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Old 07-08-2012, 07:17 PM   #34 (permalink)
t vago
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland View Post
When my power company switched to smart meters my rates dropped, the pay back on smart meters should be pretty quick while building a new power plant takes 25 to 50 years to pay for while smart meters should pay for them selves in less then a year and keep saving money and energy after that.
This will not happen for everyone. Many customers in Texas and California have complained that their bills actually increased due to smart meter installation. No news article I have read mentioned anything about rate decreases, either. It was all about "oooh, you can now monitor near-real time data from your web browser!"

Which brings me back to my other point: If monitoring electric usage is so important, why not simply incur a one-time cost of $75 or so to buy one's own monitor, rather than pay $200 or so over 4 years? Why must people like me have to put up with having something installed we neither need nor want, in order to make others feel happy? I do just fine monitoring my own electric usage.
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