weorthe
join:2003-06-01
Chattanooga, TN | reply to Dude111
Re: Smart meters do not transmit continuously. They transmit about 45 seconds a day.
»www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/···backlash |
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| reply to nonamesleft
Re: Smart meter coming said by nonamesleft:Theres a reason behind these besides jacking your rates, and possible power rationing....
Why do the installers of these meters have to hold a person at gun point to force an install of this garbage?
The reason is to implement TOU rates and to more efficiently monitor the grid. And they also get the ability to shut you off if you don't pay without HOs coming out and pointing a gun to your face when you come to pull the meter. |
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 MsradellP.E.Premium
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to SparkChaser
TOU rates may be beneficial to people when there is nobody home during the day but that doesn't apply to quite a few households. Families that are retired or have young children constantly occupy the home, thus they need to heat and AC all the time. Time of day metering puts them at a major disadvantage and they in many cases are less able to afford higher rates!
Actually, in most communities is you look at the total electrical usage, well less than 50% of the usage is for residential use. The majority is for commercial and industrial use. That's where the significantly higher rates for peak usage should occur. Yet, especially in the case of commercial facilities, that's normally not the case. In many places they pay a lower rate because of their higher usage.
As far as the ability to turn off AC in the summer, some utilities make it quite beneficial for the consumer with large rebates. However, here in Louisville the rebate is only $5 per unit per month. There is no distinction made for unit size (tonnage). That kind savings is not worth the risk, especially for homes where somebody is home all the time! |
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Oh thats great news. |
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I was worried about that when we got smart meters and time of use as I work from home so my setback happens at night. What ended up happening is by shifting some things to off peak like laundry and the dishwasher the discount rate for off peak made up for the higher on peak rate and then some. Overall without any changes besides those I'm saving about $50 a month. |
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| reply to fifty nine
said by fifty nine:The reason is to implement TOU rates and to more efficiently monitor the grid. And they also get the ability to shut you off if you don't pay without HOs coming out and pointing a gun to your face when you come to pull the meter.
The ultimate underlying reason for TOU is demand management. Effective demand management means they don't have to build new power plants, especially the dirty, fossil-fuel peaking plants. In the long term it will keep prices down. |
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| reply to Msradell
said by Msradell:As far as the ability to turn off AC in the summer, some utilities make it quite beneficial for the consumer with large rebates. However, here in Louisville the rebate is only $5 per unit per month. There is no distinction made for unit size (tonnage). That kind savings is not worth the risk, especially for homes where somebody is home all the time!
They have that here, and last summer durring a bad heat wave they turned off peoples AC units for 10 hours at a time with no way to override it. People never read the fine print on the contract for those things.
In my case I made out good with that whole scam, they came out and installed one on my house without my permission and in the process put 2 nice holes in the side of my AC unit, the first to run there wiring into it and the other with a screw right into the coils causing all the freon to run out. For me the savings I received was about $20,000 for a whole new HVAC system that BGE's paid for to replace the 20 year old one that was working fine before they went and destroyed it.
In the case of this smart meter BS, I have already sent my letter to BGE to stop them from putting this crap on my house, I am not one of the nuts who is scared of the RF, I just refuse to be stuck on TOU billing which is the end goal of these "smart" meters, I deal with the TOU billing crap at work having to run generators when the demand is too high in the summers, there is no way I am going to deal with it at home as well even if it means paying $10-20 more a month for the old style meter I have now. |
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