Woman chases off Smart-meter installer with a gun. The cops support her.

Originally posted by wagnificentAdditionally it means that power companies can lower their overhead because SMART meters do not require a paid employee to come read it manually every month.

And every cent/penny saved would be kept by the company. All of us use far less electricity than we used to but we pay MASSIVELY more for it.
Nothing will EVER reduce the cost to the consumer!!

Originally posted by wagnificent
As for the health concerns, my own knowledge of electronics leads me to see it as a non-issue. If you use a cordless telephone, a cell phone or a wireless router, it is completely asinine to complain about the signal from a SMART meter..

Well, my own knowledge of electronics leads me to consider the vast number of these devices that are pumping out IN EXCESS of one watt each. In many apartment blocks we see banks of maybe 50 meters all mounted on one single board. Now imagine YOUR childs bedroom is on the other side of that wall! Would you be happy knowing your child is receiving 50w bursts while he/she sleeps?

These meters are purely for the benefit of the company, there's nothing in it for the consumer other than health risks. An earlier poster has mentioned that the company are offering to control his/her power usage, how long will it be before they start saying "Turn your computer OFF" - "Time to go to bed" - "Time to goto work" ???

If it isn't broke,

Then don't fix it.

Don't they have other problems to deal with, rather than replacing everyone's meter?

How about uprading some utility poles or power generation?

Originally posted by liejunkie01
If it isn't broke,

Then don't fix it.

Don't they have other problems to deal with, rather than replacing everyone's meter?

How about uprading some utility poles or power generation?

What most people fail to realise is the cost of these new meters, and the cost of fitting them, is added to the cost of the consumers electricity.

Originally posted by xxdaniel21
It's funny because as a non-American, i don't understand the need for a weapon.

It wasn't ingrained or indoctrinated into me as a child to bear arms for domestic purpose.

Although, that being said, i honestly don't see what else she could have possibly done seeing the inspector was pushing her aside, and was intruding.
He seemed like more of a threat, and obviously didn't take the fact that he was on someone else's property with much seriousness. So he had it coming.

Whether or not he had a job to do is irrelevant. If he's a contractor, he understands the risks. In other words, he didn't have to do what he did.

What i must ask, is, given all your gun laws, howcome people still actually disregard people's freedoms in your country? Wouldn't they be more afraid knowing anyone behind that house door is trigger happy?

I know i would! Hell, they'd have to pay me a lot of money just to be the local postie! haha

Usually, i'm sort of confused with your gun laws given the events that occur. Sure, they can be used as a great defense weapon, but surely the availability gives the criminals that leading edge over the people defending themselves - not everybody's defending themselves, but anybody can just walk in and buy a gun.

Maybe it's just my way of thinking. I can't judge the situation.

edit on 1-8-2012 by xxdaniel21 because: (no reason given)

Indoctrinated by whom?? Criminals by the very definition of the word are NOT goin to obtain their guns legally and will not care how they get them. Whether they are legal or not. You would hope that it makes people think twice before doing something stupid, such as shoving someone on their own property, but sadly it does not seem to work that way.

These meters scare the hell out of me. Not because of health concerns, but simply because it's nobody's business which appliances I am using nor when I am using them. This is way to far. I hadn't heard of them before today. My power bill has gone up steadily in the last twenty years even though I have become very anal about lights etc in the past fifteen years. These are not being installed to save me money. That's a crock. I will now be posting the same signs on my fence and by my meter as she has in the video. Even though my front and back gates are locked. I have had both power and water employees jump my fences.

reply to post by BIHOTZ

we need to give up guns for our safety. The meter is for her good. The government supports it. Would they lie?

Is this a rhetorical question? This is the same government who tried to cover up the Fast and Furious scandal with our good 'ol pal Eric Holder leading the charge, by which american citizens in Phoenix and Tuscon have been murdered by those weapons being wielded by the Mexican drug cartels. Also the same government that lied about Agent Orange used in experimenting on U.S. soldiers in Viet-nam.

reply to post by nixie_nox

You are now living in a bunch of information beams coming from every house

Mus be what it's like to live in a microwave.

also the old meters contain a device patented by nicola tesla (the disk part)
it is actually a generator (but they switched the polarity and use it as meter)

when you reverse the input on the thing (more power = slower spin)
you will see that when you increase the power consumption it will make the disk stop spinning and it will start to vibrate...pull some more power and you will reverse its rotation...at that point you provide power to the energy company and they have to start and pay you

enjoy...get your old meters while you can...cuz they desperately want to get rid of them...

Originally posted by Fr3bzY
also the old meters contain a device patented by nicola tesla (the disk part)
it is actually a generator (but they switched the polarity and use it as meter)

when you reverse the input on the thing (more power = slower spin)
you will see that when you increase the power consumption it will make the disk stop spinning and it will start to vibrate...pull some more power and you will reverse its rotation...at that point you provide power to the energy company and they have to start and pay you

enjoy...get your old meters while you can...cuz they desperately want to get rid of them...

What a load of garbage you are talking!!!!

The more you use the faster they spin. They dont vibrate and they dont feed energy back to the company.

However I agree about keeping the old meter, the new ones might be dangerous.

reply to post by FortAnthem

Taormina was concerned about privacy issues because she didn't want the government monitoring her energy usage and feared the WI-fi signal could be intercepted. She also objected over the possible health effects of an unwanted WI-fi system broadcasting from her home.

Good for her for protecting her property. But her concerns with 'smart meters' are idiotic. Possible health effects? those things give off less radiation than a TV or radio, much less a wireless router or cell phone. Unless she has none of these in here house, she's a buffoon.

reply to post by VoidHawk


maybe you should read the post first...

Originally posted by Majic
The recent Colorado shooting rampage is another example. As horrible as they are, mass shootings are somewhat rare when considered in light of the national population and the circumstances unique to American life.

That's a major point, and I think we often forget how large your population actually is when considering crime rates, etc. We only have 22 million people in our country, and when we see your figures, it seems incredible despite the fact that we have a lot of gun related crimes in our country also, albeit a smaller figure.

Originally posted by Googlebutts
Indoctrinated by whom?? Criminals by the very definition of the word are NOT goin to obtain their guns legally and will not care how they get them. Whether they are legal or not.

wait a sec, sorry... I understand they wouldn't care because they ARE criminals, but surely IF someone who already has a gun in their household as a defense weapon one day gets depressive thoughts, or a manic episode (playing the devils advocate a bit here), wouldn't it be easy to grab it and just use it without thinking about the consequences?
I once got a bit p*ssed off with something, and out of rage, i threw my good phone which was sitting right next to me, at the wall, and broke it. I regretted it straight away, but couldn't this analogy be used? I hope i'm not going off in a tangent haha

What if this particular lady had a short fuse? She wouldn't be a criminal in the sense of the word, rather, a human being.

Originally posted by Googlebutts
These meters scare the hell out of me. Not because of health concerns, but simply because it's nobody's business which appliances I am using nor when I am using them. This is way to far. I hadn't heard of them before today. My power bill has gone up steadily in the last twenty years even though I have become very anal about lights etc in the past fifteen years. These are not being installed to save me money. That's a crock. I will now be posting the same signs on my fence and by my meter as she has in the video. Even though my front and back gates are locked. I have had both power and water employees jump my fences.

We've had the same story in the other states of my country, and the same issues. People don't want them for health aspects, data logging, etc.
It would only be a matter of time - if not happening right now, before they jumped our fences and installed them.
There'd be smart ways around it though, such as signal jamming, etc.

They couldn't possibly police it.

All the best, anyway, mate! we'll get through this crap

I'm not going to point anyone in a specific direction, but the hack-ability of the smart meters are in the favor of the home owner NOT the electrical company. You can essentially steal power for free by adjusting the log file on the smart meter. No personal data except electrical use is stored in the unit. Many units have no security disallowing the change of the meter log. A micro controller and a few IR leds is all that is needed(under 50$ in parts) and the electrical company is none the wiser. This hack required no physical tampering and is basically impossible to detect(unlike with the old meter with a disk design). While I support her protecting her property, she fails big in the research dept.