Smart Meter questions

[Lefty Dave]

Greetings
The electric co op came to our door today wanting to install a Smart Meter to our home, we declined, and they said we will ultimately have to.
I searched the web/net for information on the benefits of this device...but found it only benefits the Co op (no more meter readers) plus....seems they do a lot more than measure your power consumption.
They also saturate the area with extremely high amounts of electromagnetic radiation on a continual basis. Not healthy for living things, the home or neighborhood.
Is this going on internationally, or just here in USA?
Is there any legal remedy to opt out of this device?
Need some input here...

Blessings

Dave

[Heyoka_11]

G'day Dave,

I started a thread the other day on the subject of smart meters. There are a few good links that others have posted. Might be worth a look.

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?29611-The-Future-Global-Currency-Energy-Itself

Best Wishes,

Tony.

[hedigoto]

They are installing those in Mexico too, the electric company (a public company) argues that the smart meters are practically impossible to manipulate by people, the old ones are more easily opened and manipulated counterclockwise to obtain a lighter energy bill.

[TigaHawk]

They're pushing them over here in Australia too. We can tell them to get lost, and have them removed because they origionaly went around putting them on without telling people. They charge you for getting it removed tho, heh.


Considering the power they're capable of outputting, wonder if it can be manipulated to do frequencies that mess with the human brain?

[D-Day]

Seems to me that there's A LOT of information out there regarding the potential health risks associated with smart meters. Just thought I'd present something here from a source that's appears to have done some "actual" scientific analysis on the issue of smart meter RF wave outputs.

I'd be interested to hear what everyone makes of this...

Report - 'No Health Threat By Smart Meters', produced by the Director of Standards& Engineering for the Utilities Telecom Council: http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/...hThreat_1_.pdf


Here, also, is an article I quickly found on Google that seems to support the information in the above report. I wouldn't necessarily say the site is a reliable/credible source of information (I didn't look inot it all that thoroughly) but nonetheless it does offer a different perspective for our consideration.


Smart Meters Are Not a Health Risk. The End.

A handful of utility customers have been concerned about the health risks associated with the installation of smart meters in their communities; these ladies even got arrested over it. But according to a recently-released independent report from the California Council on Science and Technology, which compiled a lot of the already-available research done on the subject, there are no known health risks associated with living with a smart meter.

The health issue that angry consumers have raised has been over radio frequency (RF) emissions, which wireless devices like cell phones, microwaves, baby monitors, wireless routers, and yes, smart meters, emit. These devices emit RF at various rates, and at various power densities, depending on how often they’re used and what the wireless device does.

More studies need to be done on the long-term effects of RF emissions on people. But it shouldn’t be associated with the smart meter folks.

As the CCST study points out, a cell phone at your ear actually emits a much (much) larger dose of RF (as you can see in the graph) on a body, compared to a smart meter. Standing a couple of feet away from a microwave also emits more RF on a person than standing near a smart meter.

http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/smartmeterhealth1.jpg

In contrast, smart meters are mostly installed outside homes, are installed to face the street (usually not the house), are low power, and during the initial installation phase, are only in use for 2 to 4 percent of the time (though that usage will clearly rise over time, and the graph assumes 100 percent on).

If consumers are concerned about living in apartments that are close to a lot of smart meters lined up outside their wall, there have been studies on that, too. In November 2010 the Electric Power Research Institute field tested how much RF was being emitted from a bank of 10 meters of 250 mW power level at a 1-foot distance. EPRI found that the RF exposure level was only 8 percent of the FCC standard (the FCC establishes an acceptable threshold of RF emissions, and cell phones, microwaves and smart meters all fit comfortably under the limit).

So basically, if consumers are worried about RF, they should give up cell phones and microwaves before blocking smart meter installations.

There is no evidence of health risks associated with RF emissions, but there’s a lack of long-term studies on how it could affect humans over decades or a lifetime. Some studies, which aren’t widely accepted in the science community, suggest that fatigue or even cancer could come from long-term RF exposure. Clearly, that area needs to be researched more, but it will probably need to be focused around cell phone use (and not smart meters), as that’s one of the biggest contributors to RF emissions and humans.
Source: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/smart-meters-are-not-a-health-risk-the-end/

Now I'm not saying I'm all for the introduction of smart meters into our homes, but I do think we should try to look at both sides of the story before immediately accepting the conspiracy theories without doing any of our own research.

Just some food for thought... :)

[Mark Aldebaran]

I work in automation and telemetry. Smart meters are nothing new. There is no widely-accepted international standard; some are hardwired and all over the map: MODEM, TCP/IP, fibre or even RS-422. Some are RF, 900 MHz being typical, a low frequency to get long distance with very little power. In terms of biological hazard an RF smart meter output is nothing compared to cordless phones, cell phones and leaky microwaves.

The fear-mongering smart meter websites are based more on ignorance than fact.
If the site was made on a CRT monitor that is probably 1000 times more dangerous than an RF smart meter.
No radiation is their mantra, (with no definition), playing on the public's association of radiation with ionizing radiation. Back to school you guys.

No radiation would be rather bleak: no steam trains, no pizza ovens, no hair dryers, no heaters, no cars, no Earth, no Sun, no stars.
Anything I've forgotten? Oh yeah, the dark cold empty vacuum of space still carries background radiation from the Big Bang.

[Lefty Dave]

Thanks so much for all your input...it was very helpful and I appreciate both the pros and cons of this topic...
I saw some pretty heavy videos on what the folks in California are going through with these smart meters...many of their opinions indicate that these devices are dangerous for long term health ...but...alas....at my age I don't have to worry about long term !!

Blessings

[Eva2]

Not sure if this video has been posted before:

http://youtu.be/8JNFr_j6kdI

[Heyoka_11]

Not sure if this video has been posted before:

G'day Jill,

Great video, and here it is posted.

8JNFr_j6kdI

If you go to Forum - Technical Q & A, you'll find instructions on how to embed them. It is easy!

[Eva2]

Thank you for embedding - I'm technically challenged but will follow your direction to the Q&As for the next one!

[Marianne]

Thank you for embedding - I'm technically challenged but will follow your direction to the Q&As for the next one!

:offtopic:
Tony is such a good doo-bee!

[Shamz]

I always wonder about folks like me who live in cities - under their rule - Law -- what can we do..tomorrow if the water company - electricity company or the Natural gas company comes and say they want to install smart meter. I can cry and shout all I want -- I do not have any say in the decision. Whatever the city has decided I have to live with that.
any suggestions ?

[Eva2]

Here's another informative video on smart meters:

gR8tILAxhjI

The security and health issues really sound unsettling.

[Heyoka_11]

Here's another informative video on smart meters

Hey Jill, well done........you did it!

[Eva2]

Here's another informative video on smart meters

Hey Jill, well done........you did it!

Ho, Ho - I never cease to amaze myself. Thank you for your unwavering confidence in my abilties!!