd hate to see the effect on my brain meter!  If the government wants to spy on us I am sure they already have a bit more sophisticated instrumentation that an electric meter.  I think they can (and may when needed) learn a lot more about us via internet snooping then evaluating our sleep patterns.  At the moment it is 8:15 am in Thailand.  I think I will put my lights on now and really mess them up!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

R. Paradon, on 13 October 2012 - 05:21 PM, said:

If the government wants to spy on us I am sure they already have a bit more sophisticated instrumentation that an electric meter.  

I can't speak to Thailand, but here in the states, unless you're out in the boonies, you're on film. Street cams, convenience
stores, store parking lot cams, atm's, inside stores-every business is wired for surveillance.

We've just become so used to it, we don't think about it. They mention it on some of those cop shows.
"Where was he for 14 minutes last Tuesday? We don't have him on tape."

And the sophistication of the surveillance is unbelievable. During the occupy movement for instance, they were
able to identify one person out of crowd of people with 100% accuracy.
But the paranoid few that worry about smart meters won't be convinced otherwise.

[E3 wise]

Here is South Florida Smart meters have been a bad thing for one source of paranoid individuals

Pot Growers using Hydroponics and Grow Lights in Houses.  It seems that the meters are very good at identifying just who is using way to much electricity.  In fact in one case the resident was so worried they tried to disable the meter which then sent an alert.  So when the meter reader did some investigation, guess what?   Busted.

So for pot growers Smart Meters are making them paranoid.

As for everyone else, well if they knew all the ways the NSA was monitoring their internet, phones and cell phone traffic they might want to move to a deserted island- no smart meters there.

[R. Paradon]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 14 October 2012 - 03:46 AM, said:

I can't speak to Thailand, but here in the states, unless you're out in the boonies, you're on film. Street cams, convenience
stores, store parking lot cams, atm's, inside stores-every business is wired for surveillance.

We've just become so used to it, we don't think about it. They mention it on some of those cop shows.
"Where was he for 14 minutes last Tuesday? We don't have him on tape."

And the sophistication of the surveillance is unbelievable. During the occupy movement for instance, they were
able to identify one person out of crowd of people with 100% accuracy.
But the paranoid few that worry about smart meters won't be convinced otherwise.

In Bangkok there are between 10 - 20,000 surv cams. in Pattaya (my city home) I have not noticed any (haven't really looked) but there are cams in every bar (by law) which is a good idea I think and in my Jungle home ZERO!  I just tried to find it on Google Earth and it is only a blur!  The closest I can get is Khun Han which is about 30 minutes away on motorbike,

[Shortpoet-GTD]

The fact that we have accepted Google Earth into our lives says a lot right there; how accustomed
we've all become to it; although it did me the creeps when I saw my house there the first time.

Unless we're off the grid (like Gene Hackman was in Enemy of the State) they'll see us.