Smart meters = more unemployment

The Government had promised that every household would have a smart meter by 2019 in a £12 billion programme to stop gas and electricity bills being estimated.

Officials are devising plans to allow people to reject the smart meters, which communicate remotely from households to energy companies.

The move is a victory for campaign groups and backbench MPs, who raised concerns with ministers that the devices emit electromagnetic radiation 24 hours a day and cannot be turned off.

Privacy campaigners were worried that half-hourly data on energy usage collected by smart meters could give clues about people’s way of life, such as when someone is on holiday, at work or asleep. Sources in the Department for Energy and Climate Change said the proposal was shelved to avoid the programme getting “bogged down” in lengthy legal disputes.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

How nice I didn't get an option to choose my meter. I was forced to put the dog away and open the gate to let an edison worker put the new electronic meter in.

My best friend works for Edison, love his job and the company, and recently found out that due to all these electronic meters there is no use for meter readers anymore and that Edison is laying off thousands of meter readers arcoss the country.

Not to metion since the electronic meters have gone in my bill has gone up.

There has been a public outcry recently about the potential health effects of smart meters in the US and Canada.



About 400,000 have been installed in British homes. Most of the devices emit similar radiation to mobile phones, microwaves and wireless internet.

Campaigners are worried about the build-up of such devices in the home.

Some people claim to be sensitive to electromagnetic fields, saying it gives them symptoms such as nausea, fatigue and headaches.

In America, utility companies have been hit with multi-million dollar class action lawsuits from people who have had the devices installed in their homes.

Regulators say smart meters are safe. But protesters point to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine’s opposition to the devices.

Bill Esterson, MP for Sefton Central, is now urging the Government to say whether smart meters will come with health warnings.

Charles Hendry, the energy minister, said: “We believe people will benefit from having smart meters. But we will not make them obligatory.”

"Not make them obligatory" yea right, it's already mandatory in California and most other states. It will be mandatory every where soon. More unemployment....

Honestly a meter reader sounds like a useless job anyways, like having a propeller spinner on an aircraft carrier that only uses jets. We can move forward into progress, some jobs will be gained and some lost, but technically, this is a small piece of the puzzle, these erm.... "Meter Men/Maids" will find other jobs, it's not like they're suddenly brain-dead people who only kow how to read electrical meters.

reply to post by PageAlaCearl

When installed, those meters will be able to autonomously report (while possibly creating a data leak at the same time) back to the power company what power you use, when and for how long. The scenario I describe has already happened to one citizen but I'm not 100% sure if it was due to these awful meters or just tighter network monitoring.

A man with several PC's running constantly was raided by police due to the suspicion the man was growing Cannabis. Why did they suspect him of growing Cannabis and immediately raid his premises? (Finding nothing, I might add) Purely the amount of power he was using.

Another step closer to Big Brother everyday.

reply to post by Sachyriel

Really? And what do you expect the job requirements of being a meter person are? I would guess it is a fairly low pay, low entry type job that many older people (40 plus, difficult on a job market that wants young people prepared and able to work for peanuts
) actually might have needed. The cost is passed on to the customer in these meters, people are fired and profits go up. It wins for the power co. That much is obvious.

Originally posted by Sachyriel
Honestly a meter reader sounds like a useless job anyways, like having a propeller spinner on an aircraft carrier that only uses jets.

We can move forward into progress, some jobs will be gained and some lost, but technically, this is a small piece of the puzzle, these erm.... "Meter Men/Maids" will find other jobs, it's not like they're suddenly brain-dead people who only kow how to read electrical meters.

My friend actually makes a good living reading meters and reading is not all they do they also fix broken meters as well. In this day in age a job is a job and not a lot of people these days have one. If you thinks it's that easy to get a job why is the unemployment at an all time high? They don't even count the unemployeed that aren't on unemployment programs so the numbers of unemployed is actually a lot higher than they tell you. We had 200 people apply for a custodial job that flew the other day, 200 PEOPLE for one job!

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by Sachyriel

 

Really? And what do you expect the job requirements of being a meter person are? I would guess it is a fairly low pay, low entry type job that many older people (40 plus, difficult on a job market that wants young people prepared and able to work for peanuts
) actually might have needed. The cost is passed on to the customer in these meters, people are fired and profits go up. It wins for the power co. That much is obvious.

I understand these people are often entry-level, however they can get other jobs, Walmart greeters or waiters. C'mon, entry level jobs are easy to get, and while it sucks so many are being laid off, perhaps they saw it coming before we did, and have been searching for jobs before we knew they would be laid off.

Maybe it's not a surprise to them.

reply to post by PageAlaCearl

If you thinks it's that easy to get a job why is the unemployment at an all time high?

Because automation is slowly ripping out easy jobs from those who would need the experience to go up in the workforce. I'm not saying it's Robots fault, but robots are a big part of this trend, including the automation of meter reading.

The answer is right in front of you, it's gradual automation of the jobs we thought were easy enough to use robots to do.

You have my sympathies and your friend too. FPL,who keeps advertising how great they are even though they have a monopoly where I'm at,. so wasteful using their customers money and then we're told only sharholders paid for the commercial for, who pays the (shareholders?) useless advertising installed so far just the meters that people like your friend read.They haven't gotten into our homes anymore than what the meter outside does ....yet.
I was explaining to my older friend what they want to do eventually have the new "smart" meter in your house so they can control the electrical input. (She's 80 and oxygen dependent)We have a new healthcare czar(forget his name) that favor's your health care system. Also, they are in the process of establishing a 15 panel indepence advisory board so they can tell people like my friend there whether or not she remains on oxygen therapy. We yanks are learning fast, too fast in my opinion, so much so that the other day my friend said to me if she had any money she would leave this country, first time she's ever spoken like that I'm usually the one who does. Belize sounds like a good place, unfortunately no money. Well, I wish you and your friend luck the
government here is trying to us we're in a recovery. Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy so did American Airlines 13,000 people expected to be let go...that's a recovery? Whatever happened to our Freedom and our respective countries?

reply to post by PageAlaCearl


I was told by someone in the water industry that works with smart water meters that there is an acoustic device that listens for water leaks which is connected to the smart meter. Upon careful review of printouts it appears the system can not only show a toilet flushing but it was also able to record the bathroom door being shut. The piping network in the house transmits the sound of doors being shut and possible footsteps and other loud noises in the house to the meter which then transmits this data by radio. I can see lawyers subpoenaing water departments to prove if a house was occupied...
something like this
www.itron.com...