I'm up in N.T. and they are talking smart meters up here. Maybe some of you Melbourne folks might be able to share some info. Has anybody got a smart meter in their home? Did anybody have a normal meter and then it got changed to a smart meter? I'm interested to hear first hand whether they saved you money or cost you more. I know time of use in Sydney was borderlining a scam when I was there unless you're out at work between 2p and 8p there was no way the benefits would outweigh the cons. A side topic is the off the scale radiation and the fact that you can be monitored (power is monitered every 15 mins, I have heard it is more often). I wouldn't let my kids sleep in the room next to the meter box with a smart meter. I am mainly interested in the money side though. Thanks, hs
I'm in Melbourne, have a smart meter my bill is much more expensive, apparently I use 10%-15% more power now, which is complete and utter bullshit.
Apart from a few of them blowing up and they are forced upon you even if you don't want one, they are great. Wouldn't even bother working out if it will save you money. It won't. A bit of Googling reveals whats behind this. Canada is not real happy about them either. You want to buy a water desalination plant. We have one here that we don't even use that will be costing us and our kids over the next 27 years without even one drop of water added. Clever governments our lot. They pick-up the candidates from Centrelink who struggle a bit with mental gymnastics. Cheers markcoinoz
Nothing smart except yet another way to extract more dollars under the guise of "it will be cheaper". I think Michael West has it right here: http://www.smh.com.au/business/smart-move--but-consumers-pick-up-the-costs-20121125-2a1i1.html
Thats a great article thanks Marcos. I guess if you give people a smart meter then it's "their fault" if their power bill is high.
Energex in Brisbane wanted to install one in my place free as they said the meter was getting too old, I said sure you pay for my day off work & I'll be here otherwise forget it (they need access under my house to do the job). The other thing is & I haven't checked this out myself but a person at work said they just want to reduce staff (meter readers) as he believes they can drive pass slowly or stop for a moment in front of each house & the data is transmitted saving time & legwork, hence the need for fewer staff. Fine to reduce their overheads but i do not believe for a moment that, that saving would be passed onto the customer.
I believe they can be read remotely - I had presumed that this meant very remotely ie via IP traffic down the power cable itself. Think about the power (no pun) that also confers ... Need to stage an apparent local outage? Switch off in bulk. Problems with an unruly populace ... Turn off the power. Definitely more big brother coming even if the above might be too conspiratorial for some!
Anyone who thinks that these things will reduce their bills is clinically gullible. The consumer will pay for the meters in the end, and they will make power like mobile phone contracts - they will be so bamboozling that you will have no idea what you are paying for and how much and when.
Assimilate or perish, Oh hang on I got a bit carried away there, all that star trek Borg stuff and all.... Oh actually, They say it is for our best interest and that it will save us money, and.... stuff, move along , nothing to see here people.
A relative of mine is an objector to them. He has a "bugger off" sign out the front and has a padlock on his meter box. He cut a hole in the meter box so it can be read without being opened. I dont know if he has had an installer call in yet or not. For all his carrying on, if he ever decides to sell and move his options for smart-meter free homes will be extremely limited. My place got done 2 weeks ago. Im already microchipped so TPTB already know my vital stats. Smart meter makes no difference to me. :|
I am a fan of Government labels. All the details are mirrored in the title. Conroy when asked a question simply answered, it's Smart Grid Technology. He don't know what it is and we're the stupid goyim. I'll just wait until they announce dumb grid technology so my I can finally figure something out.
My parents got a solar system installed in Sydney 3 years ago. They had to go on smart meters. Anyway, we told the power company that we did not want to go on time of use tariffs. So basically they are still paying standard tariffs any time (works out cheaper and you don't need to balance your life style around when to turn things on). If you are forced onto them, just make sure you let the power company know you want to be on the original tariffs any none of the time of use BS. Slam
Good idea about the sign. Contractors get scared of the liability issue of trespass. Will try to find some right words to use. The lock & window is also good. There are also the health & big brother issues.
I imagine the police would use the information if needed, I hear they use the public transport cards you guys have in Melbourne to monitor people ie who was on that tram at that time or was this person anywhere near this place on this date. It's funny that people keep saying it's ok I have nothing to hide. But what if one day the freedoms and privacies we take for granted now are something to hide in the future.
Most people think of information as either "public" or "private". "Private" is actually the middle ground between "public" and "secret". "Secret" is the kind of information you actively conceal from others, whereas "private" is just the stuff you choose not to tell anyone because there isn't any real reason for them to know. I might not have anything to hide, but you have no business asking to begin with.
The theory behind smart meters is good. Throughout the day the demand on the generators peaks once in the morning and once in the afternoon for example (it changes by season on the south west interconnected system in WA). There are 2 issues at play. Generators are inefficient when they are running at low load, and the suppliers need to have the capacity for the peaks but have to charge to cover the times when the generator is running inefficiently. In WA the private generators run at their peak efficiency all the time while Verve (wa govt owned) has to run their generators at idle overnight which is one of the reasons they make a loss and always will, someone has to do it. Shifting demand from peak to off peak times reduces the overall generator capacity required and allows the generators to run more efficiently across the day. The other issue is the network (wires, cables, switchgear, transformers etc). These have to be upgraded to meet the highest demand on the hottest day even if that only occurs a couple of times a year. Moving the demand to flatten the bumps on the graph will reduce the amount of money needed to be spent on new and existing hardware, or at least increase the time between upgrades. In saying that I had a smart meter installed because it was a good deal at the time. I then changed back to flat rate billing when the smart tarriffs were increased while the flat rate at the time was still kept at the same level. It can work out better in some situations but for me (wife and kids at home) it's no good. All meters installed in WA now are programmed for time of use (and import/export), but you can elect for that or flat rate. To do it remotely a modem (GSM/3G usually, sometimes radio) is installed but these are mostly used for remote HV metering, rural customers just read their own meter and submit it on a form. Western Power/Synergy were trialling something in Perth where people could log onto a web site and see their real time use but I'm not sure what happened with that. I tried to make sense, need sleep.
I first received a letter in July 2011 from the distributor notifying for an installation in September of that year. They still haven't installed one. The www.stopsmartmeters.com.au website is a good resource if you don't want one. Simple steps to stop power companies include a) putting up no trespass signs, b) writing to the CEO informing no consent is provided for installing a smart meter, and c) responding to any letters stating that consent to enter the property to install a smart meter is not provided. In Victoria distributors only need to provide "best endeavours" to install one, it is not mandatory. You may be intimidated and misled but politely tell them to feck off. I had two women who identified themselves as working for a "power company" who reported over-billing in the area and wanted to check my meter. I told them I wasn't interested. When they pressed me to see the meter I told them they were trespassing. They scurried off in a hurry! There are legitimate health, security, privacy and financial concerns with smart meters. First your bill will go up (I've heard 30% in one case). They are effectively surveillance devices so it is a threat to your privacy and security. In Victoria the distributors apparently have the right to replace faulty meters under the standard consumer contracts, but that doesn't mean they can replace non-faulty meters so they can f*ck you up the back passage. Smart meters are bad news. Fight them early if you smell something coming. Apparently the gas companies will be rolling out a similar program in Victoria.
Oh, and who do you think pays for the electricity that the meter consumes? And who do you think is charged for the installation of the meter (even against your consent)? Yes, it's the end user. The distributors are monopolies hell bent on exploiting their unlawful position.
All meters use power, electronic or electromagnetic (spinning disc). As for security and privacy the ones in WA only assign the power use to 4 time periods so it's not like they can say "look, Mr Medved turns his kettle on at 0609 every mon-fri but not until 0732 on the weekend" and they're not about to install a modem on every meter just so they know when your bathroom heat lamps come on. I'm not sure what health concerns you're talking about, unless you mean to the linesmen changing the meter on your crusty old asbestos meter panel that's being held together by dodgy paint? It doesn't output any signals just reads the signal (50Hz AC) on your electricity service. I expect there are more health risks from the computer you use to post to this forum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLeCTaSG2-U The ones we use in Australia may be different or not use simcard tech but here are some vids from states, you can also see that they send far more often than every 15 mins, meaning they can see variations in usage over constants like all off or air con and fridge on to lights or appliances on/off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKoiFJFRy0M do not get distracted by the link to the right called lake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4KUdTeZCUI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsuP_WBBr2c this guy is in England I don't know about the shrub, he may have poisoned it but it shows a different country to states this guy has actually made a tin foil hat for his smart meter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL2JQ0FbgvU who says tin foil hats don't work :lol: Like I said, I wouldn't have my kids sleeping ion the room next to one of these. Would like to see testing of Australian models, maybe they are completely different.
