We have made it clear to BC Hydro that we are opting out of the upgrade program but a few days ago a letter arrived informing us they will be installing the meters in our neighbourhood. Even though they aren't legally allowed to change the meter without our consent, we decided to take it a step further (just in case.) We are constructing an enclosure right now. Anyone else taking similar precautions?

O_o

What's so bad about these smart meters you talk of?

Apparently there are concerns with exposure to the wireless radio frequency transmissions the smart meters use. I'm not sure yet what we're going to do. Probably we'll just go with the flow in these and let them go ahead. They're going to get them in eventually anyway.

Ahh.. a little hard for me to imagine I guess since I always lived in a town/city at least and I'm pretty sure there's wireless radio frequency transmissions almost everywhere here ^^ (small country). At least when I still used to have a radio with one of those antenna's sticking out it always picked up at least a few channels :)

That is a concern but it's not #1 on my list as I could always wrap it up in aluminum foil or something. The cost increase as a result of a Time-of-Use price structure is my main concern, followed by invasion of privacy.

I can see the increase in cost argument, but is it really invasion of privacy when you're using an outside companies meter to begin with (I assume) and they want to change their hardware? (may have some facts off here obviously)

I was probably unclear. What I mean is that they will know when I am home and what appliances I am using. And who else will end up with access to this information? Vic Toews? Insurance companies? US entities subject to the Patriot Act?

My family is opting to pay a small monthly fee to keep our old meters. I guess we're the paranoid types.

For what it's worth, they could get this info quite simply from other means without changing out your meter. For instance, they install a coil pick-up on your line before it gets to the meter, to measure the same thing. Kinda surprised they aren't going this route, since it oughta cost much less than replacing the meter at each house. That is, unless they are able to upgrade the existing meters instead of removing and replacing the whole unit.

Folks will need to decide between their privacy concerns and the cost savings. For most households, more power is used in the evening hours when electricity is cheaper, so a smart meter ought to drop the power bill a little bit. I'm home during the day so it won't do much for us. Haven't heard yet that our local pow-co is looking at 'upgrades' to our meters...

They came to the house one day and just replaced it, and that was the end of it. Personally I couldn't care less about the "health effects" (the CBC did that story a couple months back about how the effects of the radio signals were negligible). However we are standing our ground with the water meter - there's no way the City of Surrey is going anywhere near that.

Does the OP live in Metro Vancouver, by any chance?

Some nutballs(not including OP or targetting OP) think the gov't/company can spy on you or some such with such meters. :\Dude, you're being paranoid here.......yes they might know when you are home or not(due to energy usage), but I doubt that information is a private as you think. (People could peek in your window to find that out, for example, or call your house.)

Also how can they know exactly what you're using? Those meters(from my understanding) can tell HOW MUCH energy you use total and when but I don't think the outlets in people's homes can detect what types and/or brands of appliances you're using and relay that info to the power company due to how the wiring in people's homes is setup, along with how the utilities coming into your home are setup.

They can't the most they can do is guestimate whats on "they used so much extra power for 2 minutes could be a microwave.. or they could have turned on an aircon to test it or or or... The main thing they let you do is work out whats costing you $$$ and swap them out for more efficient models...

There's two reasons that Smart Meters exist. First off, yes, as said before, it measures immediate and instantanious changes of electrical current draw into a house. Usually, this is enough for them to have a really good idea of what you're using. Because of that, they can determine efficiency of your electronics, and can charge you extra for it. The reason being is that electronics alter something called the Power Factor, which is basically an angular representation of an alternating current. The closer to 0 the power factor is, the more efficient your house is ( PF = Cosine(feta), PF = 0 @ feta = 0. Usually feta is measured between 90 to -90).

If the power factor is far off, more current is drawn to make up for the voltage needed. P = V(rms) * I(rms) * cosine(feta). Draw too much and you cause brown-outs. If you use outdated equipment that make that power factor head towards 1, they charge you for the inefficiency and of course, encourage you to switch out.


The second point of the smart meter is that it's completely digital. Older meters could be tampered, as the usual method involved a spinning needle that rotated a dial to show usage. Impede it and it thinks you're using less than you are. This makes sure that everyone pays what they owe. Be clear though, they have no ability to take information from your usage other than knowing what kind of electronics you have.

You're telling me they can tell if you have either an air conditioner or some other similar power drawing device based on how much power you use? I would think they can guesstimate what kinds of appliances you may have by the power draw but not the exact numbers/types of appliances down to an exact degree like you describe.

In my house the meter is right next to the circuit box. I don't know if it's the same for everyone but if so, they can read the outputs through every breaker, and guess by similarity what is used in each one. Also, most electronics of a certain device tend to be pretty close in what they draw. Example, my laptop's power cable draws in 1.5 amps of current at 100-240 volts, outputting at twice the current and a fifth the voltage. There should be a sticker on your box and likely, it'll give you a number that's pretty close to this one. Higher voltages are drawn by heating elements, meaning toasters, certain ovens, microwaves, hair drier. Many radios come in around 20 volts, at least the ones I've seen.