About smart meters

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There are a number of petitions floating around to prevent G&E companies from installing smart meters. At least one I read claimed they're very unsafe and emit "microwaves" that will cause brain, heart, respiratory and other physiological problems as a result. I'd like to point out that wifi and cellular services, which are already ubiquitous and which most of us use, operate at similar frequencies and people aren't dropping dead as a result. Also, smart meters transmit at 1W at 902MHz and less than that at 2.4GHz. That's NOT a lot of power and we're not gonna fry when these things send signals. There are some concerns about some types of meters that continually emit radio signals. Again, so do wifi and cell phone service. Not all smart meters emit radio at all or emit continuously.

Smart meters may certainly still be objectionable for other reasons. On-the-fly rate adjustments are now possible depending on usage. It's also possible they present a security risk in that if a signal can shut off your power or change your rate, then that signal can be spoofed. You can bet these new meters aren't cheap and the customer/taxpayer will be picking up the tab.
 
@ Sewingcreations15
My Mom's electric bill was just under $940 a mo, if she ran the a/c and heat, in her 2600 sq ft home.

In my area, there's people who cannot pay their electric bill, so they ask the church to pay for it, and it's usually first come, first served by calling the church on the first of the month.

My Mom had a pension, social security, investments, long-term care insurance, and her farm for paid for. She never had to call the church for her electric bill.
 
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backlash said:
Our electric bill usually is around $130 a month.
Now that the AC is running it has jumped to around $190 and my wife complains about it but I will not sit in the heat just to save $2 dollars a day.
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I'm paying bout the same. In my case we use the A/C because it isn't worth saving $2 a day and then hear her complain about the heat.
 
tiffanysgallery said:
@ Sewingcreations15
My Mom's electric bill was just under $940 a mo, if she ran the a/c and heat, in her 2600 sq ft home.

In my area, there's people who cannot pay their electric bill, so they ask the church to pay for it, and it's usually first come, first served by calling the church on the first of the month.

My Mom had a pension, social security, investments, long-term care insurance, and her farm for paid for. She never had to call the church for her electric bill.
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$940 is plain out theft ,imo. I go nuts when our bill is over $100, which I'm sure that will change soon too. Average about $75.00 a mom. Of course we use fans alot and wear warm clothe's in winter. Kids always have to adjust to the cold and heat. But older we get the less extreme we can take so instead of 85 we turn down to 82 so candles don't melt on the walls here. One summer the candles were leaning downward and kids all had a big to do about that when they were visiting
 
It is theft. It's crazy high here. Husband has medical electrical equipment running all night, and he insists on sleeping at 72 degrees. The minute he leaves the house, I turn the air con off. Our house is 3800 sq ft and has two air con units. He leaves a computer on all the time, and we usually have 2 incubators running. Also a chest freezer and two fridges. But he doesn't breathe well when he's hot.
 
Amish Heart said:
I think they're terrible from the standpoint that someone at G and E can tell when you're home and can turn off your power at their whim. Or someone else can hack in and turn it off. They make enough money. Our electric bill was $638.00 last month.
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Ours was $450 this month.:(
 
@Meerkat Have you seen Prepper Princess on youtube?
She has 98 videos on money saving, 45 on prepping, and 8 on after the collapse on her playlist.
This one is about how to save on electricity... (hints: natural lighting, turn everything off/unplug, cold wash/full loads, low settings,etc.)

Does anyone else think her dog is too thin... :(
 
I've watched several of her videos. My daughters dog looked like he was starving until he was almost 3. He is a very active, high energy dog and it took time for him to fill out even with unlimited food.

Went back and looked and her dog looks fine to me. Boxers at a healthy weight have a narrow "waste".
 
Our electric runs about $220 in the summer. A couple of ceiling fans, A.C. almost continually, a laptop, most of the time, 2 others half the time. Handful of people here.
In Maryland it is sky high as well, 600 minimum for most folks I know. Who can survive?
Go solar!
 
@Amish Heart yes medical equipment chews up lots of power and so does the aircon at lower temperatures but it is necessary for your husband and has to be done.

Our power bill here is around $231 - $237 every 3 months and we run 2 x 400 - 435 litre freezers and 1 same size freezer. Heating we use our slow combustion stove fireplace in winter and summer we only use ceiling fans as we have here in the summer as we have no air con in the rental. We are all electric here including hot water system and wash on cold cycle after stain removing before everything goes in to be washed.

Other areas of Australia have much higher electricity tariff prices than us because in the country we get lower power prices that are fixed by the government as it was designed to help the farmers run more profitable businesses.
 
You can get used to using hot water on a schedule and put a timer on your water heater if it is electric. There are a lot of things that you can do to lower your electric bill. We did it all for about three years and paid the flat rate for connection. The electric people were sure we were stealing power and they came out several times the first year to check the meter and replaced it once. Using electricity like that is ridiculously cheap. the minimum connection fee back then was $13 per month. (that was in Seattle) I don't do much to save on electricity now other than use LED lights exclusively and run the air conditioner at 79F. My heat, water and stove are all gas and I have front load washer and drier which are electrically and water efficient enough for the energy star compliance. I keep my fridge at 33F so we don't waste food through spoilage. My freezer is also kept very cold at -25F. The house is only 1600 square feet but I also heat and cool my shop and the garage which are 650 square feet each. I use a heat pump for those out buildings. The entire 2900 square feet of area costs under $150 for electric in the winter and about $160 to $180 in the summer for power. That includes the 22 four foot shop lights in the shop and running the power tools when needed. (lathe, mill, grinders, welder, table saw, compressor, and hand power tools) There are enough lights in the shop that I can walk in from bright sunlight and it is bright enough in the shop that my eyes take no time to adjust to the difference. There are no windows in either out building and they are even better insulated than the home. (I built them) :)
 
Amish Heart said:
It is theft. It's crazy high here. Husband has medical electrical equipment running all night, and he insists on sleeping at 72 degrees. The minute he leaves the house, I turn the air con off. Our house is 3800 sq ft and has two air con units. He leaves a computer on all the time, and we usually have 2 incubators running. Also a chest freezer and two fridges. But he doesn't breathe well when he's hot.
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If it is fro illness that I would too if it made me feel better but so far for now we can take the heat.:doghouse:
 
tiffanysgallery said:
@Meerkat Have you seen Prepper Princess on youtube?
She has 98 videos on money saving, 45 on prepping, and 8 on after the collapse on her playlist.
This one is about how to save on electricity... (hints: natural lighting, turn everything off/unplug, cold wash/full loads, low settings,etc.)

Does anyone else think her dog is too thin... :(
Click to expand...


Thanks Tiff, and we'll have to give her a look. We have seen one called Patriot Nurse we use to listen to now and then too.:Thankyou::thumbs:
 
We have a gas range and a gas water heater and our electric bill has been as high as $51 and as low as $43 per month over the last year. We live at a high enough elevation so we don't have or need a/c. Over half of our bill is from the "standard charge" of $25 per month plus whatever electric power you use. I want to change over to my own solar power but it just makes no economical sense for us to do so.

Back to smart meters- I certainly understand why the electric companies want to use them because of the cost savings of no longer needing meter readers. I have no problem with smart meters.
 
http://www.smartmetereducationnetwork.com/optout-status-other-states.php

This has a section for alerts and breaking news. This is a little more recent information.
Another career bites the dust in Pennsylvania. According to the website, smart meters are required in Pennsylvania. We knew a guy who made a good wage reading electric residential meters, back in the day.
 
hiwall said:
It some states you can opt not to have a smart meter but then the electric company charges you a monthly fee for reading your meter.

Our electric company here is a co-operative.
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Ours is a co-op as well and they only read the meter once per year. The other monthly readings, we report on our bills that we send in with payment. So, for the utility here, it would only save them from having a reader coming out once per year. I don't think that would be much of a savings for them.

Our utility came and changed a meter without notice on an outbuilding that we hardly use. I was not happy when I found they had done this without notification, since I live in a state where we have a choice. They just wasted their money on a new meter b/c after they changed it, I shut off the main switch. We are considering telling them to come and take the meter entirely....but we may convert it someday to a rental, which is why we haven't done that yet.

Here's a discussion about smart meters that was on this forum not too long ago....
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/t...f-‘smart’-electricity-meters.2491/#post-59080
 
Patchouli said:
.... We knew a guy who made a good wage reading electric residential meters, back in the day.
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I have a friend that read utility meters. He was reading them left and right as fast as he could until the Union Steward stopped him and told him to slow down. Friend was making the union and the other readers look bad. To keep the regulated rates down the Utility went with a nonunion private contractor to read the meters. Hiring the lowest bidder can get low quality results plus the Union did all it could to interfere. Smart meter is the current solution.
 
The Lazy L said:
I have a friend that read utility meters. He was reading them left and right as fast as he could until the Union Steward stopped him and told him to slow down. Friend was making the union and the other readers look bad. To keep the regulated rates down the Utility went with a nonunion private contractor to read the meters. Hiring the lowest bidder can get low quality results plus the Union did all it could to interfere. Smart meter is the current solution.
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Rarely have I seen a solution for them (be it government or big business).........become a good solution for the consumer, especially when it's a mandatory solution.
 
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