Good Morning PEEDS...The above is in Military Parlance-GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), nicknamed "MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS"...
The reason for the title is due to what just took place at my residence...A Sun Power & Light guy (I live in Florida) just replaced my electrical meter in 3 seconds - wait for it---> BECAUSE he got notified by a company in North Carolina that my meter was bad and needed to be replaced...
I then pointed out that with that capability they could turn off POWER too any home in a matter of seconds and he said "YES" they could and what is more frightening is that ALL NEW homes are NOW PART OF A GRID system...Also, he pointed out that any homes before a certain year will also be converted at NO expense to the owner...also, the meters don't last more than three (3 years)...WASTE OF RESOURCES!!!
P.S. This is my first post on this site so--- be extremely gentle...😂😂😂😂😂
We have net metering here and people can “put electricity back on the grid” with their solar panels which credits their account. It will never result in $0 electric bill, and the solar panels will only work if the system detects power from the power company. If the power is out, you panels aren’t doing shit.
Gulf Coast
There are farday cages that you can wrap your smart meter in. At least you can prevent the signal from entering your house. There is also a way to prevent appliance snooping ( power-line wifi ) but havent looked into it.
My apartment has a "smart" water meter....
So it meters in the correct amount of fluoride, benzene, and aluminum based on your social score?
Underrated comment
My apartment has socialized water heater and usage bills. I pay for other people who use tons of water/hot water. It's fun.
Not cool.
I am currently attempting to opt out of being force-"upgraded" to a SMART meter at my house. I do not want that shit....
Good luck!
Hold the line. Does it have old school dial ?
You can opt out of these smart meters today but results in additional charges to your account because “someone has to go read your meter.” The cost to opt out here adds $15 a month to your bill.
Eventually, everyone will have it, and the tyranny can begin. Companies will exercise their right to refuse service to commercial and residential customers for wrong think.
Companies
Fixed it! I don’t want to look like a dumbass. Thank you!
My NJ electric company keeps trying to install a SMART meter. They were coming here quite often for a three month period and then stopped. Hopefully they gave up.
Same with mine in MO. I kept telling them I don't want it. They told me last summer, when I got notice they would be in the neighborhood, that it would be 40 per month to keep the old one. I said that's fine then cause I don't want your stinkin "smart" meter. I haven't seen them in months and I still have my old meter with no extra charge, yet anyways.
Perfect, hold your ground.
It's a trade off between the risk of throttling and some nosey bastard trespassing on your property unannounced to read your meter.
It's a shame that the government's behaviour makes us afraid of technology that should be improving our lives. This is why we can't have nice things.
Thanks for posting. Welcome. ~{°¡°}~
Tango Yankee!!!!!
In the future when electricity is more expensive consumers will have prepaid energy meters with serial data transmission ( via cell data ) so that a consumer can plan accordingly to reduce the consumption as per his budget.
This is already common in third world. You prepay for a few hours of electricity.
Enjoy the reset.
I live rural. I'm in kitchen hear a rumble on the outside wall. Go out turn corner and there's the asshole writing down the new meter number. Now I got a dog with me and he's giving him the what for. I tell him pulling a move like that could possibly get him shot. My exact words are you could have been shot. I'm so pissed off I storm away from what he's doing and go back inside. My wife gets a call an hour later from elec Co op explaining they don't take threats lightly. So he goes back after our conversation and lies to his superiors that I threatened him. Now I'm screaming while my wife's on the phone that if they thought that was a threat then to send his lying ass back and I'll show him a threat. After 10 minutes of them pointing the finger we want to see a superior face to face. They decline. After this I found out that all new meters communicate to one another like a daisy chain and when the reach a communication hub it downloads all the daisy chained info to main office. They use to have to drive by to get the data but now it's automated. The gate stays shut now. Next time it will play out way different. County sherriff wont even go thru shut gate.
Until next time
Ps
Don't go off half cocked!
No, this is wrong. You have electric, you EXPECT someone to read it. If you can't hack that, then get rid of it. The guy was doing his job. He does not need some lunatic pretending to threaten him. What do you want - for them to make an appointment every time the meter needs to be read? Ridiculous.
#1 yup I got electric #² no one reads the meter it reads itself and passes the information on to the nearest uplink. #3 yup he was doing his job. #4 I never threatened him. #5 a courtesy call that's it call me let me know your here. #6 again nobody reads my meter it's automated and I know this. Nobody ever shows at my house to read it. Never
If it's true that they don't actually have to come out to read your meter (which would mean you have a Smart meter) then yes, it's sketchy. But if he actually did have a legitimate reason to be there, (yearly check on the equipment, for instance) then you shouldn't make it any harder on him or anybody. For instance, I seriously hate people who leave a vicious dog in a yard when they know some dude has to go read the meter or drop off a package, etc. But I still think a courtesy call is not realistic.
👆I rest my case!
If things got bad enough, you could remove that meter and jump the lug terminals together using flat bar stock. Dangerous and Illegal yes but if the alternative is worse, then maybe just what you'd have to do to survive.
A guy I worked with years ago, and when meters were mechanical, would remove his meter and reinstall in upside down making it spin backwards. As for the tampering tag affixed to the meters housing, I dont remember what he did to install or replace it.
And they tend to explode...
I am seriously impressed by how knowledgeable people are around here. This subject is greek to me. One advantage to living in a rural small town that is not spending a lot of money updating much of anything, is that everything is kept borderline archaic. 'Tis a simple life. Lucky me. I suppose I should say "knock on wood" so that I'm not jinxing myself.
Oh you poor tenderfoot! lol. We've had electric meters here for years now. It was to save on manpower to read all the meters. Same with water and gas. I know they can shut of all the utilities especially if you are way behind on paying your bill. No man wants to step on another's property and risk getting shot over an unpaid bill. We've had the same meters for 20 years. The meters are the property of the utility company.
Pull meter install nail and done power back on
My old meter was replaced without my knowledge/permission. So I started reading up on it since it cant be good if they sneak it on you. Learned it emits some sort of pulses that can interfere with medical devices and could spark a fire. My doc wanted me to get a pacemaker and I told him I couldnt because I have a smart meter on my house. He had no clue.
If you live in the country a bit you can have a back up well.
Don't fret about the small stuff, you can always put jumpers or bypass bars in the meter box. we can always beat the system 😆
If you know how. :(
I'm sure the local gangster electricians will,,, help out🤣
Lol. touches nose.
Threatening a utility worker is the equivalent to threatening a mailman which is a felony. They changed the law about 15 years ago over here because of all the cutoffs for non-pay that was rampant at the time. The company wanted the deposits and instructed to give zero notices once the employee was onsite to disconnect.
There are smarter ways of being ungovernable than taking the life of a poor soul doing the bidding of corporate America. Although, it would be a shame to see someone figure out they can take out the metering antennas (basically the routers for the system). They’re strategically placed with battery backups along with the modem, and they’re not at your meter.
I’ve worked 20 years for an electric company along the gulf. I started in meter services, then lineman, now engineer. I feel uncomfortable just mentioning all this.
I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING DESCRIBED IN THIS POST!!!
Say more things about this.
The system will automatically send personnel to your house the moment you pull a smart meter.
If an interruption to your service were to occur, we could ping the meter to see if it answers back. It will auto generate a “lights out” and send someone to investigate.
Smart meters have the ability to be remotely turned on/off. A small icon on the display will show if the meter is open or closed. Many companies are making these and are slightly different from one brand to another. Some brands are reliable, others are cheap.
As for the old analog meters, there’s a potential strap on the back of the meter. By removing it, you could still get service but would not spin the meter. If you try this, you will eventually get caught. The company would issue an “investigate low/zero usage” ticket to have a serviceman take a look. We keep track of everyone’s usage from month to month, and the snapshot goes back years. If your usage were to suddenly stop or decrease, we send someone to investigate for tampering or to see if there’s a faulty meter.
Magnets don’t work either for the analog meters thinking it would slow the dials. I’ve seen a shit load of magnets on a meter and it didn’t do anything. For the new electric meters, I use a magnet to enter the meter into a new subset of information showing the voltage and phasing.
Don’t steal another smart meter and swap it with yours. The meter won’t work. A mismatch in the system will result in the meter not communicating properly and will send someone to investigate. Meters have ID and serial numbers, and we’re required to capture all information upon install. Not all digital meters are smart meters, too.
The dangly meter seals on your meter base are one-time use. Each color has a designated meaning, i.e. yellow, red, white, purple, green. The meter readers will report you if the seal is cut, and they’ll install their own colored seal to keep the meter base closed until personnel can investigate. The meter seals have ID numbers and are issued to the employees. We can find out who were issued any particular meter seal. They come in boxes with a chronological range of number like 160500-161000. These seals are guarded under lock and key.
What more do you want? I don’t advocate for the theft of electricity, it’s a no win situation. Besides, we’ve seen it all and have caught some cunning customers. Some were caught only because they openly bragged about what they’ve done to others at a bar to have someone who doesn’t care for them report the issue. Plus, you could easily get hurt opening the meter base. Just because your house is out of power, doesn’t mean that the meter socket is dead.
I haven’t felt the need to destroy company property either. At the moment, the smart technology is helping with reliability and quicker restoration, but the technology is still in its infancy and still has problems that need to be worked out for some utilities. However, once this is implemented, it’s not that much of a stretch to believe these companies would start throttling customers on their power consumption based on the belief of man made climate change or deny others based on their political opinions. We’re at the mercy of the investors pushing this shit.
The technology is promising, but it could easily be wielded for nefarious reasons. If the fuckery continues (the spying business), the antennas would be a vulnerability. It’ll be like shooting out the street lights near the drug house… continuously. Also, I’m sure the backup batteries could be repurposed for a better use rather than being destroyed. I’m hoping things start to get corrected, and we rightfully take back our nation before we resort to Antifa tactics.
DO NOT STEAL!!! DO NOT DESTROY EQUIPMENT!!!
Curious how a company could detect a resistor shunt. Obviously don’t do this.
Wow! Careful who takes that to heart and doesn't know what they are doing. lol
Just make sure the gate was shut it doesn't have to be locked just shut.