Posted on 01/17/2014 12:12:07 AM PST by ransomnote
I spoke to someone yesterday that I have not seen since 1996. I met him at the Barbican in London, he was an Inventor and I was an inventor and we were both displaying products, i then met him a few months later at the Southampton Science fair and we went out for a few beers.
So he worked in electronics and when I met him yesterday he told me something that I could never imagine and still cant believe it but it does seem true as I did a couple of searches and thing are happening as he told me, anyway here is the conversation roughly how it went.
Hi hows things not saw you for ages what are you doing ( Im going to call him X so you know when he was talking)
X : doing ok keeping busy. Me: where are you working then.
X: I work in R& D developing the latest smart meters.
Me: Ive heard about them you run out of milk and your fridge orders you another pint from Tesco's.
X: ha ha' thats what they want you to think, i suppose if Tescos want to do that then they can but the power compaines have not invested £3.5 billion to make tescos money.
Me: So what is the point of them.
X: people are moaning about their eletric bills just now but they would give anything to get back to what they are paying now two years from now.
(Excerpt) Read more at abovetopsecret.com ...
A lot of those FR threads have voices of reason from the industry like me speaking, but we are shouted down by the paranoids who know nothing of the utility grid.
My meter simply broke and started to log 5 times the actual power use. I switched off every circuit except a 100W bulb in the crawl space and told them about it. Naturally they said it is not their problem, but my frige (or something) has gone bad and using too much power. Finally after a lot of calls and two bills that were about 5 times higher than normal, they came and replaced the meter.
I have no problem with things that make things more efficient, nor paying for usage with known rates for known periods of time (I will never accept a bill based on to-be-determined rates at questionable "peak" times). What I have a problem with is those in power who see this technology as an in to control the masses.
I think the most interesting twist is how power companies now want to charge customers higher rates for producing part of their own energy.
That is, if you spend $30,000 to install solar panels, and even put energy back in to the system to pay lower rates, the energy companies are now saying that you should have to pay *more* than other customers for the same energy.
Their rationale for this is that they have to provide all the energy infrastructure for everybody, so by paying less for energy, or not using as much energy, “it is like stealing” from the other customers who don’t.
Yeah, that is utter hooey. Importantly, zoning laws in many municipalities *require* that even if you produce *all* your own energy, you still *must* be connected to the grid, or else the property is “not fit for human occupation.” They use this same racket to require people to have a municipal water supply, and pay the fees for it, even if they don’t use it.
Not going to happen.
When too many people "sell back" power, the line voltage rises uncontrollably, because the generation is no longer balanced with the load. Even 20% of people doing that is enough to upset the apple cart and start popping breakers and reclosers all over the place.
Grid-tied power generation is a fantasy. People should be consuming the power they generate, not "selling it back" as if it were some commodity like corn that can be stored.
But an inaccurate meter is a violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and if they have too many of them for too long, they can be levied heavy fines DAILY by FedGov. I have PERSONALLY gone out on "verification" trips with the meter techs to meters at residences to ensure the accuracy of the meter register against the electronics. I know they do this.
But facts are too inconvenient for the unicorn fantasies of the "smart meters are so they can raise my power bill" crowd.
home
I read more of what person "X" had to say in the article, and I was struck by the question: "Is English a second language in England?"
I’m currently working a contract with a power company. Believe me, smart metering is the wave of the future.
People can caterwaul all they want, but if they want to contract with the utility for electric power (and that's what it is, a contract, not a constitutional right), they they have to accept the smart meter.
I quite agree. But there still needs to be strong enough batteries or capacitors to store energy long enough to be practical.
An alternative so good that it should be in large scale mass production right now is the use of flexible, thin sheet aerogel insulation. It would so lower energy consumption, especially for high consumption appliances, that using just solar energy and batteries would be very practical.
People can pie-in-the-sky about what should be all they want. There's no good way to store billions of kilowatt-hours of electrical energy. You can store water, and run it over a dam, but once converted to electricity, you can't store a billion kilowatt-hours. Just can't be done.
POWER COMPANIES, because they are necessary monopolies,are regulated by the PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION and cannot charge more that the PSC allows.
Years ago, in a certain state, the electric lines were in poor shape. Electricity was “iffy” as maintainance was not done to keep service up.
The reason was some members of the PSC were elected on the promise to keep rates low. The only way the PSC could do that was to deny the electric companies any rate increases for line upkeep, so the lines were in bad shape.
When those members of the PSC finally retired, new members allowed a rate increase and the lines got the maintainance they needed.
Everyone seems to think that utilities are a “right”. No, you pay for them.
Our electric rates are the highest in Arkansas. Yet, when there is an ice storm, we lose less electricity because our higher rates keep the lines in good shape.
We were without power for three days, several years ago, when many other areas on other company power lines were out for THREE WEEKS.
Don’t get me wrong. I see the potential for abuse too, with the overbearing government we have today.
I have multiple battery banks and I am designing some relay circuits to charge them in turn, and when they are all charged I will dump my extra power into a resistive load to heat the house in winter. That's sort of a waste compared to selling it to the power company at full retail price, but I don't have a massive array to make that worth while, nor do I believe it is the right thing to do. In fact I think it is a scam: to sell unreliable power to the power company and be paid many times more than a reliable producer is paid.
The problem is that Edison lost (or won I forgot which) so we use AC instead of DC. But in fact I am switching to DC lighting, ceiling fans, etc. At some point I will get DC air conditioning and a DC fridge, but I'm not at that point yet.
I didn’t hit any ads at all and I did warn that I do not know the website, Charm-School-Dropout.
Two different points here. I am just focused on home energy use. I agree that putting energy back into a grid is stupid. But that being said, if a home becomes entirely energy self sufficient, it doesn’t need to be connected to the grid at all. So why pay for it?
>>Years ago, in a certain state, the electric lines were in poor shape.<<
Why the reluctance to name the state?
Louisiana.
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