 DKSDamn Kidney Stones
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON |
to BonezX
Re: Cost of smart meters vs analog meterssaid by BonezX:that looks like a real safe install(sarcasm), DKS does it feel solid if you push on it ? Absolutely. It is 100% rock solid. You could not move it if you tried. And it is surrounded, as you can see, by some very solid welded bumpers which are bolted to the building foundation... which is a stone wall about two and a half feet thick. It is located in our parking lot. |
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| DKS |
to Thane_Bitter
said by Thane_Bitter:Interesting they do exist, thanks. I will have to inquire if I could get one installed so it can be read from the other end of the house (with all the other utilities). This is also a commercial installation. |
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Ah, probably will be out of luck until such a time when the gas company pursues TOU billing. |
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 HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON |
to MeterGuy
Funny you ask, I had one installed on my house earlier this year. They changed the meter in the basement as well as installed a little box on the side of the house (transmitter) where the old analog meter readout was...
Whatever happened, my water bills have gotten substantially cheaper since. |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
yyzlhr
Member
2014-Sep-1 6:32 pm
said by HiVolt:Funny you ask, I had one installed on my house earlier this year. They changed the meter in the basement as well as installed a little box on the side of the house (transmitter) where the old analog meter readout was...
Whatever happened, my water bills have gotten substantially cheaper since. Same here. Bills went down after the installation of the smart meter. No transmitter installed on the outside of my house though, everything was installed in the basement. |
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 BonezXBasement Dweller
Premium Member
join:2004-04-13
Canada |
BonezX to DKS
Premium Member
2014-Sep-1 6:39 pm
to DKS
said by DKS:said by BonezX:that looks like a real safe install(sarcasm), DKS does it feel solid if you push on it ? Absolutely. It is 100% rock solid. You could not move it if you tried. And it is surrounded, as you can see, by some very solid welded bumpers which are bolted to the building foundation... which is a stone wall about two and a half feet thick. It is located in our parking lot. that install still kinda sketches me out a bit, it being entirely supported by the pipes and all, regardless of how strong it is. |
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HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON |
to yyzlhr
said by yyzlhr:Same here. Bills went down after the installation of the smart meter. No transmitter installed on the outside of my house though, everything was installed in the basement. Yeah they can install the transmitter module inside the house if there is no wire going to the side of the house for an existing meter readout, or unless the wire is bad or doesn't have enough wires. I already had a small readout on the side of the house and the wiring was already in place and suitable, the installer said it's more reliable if you mount it outside. I saw no reason not to allow it its where all the ugly stuff is anyway like the gas meter, electric meter and the phone & cabletv demarcs. So one more gray box wasn't really that much of an issue  I am miffed about overpaying for all these years though, i dunno if the old meter was bad or the meter readers were not honest. |
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to Thane_Bitter
Gas is almost always on the opposite side of the house from hydro for what should be obvious reasons. |
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 Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Sep-1 7:15 pm
All of my services enter the house on the exact same side. |
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DKSDamn Kidney Stones
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON |
to BonezX
said by BonezX:said by DKS:said by BonezX:that looks like a real safe install(sarcasm), DKS does it feel solid if you push on it ? Absolutely. It is 100% rock solid. You could not move it if you tried. And it is surrounded, as you can see, by some very solid welded bumpers which are bolted to the building foundation... which is a stone wall about two and a half feet thick. It is located in our parking lot. that install still kinda sketches me out a bit, it being entirely supported by the pipes and all, regardless of how strong it is. The pipes are cast iron, I believe. Very thick and solid. |
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| DKS |
to btech805
said by btech805:Gas is almost always on the opposite side of the house from hydro for what should be obvious reasons. Bell and Hydro are on the north wall. Gas is on the west wall. I have to change my propane tank at my cottage from next to the hydro meter to the other end of the building. New regulations, apparently. |
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BonezXBasement Dweller
Premium Member
join:2004-04-13
Canada |
BonezX to DKS
Premium Member
2014-Sep-1 7:51 pm
to DKS
oh i believe you it's solid, but they could have made it look a little less sketchy, the in/out diameter being different, and the weird dual angle change on the inlet side is a little strange looking. |
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to DKS
I believe the ontario law is 3 feet separation between gas and electric meters, with a strong recommendation to be as far as possible apart. hence why most houses, if possible, are built with the two utilities on opposite walls. This of course becomes more difficult in townhouses and semi detached homes. In most attached homes ive worked in, the hydro meters are on an outside wall at one end of the row of houses, with individual feeds to each panel, and the gas and water meters are in the basements.
My own house has hydro and gas on the same side with only about 6 feet of separation. I'm not sure what the regulations are for propane, however id imagine the separation needs to be even greater due to the storage tanks. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Sep-1 10:28 pm
I don't think I've ever lived in a house where the hydro and gas meters have been on opposite sides. My current house is all on the same side because the garage is on the other side with a large concrete patio and deck behind it. |
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 digitalfuturSees More Than Shown
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
GTA
2 edits |
to DKS
said by DKS:said by btech805:As for reasoning for peak usage they dont need one. Hydro does it and has absolutely no reason for it now. They say it promotes conservation of energy but every time we conserve electricity in this province it gets sold to the states and Quebec at a loss, so it would be cheaper for us to be using more electricity than saving it. Smart meters and peak usage rates are simply a form of social engineering intended to shift load. Correct. Since analog meters don't support time of use rate variance, it doesn't make any sense to have such a policy but have no way to execute it. Union Gas replaced our gas meter a few months ago due to age, but it was replaced with another analog meter. All our utilizes are on the West side of the house, as is the A/C unit, each separated by a little over a metre. |
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mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON |
to Gone
Our current home was bult in 1992 and has the gas meter on the opposite side of the house from the hydro and other utiliites. The house I grew up in (built in 1974) had them on the same side. |
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to BonezX
said by BonezX:that looks like a real safe install(sarcasm), DKS does it feel solid if you push on it ? Seems like a pretty typical install |
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haffenden
Anon
2014-Sep-2 8:49 am
consumer gas came to change my gas meter, infact they changed the entire thing ie the tank and regulator with a new consumer gas stuff, its still a dumb meter, ie rotating dials no smart meter electronics. oh well. my water and hydro are smart meters tho |
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 eksterHi there
Premium Member
join:2010-07-16
Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, QC |
to MeterGuy
A person is paid $20 does not mean that it costs the company $20. In addition to the initial $20, there are benefits (pension, health, etc.) then there is work insurance, then there are trucks to drive, then there is insurance on all those trucks, then there are repairs and maintenance for those trucks, and they won't last 20 years, so there are more trucks, then there is gas for all those trucks, then there are parking lots for all of those trucks, then there are human errors (mistakes, laziness, unable to access, etc.) that will require to double check and then will require extra personal to deal with the problems. Then there are human resources and accountants to deal with all those people and expenses, then there are analysts dealing with all those expenses and people because anything that big will require people overseeing the whole thing... and it goes on.
And at the end of the day, the cost of a person going out to read 11 meters in an hour become 6-10 more that $20. |
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voodoomath to MeterGuy
Anon
2014-Sep-2 9:11 am
to MeterGuy
said by MeterGuy:Now let's compare this to the cost of a human walking from house to house and reading the meter that way. Assuming the human is paid $20/hour, we can calculate that if the human can read 11 meters in an hour, which I think would be relatively easy, the human costs less than the smart meters.
Given this information, why would a municipality decide to upgrade to smart meters? What am I not considering that makes the project a good idea? You forgot (deliberately?) to add the cost of life cycling legacy meters, most of which must be well beyond their useful end-of-life, to the figure you're comparing against. |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
to digitalfutur
I see that someone thought it was a brilliant idea to exhaust deadly gasses that drop as they dissipate a couple feet above your basement window. Is it possible you were near that window and a little groggy when you posting your usually Con defences. Just saying.  |
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 elwoodbluesElwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in |
to HiVolt
I changed the meter some 15yrs ago and changed it again when they forced the new ones on us. Haven't seen a change in my water bill. (except it keeps going up) |
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 LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA |
to peterboro
said by peterboro:I see that someone thought it was a brilliant idea to exhaust deadly gasses that drop as they dissipate a couple feet above your basement window. That install isn't to code... The gas meter, and possibly the furnace exhaust are too close to that window... Should be a minimum 1 m clearance. It would be 'iffy' to the dryer vent as well. As for DKS's meter install - that's a perfectly normal installation... The piping often support the meter. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Sep-2 12:30 pm
said by LazMan:That install isn't to code... He might just barely be code. Union Gas (who I believe serve Burlington) say three feet, and it looks like he's just barely got a three foot radius around the gas meter. » www.uniongas.com/~/media ··· gram.pdf |
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And I believe venting is 1 foot from a window, and he has JUST that. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON
1 recommendation |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Sep-2 3:20 pm
Yup. Typical GTA tract subdivision construction. Do it as quickly and as cheaply as the bare minimum requires. |
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LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA |
to btech805
said by btech805:And I believe venting is 1 foot from a window, and he has JUST that. Minimum 3' from the regulator vent to an opening window, door, air intake, etc... Not a compliant install, unless the house is old enough to have the placement grandfathered from a previous code revision. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Sep-2 3:40 pm
It may not be an opening window, albeit it sure looks like a slider.
Everything about that install, if compliant, looks bare bare bare minimum to the point where the person signing off on it would need a tape measure to know. |
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digitalfuturSees More Than Shown
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
GTA |
A tape measure it is...
60,000 BTU furnace.
* 16" furnace exhaust vent to horizontal center of sliding window
* 48" radius from gas meter to A/C
* 34" radius from gas meter to gas dryer vent
* 36" radius from gas meter to furnace air intake
* 36" radius from gas meter to center of sliding window |
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mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON |
That furnace exhaust is way too close to the window. |
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