Energy Cops Subverting American Privacy With Smart Meters

All in the name of technological innovation.

Where have we heard that before?

Remember that guy that used to come to your use to measure your energy usage? Well that guy is out of a job, he's been replaced with 'smart meters,' equipped with RF chips, a technology that allows power companies to monitor these devices without actually ever having to come to your home.

It may seem innocuous at first, but it get's worse. Just how smart are these new meters that are being forcibly installed nationwide?

Not only do they rapidly record information by the hour, but they can determine what type of energy you are using.

...

It may not seem like too much intrusion but, consider this, energy companies will have precise data on your daily routines, when you wash your cloths, when you watch your TV, when you leave your home and when you come back. And if the notion that they know what you are doing and when you are doing it isn't disturbing enough, it gets worse, because these devices are capable of controlling, regulating, and even rationing your energy use.

Well at least we don't have a globalist regulated carbon tax, then we'd really be up the creek.

Everyday I find new reasons to move off the grid. Perhaps I'll carve out a mountain in the rockies like NORAD, but instead of installing a military base, I'll just build 5 star hotel for myself.

That's they way it is in small town Texas. Atleast the water meter is. I pretty sure the power is too. The city just drives by and picks up everyone's usage never entering the property.

I got one on my house. I think the cost of those being installed on everyone's houses around here raised everyone's electric bills up about ten percent per kilowatt hour. They need to pay for the technology upgrade, they run over eight hundred bucks. That is ten bucks a month for eighty months, and the life expectancy is supposedly only fifteen years on those, the old one was on our house since nineteen eighty nine and was still working fine.

I think all this technology is just raising prices and is actually making things less reliable.

a reply to: rickymouse

the old one was on our house since nineteen eighty nine and was still working fine.

Could this older meter be used remotely by the power company at their HQ to ration your energy?

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: rickymouse

the old one was on our house since nineteen eighty nine and was still working fine.

Could this older meter be used remotely by the power company at their HQ to ration your energy?

Nope, actually what you are speaking of was under a bill pushed in by Obama during his presidency that said these smart meters are to be installed everywhere to help to regulate use in an emergency situation. It was pushed through during the solar flare scare tactic.

Smart meters send out their information once every day, usually around 3:35 am. How do I know this? Because every night at that time, I would wake up out of a sound sleep. The meter was just outside the master bedroom window.

This is actually a thing. People wake up every night when these meters send their information out....perhaps the EMF disturbs the sleep patterns. The worst part was, I lived in the middle of nowhere and had a nice old meter. Came home one day, and there was a new one.....no asking if I wanted it, no issues with trespassing, they just took off the old one and put on the new monster lickety-split.

And then began the interrupted sleep.

I sold the house last year. Hope the new owners didn't suffer from sleep deprivation the way I did.

a reply to: FissionSurplus

I sold the house last year. Hope the new owners didn't suffer from sleep deprivation the way I did.

That's one way to get rid of the problem.

a reply to: rickymouse

You're missing the fact that they're raising the price of your bill to cover the cost of the dumb meter while they are saving tons more money on the other side putting a whole bunch of meter readers out of a job.

...Kinda like you people who pay more for paperless billing to save a tree, yet the company billing you electronically no longer has to buy nearly as much paper and makes money hand over fist. The trees are still harvested and warehoused and not a one is saved in the end.

American's are #ing stupid.

Aren't pretty much all electric companies changing over to these meters and some in the name of updating?
a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

Good points. Also, how many of those meters bills that are read electronically have the potential for scamming people. I've seen articles about that in places. Seems more rampant than meter reader faults(for older, faulty, damaged what have you equipment) or scams I've ever heard of.

a reply to: dreamingawake

Who's to say the power company isn't overcharging you, or overrepresenting your energy use on your billing statement?

What if somebody could hack into a meter remotely, or what if the people at the power company used this meter to overexcite your circuit breaker?

What if you could cause someone's socket outlet to go up in flames with a smart meter?

These are good questions, indeed.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

A tad bit sensational, and completely misinformed reporter, but hey that's Abby Martin for ya. Not to mention the vid is 4 years old.

they can determine what type of energy you are using.

Umm, anyone can determine that. It's AC. There are only 2 types, AC and DC. Power companies use AC, and have for quite some time, see Tesla VS Edison for that.

It may not seem like too much intrusion but, consider this, energy companies will have precise data on your daily routines, when you wash your cloths, when you watch your TV, when you leave your home and when you come back.

Yeah...no. Doesn't work that way.

these devices are capable of controlling, regulating, and even rationing your energy use.

Yeah...again no. You decide how and if you want to use a smart meters regulation of energy, not the power company.

a reply to: Vector99

You say it is optional but others here have already testified to having them mandated from their power company.

And the claim isn't that they can tell if you're using AC or DC, it's how much voltage you're using an foe how long that provides the statistical data if your daily routines, and which devices you're using and when.

Honestly it was all pretty much explained in the video, so what if it's four years old?

This just goes to show that the covert op has in fact been well under way for at least a few years.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

Well for one, meters don't read volts.

Unless it's mandated by any states, which I don't believe any states mandate smart meter usage it is completely optional to have one, however the optional part I was talking about was people that do have them are the ones that control how they work, not the power company.

Like I said, the video was quite sensational, containing very little truth.

Meters read total power usage, not individual appliance usage. Simply because every appliance has a varying range of power they use. There isn't a set standard for anything. Some ac's use more power than others, same with refrigerators, washing machines, TV's, etc...It's literally impossible to determine what is being used and when. You can make assumptions for large appliances, but even then not very accurately.

*Actually it looks like Pennsylvania has mandated conversion to smart meters by 2023 via Act 129. I didn't look into details of it though.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: rickymouse

the old one was on our house since nineteen eighty nine and was still working fine.

Could this older meter be used remotely by the power company at their HQ to ration your energy?

as far as i know most of these units wold be incapable of rationing your usage. but here is the nasty that is sure to come your way, because of these smart meters. different charging rates for use of power at different times of the day. you see these meters can tell them exactly when, and how much power you use. this has been used to increase prices during peak times, in an effort to conserve electricity of course. yup depending on exactly when you use power, determines the price charged for that power. just like the old long distance phone call, you pay more during the time you normally need power, than during the time you don't need as much power. this is a part of the insanity in Ontario, Canada where there are people who apparently have had electricity bills that cost as much as their housing (and housing ain't cheap there). where this past winter there were people forced to make the tough choice of heating their homes, or eating. soon to come to an area near you via these smart meters

a reply to: Vector99

Amen to that.

I'll echo that sentiment.

First some background: I work as a consultant for an electricity re-seller and my job is actually writing and maintaining systems to communicate with smart meters, collect the data, do invoicing and credit control.

The video is pure sensationalism. It's clear the woman has no idea what she is talking about. She obviously didn't write the piece, so perhaps I should say that the person(s) that wrote the piece is completely clueless and talking out of their behind(s).

"They can determine what type of energy you are using".
Yes. Let's think about that for one second.
No kidding? Numb-nuts. Of course they can tell what type of energy you're using. If it's an electricity meter, then the type of energy you're using is... wait for it: Electricity. If it's a gas meter... then - here's the twist - chemical energy.
"They can determine what type of energy you are using". What a nonsensical, meaningless thing to say. Muppet.

"Have precise data on your daily routines, when you wash your cloths, when you watch your TV, when you leave your home and when you come back".

Yes and no. A smart meter cannot tell when you are washing your clothes or when you're watching TV. Not unless you install additional equipment in your home. But then it's not just a smart meter, but a "smart home".

As for daily routines? The average (or well above average) daily use graph for a household looks exactly the same. Pretty low during the night with peaks from 6-8 AM, low during the day and then peaks again from around 5-8 in the evenings. There's no surprise here and I could've told you that your daily use look like that, and the chances would be pretty good that I would be right.

The reason this is actually important is "Time of Use" billing. Some energy companies charge more for peak hour usage. So if you use more electricity from 6-8 AM then you will pay more. In the bigger scheme of things this is to teach consumers to use electricity evenly throughout the day. Electricity networks sit (basically) idle during the nights and have to operate under extreme pressure during peak hours leading to a higher probability of failures. Higher rates at peak times will cause consumers (especially high consumer such as factories) to avoid using electricity during peak times.

As for EMF or EM radiation. Some more BS. The amount of EMR radiating from Smart Meters is NOTHING compared to the amount of EMR radiating from the Wifi in your bedroom or the iPhone you put right against your brain. At any given time I have anything from 3 to a dozen of Smart meters in my work area - and I am pretty healthy compared to most people I know. If they were making people sick, I think I'd be one of the first to know.

Seriously. This Smart Meter fear mongering is laughable. People are scared of change. People are scared of the unknown. Deny some ignorance and you'll find that Smart Meters are actually beneficial to the consumer.
It's like back in the day when Grandpa warned us that televisions are "the devil's box" when it first came out...

a reply to: Gemwolf

Exactly.

Well, and the way it was presented in the video made it seem nefarious too. But anyone familiar with Abby Martin knows that's exactly how she sells herself as a "journalist"

For anyone that is actually interested in knowing how a meter really works, it reads kWh (kilowatt hours). Watts are volts x amps. Kilowatts, as they would sound are 1,000 watts.

There is always voltage to every energized socket in a household. Amperage is the actual current pull of an appliance, so for example, say your air conditioner pulls an average total of 7amps when in use (the amperage will change and never be constant depending on the load). Households are commonly wired for 120V, so you would multiply 120V x 7A = 840W. So your AC will be using .84 kWh per hour ran

Likewise, you could have 3 refrigerators that pull 2.3A an hour on average, and the meter will read the same amount of usage, or you could have 10 TV's that pull .7A and get the same.

All a smart meter does is take readings on regular, frequent intervals. They don't send know all reports on what is used and when.

***Oh forgot to add this informational bit regarding regulating your usage. It is impossible. There either is electricity to your house or there isn't. There is no in between. The power company literally cannot control the amount of power you use without completely cutting supply.

originally posted by: FissionSurplus
Smart meters send out their information once every day, usually around 3:35 am. How do I know this? Because every night at that time, I would wake up out of a sound sleep. The meter was just outside the master bedroom window.

Same thing happens to me.

a reply to: [posti

I live in a rural area---which is such a blessing to me in this crazy world---and we don't have smart meters yet.

We will eventually but the rural areas of the US are often the last to get tech upgrades.

In rural areas, we've stopped receiving funding for so many things---roads, schools---for example--- as the NWO and UN Agenda 21/30 seek to push people into cities where they can be monitored and controlled.

I love where I live----fresh food, endless farms, good solid people, but the pot holes are horrible, the town is suffering, and people keep leaving.

The good news is we're an afterthought when it comes to some of the new control measures.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I got one on my house. I think the cost of those being installed on everyone's houses around here raised everyone's electric bills up about ten percent per kilowatt hour. They need to pay for the technology upgrade, they run over eight hundred bucks. That is ten bucks a month for eighty months, and the life expectancy is supposedly only fifteen years on those, the old one was on our house since nineteen eighty nine and was still working fine.

I think all this technology is just raising prices and is actually making things less reliable.

When I was overseas and had everything except the hot water heater turned off (and a few idiot lights) in the house I was paying 39USD a month.. After the smart meter was installed the electric bill jumped to 79 to 81 USD with the house empty and everything turned off.

Living overseas now my highest electric bill has been right at 60 USD during the hot summer. Believe it or not the stupid smart meter is one of the reasons I sold everything and became an expat.. Never have regretted the move...and no that is not sour grapes.

a reply to: 727Sky

with the house empty and everything turned off.

Then someone is stealing power from your house. If nothing at all in your house is powered you are drawing 0 amps, equalling 0 kWh.