Posted on 07/19/2012 3:41:33 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
A woman in Texas says she tried to be polite when she told the man from the power company that she didn't want to have her old electric meter replaced with a new "smart" meter. But when he refused to listen to her, she grabbed her gun.
The woman tells Houston's KHOU that she placed herself between the installer and her old meter but, "He just kept pushing me away."
That's when she showed him her handgun.
"He saw it, and went back the other way," she tells KHOU.
The homeowner says she is not comfortable with the amount of information smart meters transmit back to the power company.
"Our constitution allows us not to have that kind of intrusion on our personal privacy," she explains. "They’ll be able to tell if you are running your computer, air conditioner, whatever it is."
The woman still has her old meter and she and her husband have posted warning signs declaring "No Smart Meters Are to Be Installed On This Property," but CenterPoint, the power company that attempted to install the meter says it will persist in its efforts.
"We are deeply troubled by anyone who would pull a gun on another person performing their job," reads a statement from the company. "CenterPoint will be taking additional steps – including court actions – because what happened is dangerous, illegal and unwarranted."
KHOU reports that CenterPoint Energy already installed around 2 million smart meters in the area, but the local Public Utilities Commission is now weighing the possibility of allowing homeowners to have the new meters removed.
Power company has easement rights to be on the property and service their equipment.
The issue is they never got the right to set up microwave transmitters from the property owner, just a meter to record power usage.
If you could buy it from someone else people would have a choice, but they are government approved monopolies so there is no free market choice. Otherwise you could get power from someone else.
But metering power usage and setting up a microwave transmitter on your property are two very different things. These people have no problem being metered, they never gave permission to have microwave transmitters set up on their property, much less big brother real-time observation of their usage habits. We already have evidence power companies are coming back to people trying to get on their cases for using more energy than their surrounding neighbors.
With the new generation of smart appliances they will be able to tell what is running and when.
You can decide not to have internet service or get it a different way - not so with a government approved monopoly power company - the only guy in town, no choice. Hardly the same comparison.
Easement means they have access to their property on her property.
With interest, I hope, and “late charges”?
People fantasize about dueling. Some guy insults your wife, your honor, your dog, whatnot, and in the fantasy you duel and you show him. The reality is that a lot of older men, and barely men (very young) lost their lives to men in their prime. Approaching 50 myself I can readily see why dueling isn’t such a grand idea.
People fantasize about dueling. Some guy insults your wife, your honor, your dog, whatnot, and in the fantasy you duel and you show him. The reality is that a lot of older men, and barely men (very young) lost their lives to men in their prime. Approaching 50 myself I can readily see why dueling isn’t such a grand idea.
oh-la-la.....they can control your AC? Wow.
Thanks for the info....I will make sure to never agree to any smartmeter crapola.
Wait a minute...how do you know if you have one? I don’t get meter readers around anymore. WHere are they located?
Did you say: "let me talk to your supervisor" and then unload on him? If they were calling like that it could well meet the definition of harassment, and if it was upsetting their health there's no reason you couldn't pursue a civil suit for the medical costs.
“And if your “nephew” really exists, he should be fired, before someone blows his ass away for threatening them with lethal force on their own property. “
Buddy of mine worked for a cable company in some ghetto areas and carried concealed despite company policy. His attitude was better to get fired than be dead and no good to his wife/kids.
He’s a VP now in the same company and still carries when he has to go out in the field.
Shouldn't be anything a nice isolation transformer and some capacity storage / peak shaving on the back (load) side shouldn't be able to cure. I realize you shouldn't HAVE to go to all that trouble to keep information you own out of the hands of others, but at least there's a workaround.
I had to pay for every piece of my electrical equipment when I built my house. Every foot of wire from the power company’s pole, the underground conduit, the meter, the ground, the wiring, the entrance boxes, the breakers——which part of that do you think they have an “easement” on?
Dude, it's just a relay contact. They can open and close it remotely all they want, but it only disables your AC if you let it disable your AC.
“oh-la-la.....they can control your AC? Wow.”
I got some blowback from other posters. The point I was trying to make is that the Smart Meter gives the utility the means to remotely control major energy using appliances like A/C units but only if you allow them to install a circuit interrupting device that can be controlled through the smart meter. The more insidious part of Smart Meters is that they can measure your instantaneous usage ( i.e. they can more or less continuously monitor your power usage in real time) which brings into play charging you more for the KWH you use depending on the time of day that you use it. Want to run your washer during the early evening, it will cost you more than if you stay up and do your laundry @ 3 a.m.
If the meter is so poorly designed that it can't even prevent the leakage of personal utility usage information to people with no business having it, I'd hardly call it "smart".
Exactly. How is information YOU OWN leaving your property going to help YOU make better decisions?
Bzzzt! (Thanks for playing!) She just wanted to maintain the status quo ante; she owed them no new money. THEY'RE the ones who wanted to alter the terms of service -- THEY should have offered to pay HER $10 a month to accept the damn thing.
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