Castanet

(deliberate typo there)

Had a fellow come through our gate walking onto our property with a little box. I walked out to greet him and asked what I could to do help him? He announced he was here to install our smart meter. I said no thanks, politely, and the other half looked at me puzzled. I explained that I'd done some research and reading about the smart meters and my understanding was that I could decline having it installed. The Hydro-guy agreed, saying that he would write us down as a 'soft decline', because we would be treated differently by Hydro when they call us, as they will, than if we were noted 'hard decline'. Apparently, they get yelled at a lot, and people can be quite rude to them.

This Hydro-guy said that Hydro was not expecting such a large refusal rate, so something is working.
But there are still many people out there that somehow have no clue about the smart meters. (Why do they call them smart?)

Does anyone know what will happen when BC Hydro 'gets in touch with us'?

Does anyone have any concerns that do not fall into the categories of:

- environment; false readings; radio frequency interference; radiation; loss of privacy; paying for something we will not benefit from?

OnTheRoadAgain wrote:- environment; false readings; radio frequency interference; radiation; loss of privacy; paying for something we will not benefit from?

Please supply some support for this statement.

Mine is working fine as to accuracy of readings. As for the other stuff - no, no concerns at all. I have a greater concern about how smartmeters will enable BC Hydro to eventually better manipulate what electiricity costs us (to their advantage of course).

Edit to add: My goal is to eventually need no electricity at all from BC Hydro, and I am better than halfway there already. If I get to that point then they can remove their "smartmeter" from my residence, and their lines connecting me to the street as well :-)

Nab

I suspect the long term agenda will be "rates by hour of usage". The only affordable time to use electricity will be 3:00 a.m. It's the only way this huge expenditure will pay.

As for speculating what BC Hydro will do if their efforts to convince you to allow their smartmeter to be installed still fail - probably just cut off your power until you "come around", and charge you a major restoral of service fee to boot when you (probably at the encouragement of your "other half") change your mind.

Nab.

I suspect when BC Hydro calls you, they will explain at length that you have nothing to worry about. If you continue to refuse, I suspect one day Hydro will simply say, "No problem, we'll just discontinue your service."

I have absolutely no concerns about the make believe health hazards. My future smart meter won't be interfering with my privacy one iota and won't know whether I just turned on my toaster or coffee pot. I will be watching my bills closely, but contrary to the hype out there about triple-sized bills and all, the vast majority of people don't have a problem.

I'll be a soft decline as well. Not a paranoid sort of person but enough has been brought up to give me cause for concern. The Gov't and science told me one of the meds I was prescribed two years ago was safe too. Turns out now that it can increase the chance for cancer and is no longer prescribed. Small comfort after the fact huh? My analog meter works just fine thank you very much. I'll read it for them and they can send out someone to do an audit once or twice a year if they want to get rid of the meter readers.

Trouble is TwoBits that once they change to TOU (time of use) billing and the associated much higher rates for daily peak energy use times and lower rates for off peak usage, you won't be able to take advantage of that with an analogue meter.

As a result you will probably end up paying much more for your power than with a smartmeter riding herd on your TOU periods usage.

Nab

hobbyguy wrote:I suspect the long term agenda will be "rates by hour of usage". The only affordable time to use electricity will be 3:00 a.m. It's the only way this huge expenditure will pay.

Isn't that the way it is now already?
We are advised this decades ago, to run laundry and dishwashers after 11pm.

ralphrob wrote:

Please supply some support for this statement.

Here's where that came from:
http://stopsmartmeters.net/smartElectricityMeters.htm
http://www.chathamthisweek.com/ArticleD ... chive=true


and

I've just been doing some reading....


More:
http://www.you-be-healthy.com/2011/09/l ... mf-expert/
http://focusonline.ca/?q=node/260
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Poli ... rConcerns/
http://citizensforsafetechnology.org/sm ... ments,25,0
http://www.straight.com/article-571356/ ... ued-debate

Nebula wrote:I suspect when BC Hydro calls you, they will explain at length that you have nothing to worry about. If you continue to refuse, I suspect one day Hydro will simply say, "No problem, we'll just discontinue your service."

I have absolutely no concerns about the make believe health hazards. My future smart meter won't be interfering with my privacy one iota and won't know whether I just turned on my toaster or coffee pot. I will be watching my bills closely, but contrary to the hype out there about triple-sized bills and all, the vast majority of people don't have a problem.

But you agree there is potential for the financial problem of higher bills?
You don't agree there is any remote possibility that there may be a problem with this yet another wireless system affecting the future health of citizens?
I guess way back, they never thought a man would actually walk on the moon either, those predictors must have been nutz.

OnTheRoadAgain wrote:But you agree there is potential for the financial problem of higher bills?
You don't agree there is any remote possibility that there may be a problem with this yet another wireless system affecting the future health of citizens?
I guess way back, they never thought a man would actually walk on the moon either, those predictors must have been nutz.

There has been a few instances of higher bills. Out of all the smart meters installed, it seems to be a very low instance.

I have no health concerns over smart meters.

One of the anti-smart-meter websites I went to went on and on about the negative effects to health of electromagnetic radiation. There was a ton of information, charts and graphs, showing how all electromagnetic radiation, including from smart meeters, cell phones and other devices, is ruining human health. The one thing that website neglected to mention is that the greatest source of electromagnetic radiation on Earth is the Sun. For some reason they weren't calling for a sunshine ban.

I think it's hilarious that people get all up in arms over hydro smart meters, but don't say boo about the existing water smart meter in their house.

Glacier wrote:I think it's hilarious that people get all up in arms over hydro smart meters, but don't say boo about the existing water smart meter in their house.

Those water meters dont transmit continuous information. There is a little black square usually glued to the side of your house that a city meter reader has to get close to in order to obtain a reading via hand held device. Or they can just locate the meter in the ground( usually in a little vault) and read the numbers manually. Never heard of them being "smart" and able to tell when you use water. What was explained to me is that they simply record usuage and you get billed as to how much.
They dont care when you use water, bylaw has no power to read your meter and give you a fine for say watering on the wrong day during a water restriction, they have to actually catch you in the act because whos to say how you used the water. Thus no one cares about the water "smart" meter.

Glacier wrote:I think it's hilarious that people get all up in arms over hydro smart meters, but don't say boo about the existing water smart meter in their house.

My "smart" water meter is in the buried in the front yard.
You can stall Hydro for now, but the meters are coming.