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cp
Premium Member
join:2004-05-14
Wheaton, IL

cp

Premium Member

ComEd just installed a smart meter on my house. What can I expect?

I've seen quite a bit of talk about ComEd in here as of late, so I thought this would be a good place ask some questions?
Did anyone notice their electric bill go up with a smart meter? I think that's what I'm most worried about.

Is it possible to get it removed?

Can I at least look at the data the smart meter gathers?

Napsterbater
Meh
MVM
join:2002-12-28
Milledgeville, GA
(Software) OPNsense
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

Napsterbater

MVM

If the pricing of electricity from ComEd hasn't changed then the only reason you bill would go up is if you old meter was not reading correctly.

Its gathering power usage, possibly peak/max usage, and reporting that at a specified time period.

Sure, on ComEd's website and on the Meter itself.

Bunch of info here:

»www.comed.com/technology ··· ult.aspx

radem
join:2001-05-31
Windermere, FL

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Your smart meter will likely not save you any money in the winter and may actually cost you a few dollars extra each month. You will save all your money in the summer if you do not use your A/C much during the work day. I saved $10 to $15 every month of the summer.

After you have had your meter for a month or two, your info will start showing up on the ComEd real time pricing site after you sign in: »rrtp.comed.com/live-prices/. Until then, you will just see the real-time prices. The RRTP site will show you the difference between your RRTP bill and a standard cost bill and a few break-downs of your cost and usage per day.

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross

MVM

I don't think having a smart meter will automatically make you part of real-time-pricing. That should still be a separate option. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they make that mandatory in a few years...

Jon5
Premium Member
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL

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Did you sign up for RTP or is it just a general upgrade?

cp
Premium Member
join:2004-05-14
Wheaton, IL

cp

Premium Member

I didn't sign up for anything. There was a notice posted on my building yesterday and found the new meter installed... and all of the clocks were reset of course
Parneli
join:2004-12-28
Naperville, IL

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What should you expect? Apparetnly you should expect to break out a bicycle hat and some tinfoil

»www.azcentral.com/story/ ··· 0343257/

Arizona Public Service wants your meter reader to go the way of the milk man and the rotary dial phone. But the wireless technology it is using has at least 20,000 customers up in arms.

The utility's solution? If customers still want someone to come to their house and read their meter in person, they'll have to pay for it.

On Friday, regulators came up with a compromise that left no one happy.

Customers who don't want wireless "smart" meters will have to pay for the privilege: a $50 fee and $5 a month. But the amount is far less than the utility had sought.

About 20,000 APS customers have refused to allow the company to install smart meters on their homes. More than 1.1 million have been installed since the company began phasing out analog meters in 2006.

Smart meters transmit customers' electricity usage to the utility with radio signals, and dozens of opponents spent hours testifying before the Arizona Corporation Commission Friday, hoping to convince the five regulators the meters are unsafe.

"They are microwave weaponry," said Scottsdale resident Floris Freshman, who wore a bicycle helmet covered in tin foil and patterned cloth at the hearing.

Freshman said she suffered a head injury long ago and is extra sensitive to the meters' signals, and the helmet seems to help protect her from the unwanted exposure to radio frequencies.

Smart meter opponents complain of headaches, sleeplessness and other health concerns from the meters, which use wireless signals to transmit data. .

Many said they were concerned that even if they opted to refuse a smart meter, they could not avoid the radio frequencies emitted by their neighbors' meters, not to mention the higher exposure for people in apartments or other dwellings where several meters can be clustered in one location.

The meter opponents brought in an expert, Martin Blank, a retired associate professor from the Columbia University Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, who has written a book on the subject.

Blank suggested the possible health effects from the meters were not worth the benefits.

"We know a lot about the way these radio frequencies and power signals can activate the DNA," he said. "The very earliest biological materials activated (during tests) were the linings of the cavity that protect our brain."

He said national safety standards that regulate the frequencies such devices can use are focused on avoiding high levels of radio frequencies that can heat and damage cells. But he said much lower levels of exposure can trigger physical changes.

"(It is possible to) get an effect long before you get a temperature change," he said.

APS, SRP and the other utilities across the country use the meters to avoid sending employees to collect meter data. They say they are a safe, efficient way to measure customers' usage and the radio frequencies they use are harmless.

But opponents are distrustful of utilities.

"There are hundreds and hundreds of people who say yes, I'm sick," said Cindy Debac, a smart meter opponent from Scottsdale who said her dog died of cancer six months after one of the devices was installed on her home. "The smart meters need to be banned from our state and not only that but from our country."

She said she can feel when a neighbor's meter is replaced with a smart meter.

She now runs a website, EMFdoctors.com, that sells equipment to monitor radio frequencies and items to shield people from them, including $1,100 bed canopies.

"Don't tell the commission that," she said of her website when she answered her cellphone number listed online. "Do I have a vast interest in this, yeah. Do I have a vast interest in keeping people alive? Yes I do."

APS last year proposed an opt-out fee of $75 up front, plus $30 a month, for customers who prefer to keep their old meters.

But as the number of people who refused the meters increased from about 5,000 to about 20,000, the company recalculated that it would cost about $20 a month to serve those customers with traditional meter readers, thanks to the economy of scale and the fact most of those opposing the meters are clustered in Prescott, Sedona and a few other rural locations.

SRP officials in November 2011 voted to charge customers $20 a month to opt out of using a smart meter, with no initial setup charge. SRP, a government-owned utility, has its own board of directors and is not regulated by the Corporation Commission.

Utilities in California and Nevada charge higher fees than those approved by the Arizona regulators for opting out of smart-meter programs.

Commission Chairman Bob Stump and Commissioner Brenda Burns both suggested a fee of $5 a month would be more appropriate. Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith suggested $20 a month.

Sedona City Councilman Jon Thompson said there should be no opt out fee. About 1,600 Sedona residents refuse the meters.

"Sixteen-hundred is a big number for us," he said. "It should be for APS and this commission as well."

Burns said she is sensitive to opponents' concerns.

"I, too, have questioned why we have so many brain tumors," she told the crowd.

She said she has 10 grandchildren who she thinks of when considering potential health effects of the meters.

"The people at APS have children and grandchildren, too," she said.

When given a notice by the company she would be getting a smart meter on her home, Burns said she called the company and asked to keep her old meter to see how the company handled such requests. Despite the request, APS installed a smart meter on her home anyhow.

"I want you to know I have given them a pretty hard time," she said, adding that she met with the company CEO after that event.

"We have to make sure we are handling customers better than that," she said.

Commissioner Gary Pierce said he, too, is concerned. He said he checked whether his grandchildren slept near smart meters mounted on their homes.

"I suspect everyone up here who is not here to protest smart meters is sitting here thinking about their own health," he said. "This has been a long, hard drive of a debate for me."

He said he was concerned that the cost of reading meters manually for customers who refuse smart meters will be "socialized" and paid by the rest of APS' customers, but voted for the lower fees along with the rest of the commissioners.

"Today's decision is important to have resolved for all of our customers," APS spokeswoman Anna Haberlein said. "As always, we will comply with what the commission has ordered."

Before deciding on the APS fee, the Corporation Commission in August 2013 requested a study by the Arizona Department of Health Services. ADHS released its report in November, determining the meters "are not likely to harm the health of the public."

ADHS reviewed scientific literature from around the world relating to the radio frequencies used by smart meters and worked with the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency to test meters to ensure they were operating at the frequencies described by the manufacturers.

Some customers also worry the meters pose a privacy concern because they track electricity use, and others are concerned the meters pose a fire danger. Those two concerns were not addressed by the ADHS report.

Smart-meter critics rejected the study because "not likely to cause harm" did not imply the meters are safe.

"What that means is, they just might cause harm," opponent and Sedona resident Warren Woodward said.

Napsterbater
Meh
MVM
join:2002-12-28
Milledgeville, GA

Napsterbater

MVM

Wow... smh....

But I do agree they should charge people who keep the old meters.

Jon5
Premium Member
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL

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When I signed up for RTP I got a new "Smart Meter". It still has to be read manually. Not very smart if you ask me.
Parneli
join:2004-12-28
Naperville, IL

Parneli

Member

said by Jon5:

When I signed up for RTP I got a new "Smart Meter". It still has to be read manually. Not very smart if you ask me.

That's the kind you get in Naperville if you're afraid of the wi-fi. I'd imagine ComEd would want the wi-fi ones, but probably needs a really high penetration rate to make the investment in all the backend stuff worthwhile.

I'm still amazed at the wifi smart meter hysteria that goes around. You can't go to a library, hospital, Dr's office, restaurant, shopping, walking down the sidewalk without being exposed to wi-fi.

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

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Just had my meter updated today. I was home at the time and didn't notice a thing. Not even a tiny blip that would cause my UPS's to click or beep.

jsinaiko
Premium Member
join:2001-04-25
Chicago, IL

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Coincidentally my RRPT meter - a "semi-smart" meter like Jon's that still has to be read manually tanked last month. The digital readout failed. I usually get my bill around the 6th of the month but it didn't arrive till Tuesday and it was an estimate. So I called and bitched. They were pretty decent about it - not regular ComEd but the RRPT folks. This morning a ComEd guy showed up and replaced the meter in about 15 minutes without having to turn off the power.

Jon5
Premium Member
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL

1 recommendation

Jon5

Premium Member

When they replaced my breaker panel they didn't turn off the power either. I find that absolutely terrifying and insane. But I suppose they know what they're doing.

jsinaiko
Premium Member
join:2001-04-25
Chicago, IL

jsinaiko

Premium Member

Yeah, I have no idea but it seemed SOP to the guy. Why they haven't given us full smart meters is beyond me.