Posted on 03/09/2014 6:00:09 AM PDT by dontreadthis
By now many of you that refused the installation of FP&L’s smart meters have received a “Dear Customer” letter telling you that you have a choice of meters. The letter goes on to say that if you don’t take their smart meter that you will be charged $95 upfront and $13/month to retain your old meter. If you haven’t received such letter, you will shortly.
On January 7, 2014 the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) approved this deal. Although, it is being contested by two separate citizen petitions (one of which I am leading), the rules state that FP&L can continue as planned with the stipulation that fees collected are “subject to refund”. That is, if the FPSC Order is overturned, they must return the fees charged to the customers.
Why the fees? Well you resistors are “cost causers”. It is a long-standing principle that is invoked at will when they want to get you to comply with the game plan. In 1987/1988 they invoked the same principle when they transferred the ownership of meter enclosures and associated cost burdens (maintenance/replacement) to you the customer. The order (PSC Order # 18893) stated that:
“Since self-contained meter enclosures are not a part of the utility function, but simply house the meter itself, their costs should be borne by the customer when the structure is initially wired for electric service or when it must be replaced due to obsolescence or wear. The burden of maintaining and repairing the enclosures’ must likewise rest with the customer.” A smart meter is not “simply a meter” but contains lots of additional components that are part of the utility function. It establishes a wireless Neighborhood Network and sends messages back and forth amongst neighbor meters, remotely disconnects services and monitors your usage.
(Excerpt) Read more at drrichswier.com ...
Everything I’ve read on “smart meters” so far show that they read usage and transmit those reading via WiFi technology. They cannot remotely be triggered on and off - human still go to the meter for shutoffs and reconnects. When used in conjunction with “smart thermostats” your appliances can be remotely controlled.
And then they decide that everyone needs to raise their AC thermostats to 85 degrees to save power, or during the winter, everyone’s thermostat gets lowered to 60 degrees for 12 hours a day and they flip a switch and make it so. I would have a problem with that.
“Smart meters constantly emit RFs”
No. They emit at well under 5% duty cycle for ones I’ve looked at.
“They are known to cause multiple medical problems such as palpitations, tinnitus, sleep disruption, anxiety, et al.”
Perhaps in people who have not paid their electric bill, but there is no physical effect on people from a “smartmeter”
“They allow the utility to track your electric usage which means the utility can decide to reduce or shut off your power if they deem it necessary.”
This is true. The real reason for “smartmeters” is to eliminate manual meter reading allow them to implement schemes, such as time-of-day usage to charge you more money.
It also helps in tracking down outage locations.
” Google smart meters are unhealthy and see what pops up.”
Yes, and you’ll all manner of hysteria with no basis in fact over traditional type meters.
“Just more government-sanctioned control on the masses.”
Yeah, but mostly clearing the way to charge you differently/more for your power usage.
Object or not - but do it for the right reasons not some made up crap you find on Google.
Here in Tampa (Teco Energy, not FPL) we have/had type 2 as an option, but they are really pushing for type 1. The idea is they want to be able to sell power at different rates at different times of the day.
You are sadly misinformed.
Smart meters constantly emit RFs. No they do not, the duty cycle is less that 10%
They have been known to cause fires- So has any electrical device.
They are exempt from UL testing- UL testing is not a government function, it is a private choice made by the manufacture. They must comply with the FCC regulations 512. If they do not they are illegal and the FCC would drive them out of business. (The FCC seems to enjoy doing so)
They are known to cause multiple medical problems such as palpitations, tinnitus, sleep disruption, anxiety, et al. – This is without scientific basis. Please describe the mechanism by which the body will detect 850 MHz, ~ 2048 MHz if you find one you will be rich because you have invented something very desirable.
They allow the utility to track your electric usage which means the utility can decide to reduce or shut off your power if they deem it necessary. Yup sure does, that’s the whole purpose of the exercise.
It is invasive and intrusive. You don’t have to take their power, you can generate your own if you wish.
Do you also want to ban DiHydrogen Oxide ?
No I have never worked for any of these companies.
I had a typo that should be NIC514.
Fact between 6 and 7 percent of all electrical power generated in the US is lost due to losses in the distribution system. This is literally millions of kWhr’s of energy wasted each year.
The smart-meters allow the utility to perform an inverse solution to determine if a component in the system is failing so it can be replaced. This reduces the waste.
“their power being controlled”
The power being provided is not theirs.
They are customers. If they don’t like the product they can get it somewhere else. They can for instance purchase generators.
There is something stopping them. That is ordinary business sense. People hate change and dream up all sorts of artificial nonsensical stumbling blocks to retard it.
PSC complaints affect rate increases..at least they did with telco
Misinformed? No, I have spent years researching smart meters and talking to people about the perils of them.
I know of more than a dozen well-educated, reasonable, credible, and honest individuals who have all had multiple health and sleep problems since smart meters were installed in their homes. Six of them have had the smart meters removed after years of fighting with the utility and guess what? Their problems ended. Just because you do not have symptoms does not mean that the thousands of others who are all complaining of various degrees of issues are without validity. The one common element is the smart meter. I will trust my own judgement and not that of the utility or the government for my safety and health. Some people are sensitive to certain stimuli. Why is someone with a peanut allergy can go into an allergic reaction requiring hospitalization for just touching a spot of peanut dust and most others do not? Because some people are more sensitive to things than others.
Most electronic devices do not cause fires. In fact, UL ratings are for us consumers to have an assurance that the device that we buy or use meets certain standards.
Any commercial entity wants to get a UL rating. They are a credible thing to put on one’s product. Smart meter companies made sure that they are exempt from this testing. Many smart meters are manufactured in China where they could not give a crap about anything related to quality or safety.
Smart meters allow the government and the utility to track the user’s usage. I do not want, nor am I comfortable having some big brother entity tracking my usage so it can be determined when I sleep, when I am at work or when I am away. This whole BS about more efficient usage is garbage. It is about control.
I have a device that tracks RFs, and when I measure my smart meter, it emits signals all day long not 10% of the day.
I have electricity supplied by my utility, and the contract is that I pay for what I use. It is not for some behind the curtain entity to determine what I use. That’s for me to decide. I meant to tell Santa Claus that I wanted a power generator for Christmas, but forgot. So for now, I have to rely upon the power company. And no, I cannot generate my own because my government will not allow me to without licenses, permits and more money. The power company will not allow me to net meter either so I am, unfortunately, subject to the whims of my power provider.
Where in my comment did I allude that I wished to ban water?
soooo,
too many complaints, not as high a request hike as requested, just a very large percentage of said.
We should expect to see this type of letter soon:
Dear Customer:
According to your smart meter you are using more energy than our more unfortunate citizens. To correct this energy inequality, a “individual shared responsibility charge” will be added to your bill to provide subsidies to those who cannot afford to keep their homes cool or who have smaller homes than yours.
In addition, to protect the electric grid from over-usage that might cause brownouts, after your meter records the new “maximum allowable energy limit” for your residence, it will automatically shut down the electricity delivered until your daily usage falls within the approved limits of our shared use of the energy grid to produce equality of service.
Have a nice day.
>> They are known to cause multiple medical problems such as palpitations, tinnitus, sleep disruption, anxiety, et al.
Known to whom? Art Bell?
They have a monopoly, I have no choice but to use THEM for “my juice” therefore now I have no say in how much of my activity they can “monitor”. You want them to do that for you, fine, not me. Got it.
You buy power. Paranoia should not be a factor in the transaction.
Yep, it’s coming. I just jumped the gun a few years in Castigo Cay.
There is something stopping them. That is ordinary business sense. People hate change and dream up all sorts of artificial nonsensical stumbling blocks to retard it.
When a business is given a monopoly by the government then the rules have to change. I know you said people can buy a generator but there is about a 0% chance that any suburban or urban area is going to allow you to actually run a generator 24/7.
I have no problem with smart meters (I have one) but monopolies are evil.
Wouldn't it be nice to live in such a place?
So sorry... then there are certain States that have no income tax.
I bow to the Master Prophet. You’re damn dead on point in your books and predicting events is a hell of a lot more impressive than merely commenting on them after the fact.
So far you’ve been right about energy control in Florida a la Castigo Cay.,
Confiscation of guns with resistance via massive civil disobedience in Connecticut a la “Enemies Foreign & Domestic”
Every day sees some vestige of the Reconquista occurring in the US, including spineless liberal politicians giving away the country a la Enemies Domestic.
I missed downloading the last of your trilogy, but will get it this week to find out what else will happen to our country.
I have exactly the same health problems I had before a smart meter was installed in my home.
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