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Post by bluemoth on Oct 13, 2011 14:36:12 GMT -8
Well there is so much talk about Smart Meters. Should we assume they are safe as PG&E says they are? Or are they very deadly? Is it possible one of these meters was responsible for the death of a man in CA with a hart pace maker. There was no way to prove this was the case. The meter was right out side on the wall of the man's room. Oh boy these meters are in deed a bit scary sounding to me! The RF radiation from these meters is supposed to not be at a harmful level. But then you might get Cancer or DNA breakage and other diseases from the RF radiation. By 2015 it is estimated that 302.5 million of the Smart Meters will be installed around the world and releasing lots of RF radiation as air pollution. Folks will also have to pay more money for electricity depending on if you use it during one of the peak pay periods. I think PG&E is ripping off USA citizens. Milking us for as much money as they can. This is not fare to us. If you do not allow smart meter installation you have to pay huge fines. Unfortunately we are not rich anuff to hire lowers and fight PG&E. We had to put up with having a smart meter installed at the house. Luckily it is out side a room not often used. So what do you other folks think of the smart meters? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Why?
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rjb
Full Member
Posts: 187
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Post by rjb on Oct 13, 2011 17:10:33 GMT -8
I like smart meters. They should be way cheaper to use than having meter readers walking the neighborhood.
RF cannot damage DNA- it is too low energy by over a factor of a million. UV and above (Xray, Gamma Rays etc) can cause damage. Regular light can't and anything lower energy can't.
RF is way lower energy. That's why all the "cell phone might cause cancer" is such a chuckle. Einstein told us the answer in about 1906.
Rick
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Post by saturniidave on Oct 13, 2011 17:12:18 GMT -8
What are they? I assume a meter to say how much electricity you use? How are they different from the millions of telecommunications masts all over the world in output ?
Here we have meters inside or out and a guy from the power company comes to read them every few months or so.
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rjb
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Posts: 187
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Post by rjb on Oct 13, 2011 17:17:36 GMT -8
Right. We just got one installed on the gas. Electricity will be next. Used to be the meter reader would come into our yard once a month and walk around using binoculars to read all our neighbors' meters. We don't have a dog, so the meter guy was safe in our yard. Now our gas meter reading is simply broadcast to a receiver. And this is in backwards New Mexico!!! Can't believe we aren't last in the country.
Rick
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Post by wingedwishes on Oct 15, 2011 2:49:44 GMT -8
We don't have them here in my area of Florida. What we do have is a device that rotates power away from some items based on the observed usage of the item (hot water heaters off at night or air conditioners lowered at night). I don't like this for "government should stay out of my home" kind of reasons but I do like it in that it saves a little money and reduces usage.
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Post by arrowhead on Oct 17, 2011 22:48:23 GMT -8
Wasn't there a controversy about how they would set your rate during your peak hours and never mind the minimum power usage?
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Post by bluemoth on Oct 18, 2011 11:28:45 GMT -8
Yes it is a controversy about paying more money at peak power use times. Also some folks say you have to pay $7 dollars more on power bills than before. Also folks upset about the two kinds of radiation emitted by smart meters. On of these kinds of radiation in the smart meters is emitted by all our every day use gadgets like wireless phones, electric clocks, TVs, computers, some kinds of lights, microwave towers and some kinds of microwave ovens. We are constantly bombarded by harm full radiation in office buildings, malls, stores, hotels, in the car, in the home, towns and in cities. The wild woods is the only safe place away from radiation if you do not bring electronic items with you like a cell phone. Some studies have proven this radiation can cause a variety of illnesses like cancer.
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rjb
Full Member
Posts: 187
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Post by rjb on Oct 20, 2011 5:28:53 GMT -8
I think humans have an inalienable right to worry about any kind of nonsense we want to. Invisible radiation is kind of scary like ghosts and evil magic. It's fun to scare yourself with this stuff.
If you want to know if the radiation actually hurts you, you have to consult the science. The answer is not nearly as fun- actually pretty boring.
Rick
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 20, 2011 10:41:38 GMT -8
Yes, the amount of radiation is nominal. It is really a ploy, in my view, to have better ability to monitor electrical use so they (being power companies, which probably have their hands in some politician's campaign accounts) can charge more for power used during peak hours. Kind of like how insurance companies can charge you more if you are using up your insurance (that deductible +20% more of whatever the total cost is, despite paying for 10 years of good health with no problems) but if not they will just take the monthly fee which is more than you are getting back in care. Or airline companies that have gas that costs 100x more if you want to fly around Christmas than it does to fly off season. Same plane, same gas, should be same price.
I think if the intention was actually to conserve energy it would be fine, but it's not being applied as such. They charge you for what you don't use while you are at work and then charge you that plus extra for being home. My advice, find a night job. Lol. It's very aggravating being abused by large companies that you can't avoid using, like insurance, power company, phones, banks- especially banks, bunch of crooks. I have to direct deposit and therefor pay all these ridiculous fees to whichever bank I am forced to "chose" because it's "paper reducing"- really? Then why print me an additional pay stub anyway? It is not at all about the customer anymore, it's all about the institution. And they know they've got you so you just have to grin and bear it.
In my part of Florida we have remote meters that are checked every so often. It's said because it avoids dogs, but really to make checking meters faster because they can scan your house from their car now which means one employee can now take up what used to be 10 people's jobs. I'll stop because the way business is allowed to treat the American people (and other nationalities in their respective countries) is very discouraging and it just makes me aggravated more than I can express. Gets worse and worse. Politicians and CEO always out to help themselves to a large portion of your hard-earned meal and now the politicians are cutting the crust off the sandwich for their CEO buddies. Any day now I expect to hear "then let them eat cake."
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Post by wingedwishes on Oct 20, 2011 14:25:08 GMT -8
I am called to train meter readers and mail carriers on dog bite prevention/avoidance. It is a serious problem. I see the results daily. I am not a user of the device and I don't know if it is used in my area but I do know that there are many meter readers.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 21, 2011 4:42:52 GMT -8
Yes, there are still meter readers and I do know that dogs are a serious problem for service personnel in general being an owner of a large dog myself. But there are much fewer of them than there used to be even though there are much more homes to meter-read. The postal service also went this route some time ago, getting rid of almost all walking post people by requiring median-mounted boxes instead of those that used to be found on the front of the house near the door. You really only find those in historical neighborhoods anymore where coding or infrastructure make the former impossible. That was literally done to reduce the number of postal workers. I strongly suspect the remote meter readers are also along those lines, just as the "smart meters" are- after all, I have a dog but my meter is well outside the 5 foot tall fence (because I thought about that when I put my fence up) and they still put a remote signal on it a few years ago. It is more efficient for the company and therefor probably me too in a small and immediate way because I would no doubt have to pay part of the extra personnel's salary in the form of extra fees on the bill. But it also means a lot of people lost there job and in the long term it is going to cost more because the rest of us have to help compensate for the loss to the economy of working people. We all can see easily now what happens to a country when more and more people are becoming unemployed or are losing good jobs and having to take the lowest end substitute. I don't mind paying a small amount more if it contributes to the health of my local economy, I mind paying more when it contributes to the not-locally owned but locally operated business that is laying off my neighbors while extracting more and more money from us for fewer and fewer services. If smart meters are just going to be used as a tool for this mode of thinking then I don't want them.
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Post by wingedwishes on Oct 21, 2011 13:43:25 GMT -8
I agree. We do have gas and water readers on foot through most of the county but curbside mail is the norm.
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Post by willyomt on Nov 20, 2011 22:54:39 GMT -8
Here's a link to very interesting video on smart meters. After watching it, I'm thinking I'd much rather not have the power company installing one on my residence.
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Post by nomihoudai on Nov 21, 2011 1:41:07 GMT -8
[sarcasm] Oh my god, this kind old man that I do not know, that I have never seen, that I do not know what education level he holds just told me over internet to not use smart meters because they are evil. They are radiotransmitters of 1 Watt! OMG and I was worried that I constantly have keep 0,5W/Kg as a cellphone right next to my left nut for the last 10 years, these smartmeters sure are bad. They even developped some form of artificial intelligence as they communicate one with the other trough the neighbourhood as this man stated! We will never be safe again, the power company will use the data to read out whenever I use my electrical toothbrush in the morning and...and do...I don't know, but they sure are evil. [/sarcasm]
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Post by bluemoth on Nov 25, 2011 12:55:15 GMT -8
A town meeting was televised on Smart Meters on TV. Apparently one women had ringing in her ears and felt like she was getting hot inside. She saw doctors but they could not find any thing rong. It was finally found out the smart meter was the cause of the strange symptoms. After much hassle PG&E removed her Smart Meter. A man got a sevear headache when in side a home with a Smart Meter. After leaving the home It took four hours for the man's headache to go away. Another family with a young child now has to sleep out side in a tent because of the affects of the smart meter on their bodies. Apparently it is true that Smart Meters are not safe and are causing illness in people in my county. These were real folks not actors who spoke at the town meeting. So these meters are not safe. Do not let them be installed on your home! Fight PG&E if you can.
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