Smart Meters, Watching Our Lives

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Now this is paranoia. The Fairfax Free Citizen is published by the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. I found a copy with this article at the Huntington Metro stop. It was free.

Smart Meters, Watching Our Lives

Posted On 05 Oct 2015
By: Ileana Johnson

Under the guise of climate change advocacy which pretends to save the planet from a non-existent anthropogenic global warming, people across the globe have been forced by utilities and their governments to accept smart meters as readers of their electricity consumption. I called these smart meters in my book, U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy, drones attached to our homes.

Smart meters are being deployed without debate and without the informed consent of homeowners. They inspect homes 24/7 through several pulses a minute and without a warrant, over-bill, cause home fires, result in environmental and health problems, and are vulnerable to hacking. Data obtained from such smart meters are sold to third parties without homeowners’ consent.
....

Smart meter removal from one’s home may not be enough. Within a five-square-mile area there is a collecting point of information from all meters and a transmitter receives information from all the collecting points of information within 125 miles of its location. This transmitter sends all collected data to a master location, the “mother ship,” where everyone’s information is stored, analyzed, and sold to a third party who is interested in the household’s pattern of usage, consumption of electricity, or possibly “illegal” activity in that home.
....

Smart meters are convenient ways to spy on citizens, charge more per kWh of consumption, reduce consumption by cutting power delivery, replace coal-generated and cheaper electricity with more expensive “renewable” energy, control the population and its health, reduce costs for utilities who no longer have to worry about storing excess capacity in additional storage plants, reduce costs of wire maintenance under and above ground, and eliminate jobs for meter readers.

[Massacure]

1. Wow, what a nut.

Smart meters were made for one reason and one reason only -- they are cheaper than putting people out in the field once a month to take a reading.

[Crystalite]

2. That's not even the main reason, but it's one of them.

Smart meters allow the utility provider AND the homeowner to look at usage data and make decisions about ways to save energy and money.
Most customers can go online and look at their usage and if it looks higher than usual for a particular day or hour then they can take action.

People are nuts. Do they know how much information is gathered from their Internet search habits and cell phone use?

[Major Nikon]

3. Another reason is it allows you to switch providers much easier

Instead of waiting a week or a month till your next meter reading you can switch providers in a day. I switch providers 3 times per year or so to get the best rate. I just signed up for a 3 month contract for 4.7 cents per kwh. In February, when rates are usually the lowest, I'll sign up for a 6 month contract which will take me through the summer, then I'll go back to 3 month contracts. It takes about 5 minutes or less online and the service is switched by the next day.

[davidpdx]

4. WOW I had no idea that could be done

If I was still in the US, I'd do that.

[Major Nikon]

5. This works in Texas. You may or may not be able to do this in other areas

Many (if not most) parts of the US still have provider monopolies, so you pay whatever the regulators allow the providers to charge.

[Crystalite]

6. It's definitely not available with every utility provider.

These things are regulated locally by individual utility providers within state utility commission guidelines.

What can be done in Texas is very cool, but it's not universal.

[hunter]

7. They can also cut you off by remote control when you don't pay your bill.

No need to send someone out to do that, which was actually a rougher job, like repossessing cars.