FoxReno.com

Hart said that nearly all of the protesters were prepared to be arrested for the cause because of what they say are alarming health risks posed by the meters and the electromagnetic radiation they emit. That radiation, Hart said, will cause long-term...

http://www.foxreno.com/news/28426720/detail.html

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Smart Meter Events in BC Canada

Dumb Meter Rally



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4DUTqcRSeQ

Salt Spring



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XXeQat2H3E

Stop Smart Meters



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyTUiQy71E8

Rally to be held July 9th

http://www.gifst.ca/

More Info

http://emrabc.ca/?page_id=2125


Blake Levitt on Smart Meters

Think I have written about this before for the list... It is my & Chellis Glendinning s article that appeared in Counter Punch and later in Energy Bulletin that John is quoting. There are several generations of meter technologies:

1. Old analog with dials requiring meter readers to come up to the meter. (Systems reliable, good for jobs, not optimal for corporate profits)

2. First generation RF meters that accumulated usage data and released it wirelessly to a van that would pull in the drive or cruise the neighborhood and 'call' for usage information at each house/business. Meters generated RF once a month and automatically shut off. (Required a meter reader who did not have to get out of a vehicle. Systems less reliable, better for corporate profits, fewer meter readers due to more efficient use of their time.)

3. Smart meters - completely wireless, no need for meter readers of any kind. (Optimal for long term corporate profits since taxpayers largely upfront-funded investment through the federal stimulus package. Bad for long-term jobs but good for short term temp positions. Cost shifting onto the medical/insurance sector. National Grid security uncertain but Wall Street and Green investors love it....) In Connecticut where I live, Northeast Utilities (NEU) put first generation RF meters on homes about 5-7 years ago. I refused to allow it and worked directly with their corporate meter manager (who was already familiar with my work) to find a way around. For a year, I read our meters and did a fine job but they weren t comfortable with that indefinitely. Every month when I called in my readings to a live person, their computers automatically issued work orders to replace the meters on the main and guest house on our property and the whole thing constantly involved some sort of human correction to stop it. New installers kept showing up because the system had told them to. Managers were constantly having to override the orders. So I could understand their in-flux system problems, too. Eventually it got squared away with some software adjustments but it was labor intensive for everyone, including me. At the time, there were no alternatives offered to residential customers. But it turns out that in already high RF environments - near broadcast facilities, military areas, airports, some research/medical/university facilities etc. - first generation meters wouldn t work anyway because there was too much environmental RF causing interference already. They could not get accurate readings. So, they had become adept at using landlines that connected directly to the meters. Usage is called for daily, typically at night, by an automated system. That s what they connected us up to, by special request. But it took coordination by them with AT&T, which the local installers considered a pain. (The utility couldn t just connect to the phone lines - they dont own them and vice versa.) And for us it meant that switching landline phone companies would be difficult if not impossible. I recently tried to bundle landline service with our cable TV service and cable TV had absolutely NO way to accommodate anything like that. Same for web-based phone connections like SKYPE. This is by way of saying, understand what you are asking and what you are tying yourself into if you go this route. At the time, Schlumberger made two models used by NEU. One gave off regular pulses. The other, only when data was called for. NEU used the latter. Fruitful areas of inquiry for those trying to help set policy in California and elsewhere... Ask what their reading/metering systems are now for high RF environments? Clearly, there must be some sort of dedicated line for major users like universities, etc. as there are too many possibilities for error with the frequencies used so close to consumer wireless products. They say that smart meters are encrypted but I do not know if this is their way around the RFI potential problems. Needs clarification from a grid engineer. I am lucky in CT as I was not asking them to change entire state/regional meter policy and what they could do, they already were doing for corporate clients. This is likely true in many states. We have also been at the same property since 1983. If we moved around often, it would obviously be a lot tougher. And in newer construction, homes aren t even wired for landline phones anymore... a whole other challenge. What s reasonable re: policy requests:

1. Ask utilities to make available the same wired usage systems as corporate clients with potential RFI problems.

2. Assume that there will have to be extra coordination between the utility and your phone company and that this will take more time and possibly upfront expense although in our case it did not.

3. Since AT&T has petitioned the FCC to allow them to abandon their landline system altogether, we should begin to approach big players like Google and Microsoft who are also getting into fiberoptic/entertainment/highspeed internet to provide a utility interface for residential electricity usage. There is money to be made there for them... they just need to know there is demand.

4. Find the right in-house systems engineers and/or entrepreneurs (who can patent their own work) to design an easy interface between electric meters and myriad wired networks via copper landlines or fiberoptic. Such interfaces may already exist and we just need to push them to the forefront of requests to grid designers...

5. Pressure the DOE for a safer 'smart wired grid' because that s where this is coming from. They love wireless & nuclear.

6. Understand that the smart grid as currently designed hits none of it's marks but that its main objectives of saving energy/lowering carbon emissions through realtime information made available to residential users is attainable via small plug-in meters that will give constant readouts without going wireless. GE makes them. We don't have to redesign then entire grid to get this function. They can offer such info plug-ins through billing for a price and make money that way too.

7. Call legislators on the ethics of this as a big handout to the largest corporations on the planet, for next to no return for taxpayers, and likely danger to health and the environment. There s is nearly no upside to this and it's just a question of time before Wall Street catches on to the longterm bait & switch about to go down.

8. In cases of multiple meters needed for water & gas too, using landlines might not be possible without installing dedicated lines just for them at customer cost. Copper can only carry so much information load. Fiberoptic, though, would be able to accommodate all comers. If we are asking for national policy changes, we need to know what's reasonable, doable, and what will work...


Best,
Blake Levitt.


Think twice about smart meters

Portland Daily Sun

The problem is that CMPs meters communicate by wireless radio-frequency non-ionizing radiation (man-made RF radiation). Many organisms such as birds, fish, marine mammals, bees, ants and butterflies use naturally occurring electromagnetic fields to...

http://portlanddailysun.me/node/26354/


New electric meters sparking protests in Oakland, Macomb counties

Royal Oak Daily Tribune

But opponents of smart meters say it is unwise to wait for science to catch up with the health risks associated with electromagnetic radiation, which is increasing due to the explosion of modern electrical devices...

http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/07/02/news/doc4e0fa75d9462b345842024.txt


Informant: Martin Weatherall



More about the theme:

http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=electromagnetic
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=radiofrequency
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=radiofrequency
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=non-ionizing
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=non-ionizing
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=smart+meter
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=smart+meter
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=smart+grid
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=health+risk
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=health+risk
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=AT%26T
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=Joshua+Hart
http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/search?q=Blake+Levitt
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Blake+Levitt